Another advantage of strobe lighting is that the light has the same color as daylight, so you can mix strobes and daylight as you would with flash fill or in an architectural image.

Samson Jumping © John H. Siskin All Rights Reserved


The spark is made by storing power in a capacitor, then releasing the power at one moment. Since the capacitor stores power it is possible to make very powerful strobe systems that run off batteries. It is important to keep in mind that capacitors can store a lot of power, thousands of watt-seconds. To put this in perspective it takes about 150-200 watt-seconds to restart your heart with a defibrillator; strobe power packs have as much as 4000 watt-seconds. It is very important to maintain strobe equipment, by avoiding such things as water and to have service done by a competent professional. I always use Holly Enterprises (818)892-9020.

The light from the strobe tube is very harsh. This is because the light is from a small light source that defines texture and shape. Accessories are available and necessary to allow you to control the character of the light. Every strobe needs to have some sort of a reflector, this controls where the light is pointed.

Softboxes © John H. Siskin All Rights Reserved

There are also accessories to target the light onto one part of a shot. A snoot fits onto a strobe and reduces the spread of a light quite a bit!

If you want to target a smaller area in a shot there is a device called a grid spot. It uses a material that looks like a metal beehive to keep the light from spreading.

Although the spark creates light for a very short period of time you can only use strobes at certain shutter speeds. This is because the fastest shutter speeds on your camera are created by opening only part of the shutter at any moment. Consequently, if you use a strobe with these speeds, the shutter will be partially closed when the strobe goes off. This means part of your picture will be black. Not good. The sync speed is the fastest speed your camera can use with strobe generally it is about 1/125th of a second. There are a few strobes made by the camera manufacturers that will function at a higher shutter speed; oddly enough the duration of the spark is longer with these units.

Norman Grid Spot © John H. Siskin All Rights Reserved

I should point out that strobes allow the photographer to control the light; they do not control the light for the photographer. In order to use strobes you will need to put your camera on manual exposure. You will control the strobes with the power levels, accessories and light placement. One of the advantages of working with digital cameras is that will we be able to see the light we have made in seconds. This gives us the feedback we need in order to control our images. Because we have such feedback we do not need meters, but we do need patience and experience.

Strobes are one of the largest investments a photographer will make. The reason to make this investment is that you can control the photographs you make to a greater degree! The cost of new gear can run into the thousands of dollars, consequently it is important to think this investment through. The things that I think are important to this decision are your budget, whether you frequently work on location and the kind of projects you want to do. Some gear is easier to use on location other gear can give you more power, some systems have more accessories and so on. Of course you can also buy gear on the used market, there are certainly some bargains available on EBay and other places.

There are a few controls on most strobes: power, modeling light, slave and so on. Power is the most important control, in order to use the strobes we will need to be able to adjust the output to match the needs of our shot, one light may require twice the power of another.

Most current gear will allow you to make shifts in power output of as little as 1/10th of a stop. This allows you greater control of your light. The only control you have to have is over power. A great deal of older equipment only has control in larger increments often a full stop. Because you can move a light closer or further from the subject, often you can get by with this courser level of control.

Most strobes have modeling lights; at worst these lights show you what direction your light is pointed. The idea is that the modeling light will enable you to predict what the light will look like when you shoot it. Really you are better off developing a sense of how the light will work so you can see it in your head.

The best control available on a model light is when it is connected to the recycling of the strobe. The modeling light goes off until the strobe is ready to work again. This can keep you from shooting faster than your strobe can work. There are other ways to know if the system is recycled, lights and noises.

I prefer more powerful strobes, at least 500 watt-seconds and there are a great number of manufacturers making these things. Two difficulties with these units, first if you need larger power levels, say 2000 watt-seconds, it can be hard to find units that have this much power. Second these units have not been popular until recently, so it is a little harder to find used equipment. With any strobe system it is better to get all your gear from one manufacturer, this will help you to maintain the same color of light.

Studio strobes do not need to stay in the studio, I just don’t have another good name for them. These units work by separating the controls and the capacitors from the lights. Each light needs to plug into a powerpack and one powerpack may support several lights.

Norman P2000D Power Pack © John H. Siskin All Rights Reserved

I should point out that many studio strobes and monolights will now with special battery packs, designed for them. While these tools extend the utility of monolights and studio strobes they are not nearly as flexible as the equipment designed to be battery powered. I have a large number 200 watt-second units that I use all the time on location. While I would certainly like to have even more powerful lights, quantity will do the job. I now have seven of these lights and their reasonably small packs with batteries and capacitors inside. The lights fit into small cases and are easy to use for location work.

Norman 200B System © John H. Siskin All Rights Reserved

Strobes are the most powerful and creative lighting tools that photographers have available. They do require some work in order to master. The ability to make photographs rather than take photographs is worth the expense and time.

Charlie C © John H. Siskin All Rights Reserved