Total output for a starter studio kit

[ffscj3562130]

I am looking for a starter studio strobe kit. It was will be used for portraits, product-type set-ups and eventually some simple boudoir photos. I want to get a three light system. What would be an acceptable total w/s output for that would cover all of these situations?

Thanks in advance

[GadgetRick]

Check out Alien Bee's kits. They're reasonable and they make excellent gear. You can spend less but you won't get the quality or the customer service you get from AB.

[zona5101]

Originally Posted by ffscj3562130

I am looking for a starter studio strobe kit. It was will be used for portraits, product-type set-ups and eventually some simple boudoir photos. I want to get a three light system. What would be an acceptable total w/s output for that would cover all of these situations?

Thanks in advance

Watt- seconds is a tough measure to compare. It is a measure of stored energy not necessarily light output (like a battery rated by amp-hours). Look for the guide number, it will give you a better indication of output, then if important to your shooting, look at the recycle time. Back to how much light do you need... The big determining factor is how far you have to throw the light and how bigthe object your trying to light up. From your description it doesn't sound like anything bigger than a standard sized room. The next big factor will be what light modifiers you plan use. Big ol' soft boxes will suck up 2 or 3 or 3 stops light. Then you can consider your desired usable fstop.
If you look at the guide number you can figure out some of these numbers... for example Alien Bee 400 indicates at iso 100 with the standard 7" reflector at 10 feet the guide number is 110. That means at full power you will have an f-stop of f11. The Calumet Travellite 375 has a guide number of 220 or f22.
So back to your question at hand...if you were to assume you'll be using some softboxes or other modifiers and you want to shoot at f8. Your main light will need to have a guide number of 160 to 220 (f16 to f22 iso 100 10').
Now if you visualize your set ups and distances you can mathmatically back into the minimum power requirements with some degree of certainty.

[ffscj3562130]

Thanks for the information. That's exactly what I was looking for. Appreciate it.