Hi everyone, I'm thinking of buying a speedlight and other equipment to shoot portraits. Can anyone suggest what works best for Rebel2000? I don't know anything about taking portraits in a studio so I'm looking for an inexpensive and effective set consisting of speedlight and lamps and maybe something else you can suggest. Maybe this topic was discussed before but I couldn't find it, sorry if it's a repeat.

Thanks, Margo

-- margo (margosha@rbcmail.ru), March 27, 2002

Answers

here's an interesting and very useful article on EOS flash photography by NK Guy. I have gone through it and find it very useful. Its a huge article in 3 parts. Before you ask any other question just go through it throughly. Most of your questions will be answered. Thanks Guy for writing such beautiful article.

-- sajeev (chack74@yahoo.co.in), March 27, 2002.

Your Rebel 2000 is capable of Canon's somewhat better E-TTL flash metering, so I would get a flash the can do that. WIth E-TTL comes Flash Exposure Lock (FEC), high speed sync (FP flash) and more reliable metering accuracy.

Presently that limits you to Canon's 380EX, 420EX or 550EX, or to the very few third party flashes that will do E-TTL. Metz 54Mz3 (I think) and Sigma EF-500 Super. Supposedly Vivitar is starting to produce an E-TTL capable unit as well. So far the biggest bang for the buck can be found with the Sigma EF-500 Super. Also on NK Guy's site can be found a comparison of the Sigma with the Canon 550EX.

For multiple lights for portraits you can use several of the above E- TTL flashes in wireless mode but that's kind of expensive for the amount of light you get from them, but the metering is handled for you by the camera & flash units, so setup is fast. I use a 550EX with a Sigma EF-500 Super for this.

For the real low cost solution you can use 500 watt halogen shop lights and white umbrellas for diffusion. This allows you to see what you are doing and how the shadows are falling since the lighting is continuous. I did this for a while when I was starting to take portraits. It was a good education. I did have to use a blue filter on the lens to reduce the orange/yellow effect of the lights.

Another option is to use older auto/manual flash units triggered with optical slave devices. Lots of people have had good success with several Vivitar 285's or Sunpak 383's used this way. I frequently use an older Sunpak 611 and 522 since they have more power. I bounce them into umbrellas.

There are plenty of other ways to do this better or faster, but they will cost more too.

-- Jim Strutz (j.strutz@gci.net), March 27, 2002.

Just in case there might be confusion when you place an order, the term "Speedlight" is used by Nikon for their dedicated flash units. Just to confuse us, Canon uses the word "Speedlite" with different spelling for flash units.

For more information, consult the new Canon EOS website, especially the system chart:
 http://canoneos.com/

Hope this helps.

-- Julian Loke (elan7e-owner@yahoogroups.com), March 30, 2002.

If you want to keep cost down and have portability of equipment then a good choice would be a 380EX or 420EX coupled with two accessories: a) a Stofen diffuser to soften the light b) a flash bracket that moves the flash higher above the camera to reduce shadows behind subject and eliminate red-eye.

-- Derek Linney (dlinney@aol.com), April 03, 2002.