Studio Noob needs 4800ws of strobe.

Mark2000 · Jun 2, 2016

Hello, all. I'm a long time street photographer who's suddenly enamored with wet plate photography. I'm pretty informed about the camera equipment and chemistry I need. The one thing I'm totally lost about is the lighting. As far as I can tell from other people's work wet plate requires 4800ws of strobe to take an instant photo since the finished plate has an ISO of 1. What equipment do I need to make this happen?

So far I'm guessing, and I could be wrong, that I need two 2400ws flash heads, a power supply that can do 4800w, and some stands. Is that right? The lighting seems to be the most expensive part of this whole setup, and yet it's completely alien to me having never done studio work before. Even the chemistry seem simple in comparison. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

Cybertrash · Jun 3, 2016

A friend of mine who does Wetplate Collodion uses continuous blacklights instead, as most modern strobes have a coating to minimize UV radiation.

TheFlyingCamera · Jun 3, 2016

You can probably get by with 2400 WS of power in a single pack powering a single head. It will in fact be much easier (and cheaper) to find 2400 WS packs and heads than 4800 WS packs and heads. Just remember to put your lights closer to your subject and don't use light-robbing modifiers like softboxes with lots of diffusion.

CropDusterMan · Jun 3, 2016

There aren't to many 4800w packs out there...Speedotron is the only I know of and you'll need to use their Quad heads.

Mark2000 · Jun 3, 2016

Cybertrash said:
A friend of mine who does Wetplate Collodion uses continuous blacklights instead, as most modern strobes have a coating to minimize UV radiation.

This interests me a lot because I know wet plate is only sensitive to the blue/UV part of the spectrum. What I'm going for is an instant shot for close up portraits with no blur, hence the desire for a bright strobe. Does your friend do quick or long exposures? If the former, what's their setup like?

wiltw · Jun 3, 2016

I measured my Dynalite M2000 which has 2000 w-s of power into a Dynalite 4040 head, and at ISO 200 it was about GN380. ISO 1 would be about -7EV less sensitive, so roughly about GN32. If you set light at 8' from subject, that would be f/4.
Now I have to caution that the actual light output from different brands of studio flash might not directly compare, so it might take double the watt-second rating from some brands to provide equivalent output.
My 2000 w-s Dynalite is only 13 lbs., whereas a 2400 w-s Speedotron would be 25 lbs. I just cannot imagine hefting a 4800 w-s Speedotron at 37 lbs.!

M Carter · Jun 14, 2016

Plenty of big speedo heads out there. The dual-cable heads are hard to find and expensive though, so multiple heads are a good way to go. Someone above mentioned "don't use softboxes", but what if you don't want harsh light?

You could always use several heads and packs and a frame of diffusion material; I did that often in the 4x5 film/product days when I needed deep DOF. I recall several times opening up the vents on the head-side of a softbox and sticking a novatron head on a boom in there (along with the speedo head), since for some reason I had a 1000ws Novatron pack and a couple heads laying around... got me an extra half stop or so...

jamespierce · Jun 22, 2016

I don't shoot wet plate, but I have done some direct positive paper stuff in my studio which is ISO 3 or so... I have 8000w/s Elinchrom head with a 6000w/s pack. Even with a 39inch deep rotalux I can get F11. A beauty dish or something else similar would probably get me to F16. UV sensitivity is something I can't speak to though.

DonF · Sep 28, 2016

My daughter and I are just starting out with wet plate collodion and indoor strobe exposures. These are results from our first session.

The attached wet plate shots were done with one Speedotron 2400ws pack, split between two 102 flash heads with 11 inch reflectors aimed directly at the subject at 3 feet (ouch!!). The lens was a Schneider Xenar 210mm f/4.5 wide open. The amount of light was barely enough. I bought one more used 2400ws power pack and a third 102 flash head to double the power. That should allow some backdrop lighting and larger f/stops for less critical depth of field.

With the 210mm lens, bellows extension factor steals one stop of power on extreme closeups. Pulling back from the subject with the camera to head and shoulders definitely helps if available flash power is limited.

Best regards,

Don

Leigh B · Sep 28, 2016

Mark2000 said:
What I'm going for is an instant shot for close up portraits...

4800 ws close to the subject would BLIND a human subject permanently.

Your major expenses will be the lawyers and paying off the judgement to the subject.

- Leigh

DonF · Sep 28, 2016

Leigh B said:
4800 ws close to the subject would BLIND a human subject permanently.

Your major expenses will be the lawyers and paying off the judgement to the subject.

- Leigh

Many photographers routinely shoot wet plate strobe at far higher power than 4800ws with no permanent injury to the subject. 9600ws seems to be a commonly used power level. Of course the watt-second rating is the power input to the flash tube, not a measure of the brightness the tube produces. Flash duration is very short and the light is not directed directly into the model's eyes. Overall light exposure is no greater than a multiple second exposure in full sun. The blast of light can be startling, however.

I have had retinal tear surgery and laser surgery. I checked with my eye surgeon, who confirmed that the brief duration and non-coherent quality of the light would cause no damage.

Regards,

Don

DonF · Sep 28, 2016

My second 2400ws pack arrived. I split it 2400ws to key light, 2000ws to fill light and 400ws to backdrop. I have one unit slaved to the other with a Wein L8 optical slave trigger. I fire the main flash with a wired push button, after loading the plate and opening the shutter manually. I could fire the system with the sync contacts in the Copal shutter, but separating flash from shutter operation gives a better pose from the subject.

I did try a few pops on myself. It is bright, with a few second after-image, but certainly not permanently blinding. The heat wave is impressive.

Don

D_Quinn · Jan 26, 2022

Hi Don,

I've been trying to find information about studio lighting and found your comments very informative and helpful. Is there any website where I can see some of your images that were made with the lighting setup that you described in your last post (two 2400ws packs)? Thanks.

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