Boom Arm | lightGIANTS

31May/113

Our Studio Equipment…

As time goes by we are extending our catalogue of light modifiers and accessories in the studio. Thanks to the donations from "Friday night shoots" we can maintain our equipment and accessories without any major financial outlay. Here is an overview of some of the equipment you will find in the lightGIANTS studio and what you can use them for.

Studio Flash Heads

Studio flash-heads are generally more versatile than on camera flash units allowing for the addition of various light diffusors and light "shapers" to be easily attached. The heads are mains powered as they draw more current than battery alternatives, and the flash tubes give a richer smoother light,with less harshness. In our studio we currently have 4x 400W/s Bowens Gemini monoblocs, a 300W/s generic "made in china" monobloc, and a 100W/s generic "made in china" monobloc.

Light Modifiers

Softboxes: Attached to the flash head to produce a soft light . The larger the softbox the more diffused the light will be when it is placed at the same distance. We have several soft-boxes in different shapes and sizes including a 160 cm Octobox, two large strip lights, a 30x30 cm softbox, an 80x80 cm softbox and an 80x100 cm softbox.

Beauty dishes and Dish Reflectors: Metal dished reflectors come in a variety of sizes, shapes and reflective surfaces. They are often used with barn-doors and other light shapers like honeycomb grids.

Umbrellas: A relatively inexpensive easy way of softening the light we have both silver and white (shoot through). Shoot through umbrellas have the advantage that you can get your light source up very close.

Snoot and Barndoors: A snoot give a very narrow beam of light usually to provide highlights. Popular as a hair light in fashion or when you want to increase the visual impact for product photography. We have just ordered a set of barndoors with a honey-comb grid and several colour gels.

Lighting Stands: Lighting stands are usually 3 legged devices with variable height centre poles. Some have wheels (or attachable wheels), some have counter-balanced attachment poles to provide greater flexibility in placement of heads and accessories. We have various sizes from a large mobile boom down to one only a few centimetres high.

Backgrounds: We use 2.75m x 11m rolls of coloured paper on roller system that can hold 6 different rolls. This makes it easy to change you background colour. Just a few weeks ago we added even more rolls of colour paper to our back ground system but these rolls aren't cheap and you can easily damage them. Background paper is an on going expense that has to be maintained.

Triggers and Receivers: Moving around a studio tethered to your lights via cable can be very annoying. We have multiple triggers and receivers, not only for the standard ISO hot shoe (like Canon and Nikon) but also for the Sony Alpha system. This way everyone can shoot without the fear of tripping over any unnecessary cables.

Reflectors: Some times a flash is just too powerful. You can easily over come this by using a reflector as a fill light instead of a flash.

The current inventory