Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I'm planning to get B400 or B800 for the background light (will use some gels) for a small home studio. Which one should I get? Will B800 be an overkill?

Thanks!
Z

probably a B400 will be the choice. though it will depend on the look desired, the background, and the other lights used.

However, our customer service staff is better choice for and will gladly assist you with specific sales questions and reccomendations. This forum is geared more toward technical assistance.

Thank you!

I think it depends on what you're looking to do with the background. If you're using a muslin or colored paper and want to throw a little light on it, a B400 would be plenty. If you want to light up white seamless, you probably want a B800 (or two) unless you're OK with a wide aperature. When shooting at f/8.0, I've found I need my Einstein at about 180 ws, and the B400 doesn't quite reach that far.

Oh thank you! That is actually a very good point regarding the type of the background. I might be doing some high key dow the road so i guess B800 will be a safe bet.

I use 2 B800's, one on each side, about 5 ft. in front, for a very evenly lit background. With one, it will fade from lighter to darker, if that's what you want. I use barn doors to keep the background light off the subject, who is 5 or 6 feet in front of background.

Jeff

I like redundancy. In a multiple light setup I like having all the same light so that I can quickly adjust and swap if problems arise. If you travel to your jobs it is important to be able to complete the job even if one light fails. The only advantage of the 400 is that it is a little cheaper, the disadvantage is that it is different than all your other lights. You may even find the color temperature to be slightly different.

If you do get a 400, get it in a different color (PINK!) so you know where it is in your setup at all times.

color temp should not be more of an issue with a 400 over an 800. if using it for background type applications, you would presumably dial an 800 lower than main/fill. The 400 would already be 1 stop lower than an 800 by default. This means at any output 160WS or lower, the 400 will be closer to the 5600K mark than an 800 would be. All that said, it would only be about an 80K difference.

Thanks everyone - this is all valuable info. I guess I'll start with one B800 and later add another one. I have B800s and very happy with these.