Help Me Buy a… Studio flash kit

Professional flash kits are more accessible than you think. Find out how they work and how to choose one

What to look for and what to choose

It doesn’t take long to exhaust the potential of your on-camera flash, and once you decide you need more power and flexibility than your flashgun can offer, you’re ready for a studio flash system. These can look complicated, but in reality they’re actually quite straightforward, consisting principally of three items: flash units, light stands, and lighting modifiers, like softboxes.

A studio flash system gives you lots of power, fast recycle times and the ability to shape and position the light much more controllably than you can with regular flashguns. Some offer sophisticated TTL auto flash control, just like a regular flashgun, but they all offer manual control over the flash power. This is straightforward to work with, especially when you’re using more than one flash; you’ll probably find it’s a lot simpler than trying to second-guess your camera’s TTL exposure system.

1 Power output

Regular flashguns quote power output in Guide Numbers; these depend on many factors, including the focal length of the lens and the camera’s ISO setting, and aren’t as precise or as helpful as they sound. Studio systems use the much more scientific Watt-seconds (Ws) unit of measurement.

2 Mains power vs battery

If you’re shooting in a studio with mains electricity, a mains-powered studio flash system is fine. Outdoors, you’ll need a battery-powered flash setup, which can be more expensive but offers more scope.

3 One head or two?

A single flash head is fine for providing fill light in outdoor shots, and can even be used for some portrait and indoor work with the right modifiers and reflectors in place. Most studio photographers, however, prefer a kit with two flash heads.

4 Lighting modifiers

Flash heads on their own produce a bright, harsh light, but there is a wide range of products for softening and reshaping the light. Reflective brollies are a little old-fashioned by today’s standards, but are cheap and effective, and many photographers like softboxes for a flatter, more even light. You can also get snoots (a concentrated beam), beauty dishes and honeycomb grids.

5 Remote control

It’s not practical to run sync cables to every flash you’re using, so studio makers offer radio-controlled remote triggering, either built-in or as separate accessories. You’ll need a transmitter for the camera (connected via the hotshoe) and receivers on each flash. Many flash systems also offer old-school optical triggering, where the main flash triggers the others.

6 High-speed sync

Digital SLRs and mirrorless cameras use focal plane shutters that can only sync with flash up to a certain speed: beyond that, the sensor is exposed by a moving slit, not all at once. The top flash systems get round this with long flash durations and sophisticated timing circuitry to offer high-speed sync at speeds as fast as 1/8,000 sec, which lets you use flash at wide apertures even in bright sunlight.

7 Monobloc vs generator

Monobloc flash units have the power supply and control panel built in. This makes them larger and heavier but can cut down on clutter and cabling. Other systems use a separate generator that stands on the floor, has all the flash controls, and feeds power to simpler, lighter flash heads by cable.