Home studio with flashes Starter

03.06.2011

What does a home studio mean?

From a practical point of view, I define it as shooting in an improvised environment. Not a specially equipped room, but a corner at home, in the office, or wherever we need to shoot. Not all of us can afford to rent or dedicate a room for a studio, and if we shoot rarely, it would be unjustified. We need a solution that is easy to set up, easy to use, and easy to put away after shooting is done.

What factors make Starter flashes a suitable solution for a home studio?

Light and compact - 1.8 - 2 kg - This is an important factor for frequent carrying. Also, when used at home or in the office, it is important to easily find a place to store them after shooting is complete.
Compatibility - These are the most compact flashes compatible with hundreds of different accessories for DYNAPHOS/Bowens systems. This is very important because the possibilities for light control are practically unlimited, and that's precisely why we use artificial lighting.
Precision - Just because we don't have a studio or shoot rarely doesn't mean we don't care about quality. Starter flashes are modern and extremely precise. I had the opportunity to test them with a Sekonic C-500 colorimeter and Sekonic 758, and practically no deviations were observed - something characteristic of higher-end lighting.
Adjustment range - Starter provides an exceptional adjustment range - from full power to 1/64. What does this mean? 200 WS can work like 3 WS, and 400 like 6WS!!! This, besides making these flashes very versatile, gives us a huge advantage. Now, using pulsed lighting, we can shoot at wide apertures - 1/2.8 - 1/4 and defocus the background.
Intelligent modeling lamp control - we see the character of the light, shadows, highlights, and contrast before pressing the button. A huge advantage.
Speed - extremely fast recycling. For example, when shooting children, sometimes this determines whether we capture the moment or not.
Price - last but not least, these are probably the most budget-friendly flashes in the Dynaphos/Bowens system.

The most common applications are:

- children's photography

- food blog

- stock photography

- web product photography

- portrait photography

- nude photography

My example and experience come from children's photography and, more recently, food photography, together with my wife Maria. We shoot at home, in a confined space.

Here is the setup itself:

Lighting used:

Starter 200
Starter 400
Softbox 60x90
Reflector with honeycombs
Synchronizer AC-04

And here are some of the results:

Softbox from above, and reflector with honeycomb grid to the side Softbox placed above, slightly behind

Softbox positioned close to the side on the right and a large white reflector on the left.

Same as above.

Since I have access to various lighting, I've done many experiments - with continuous halogen, continuous fluorescent, energy-saving photo lamps with softboxes, LED lighting, high-end monolights, generators...

I definitely liked the Starter flashes the most, because for me, easy and convenient use is of paramount importance. With a wider range of accessories, with more lighting, better results can be achieved, but with limited time and space, I get the most out of Starter.

Finally, I have uploaded a few children's photos taken again at home with pulsed lighting using a very similar scheme - a 60x90 softbox and an 18 cm reflector with a set of honeycomb grids.