Nikon SLR Cameras

Best flash photography setup?

Alex
Alex

I'm buying a new flash setup for a photography trip in the French Alps. I have a Nikon D5000 (max sync speed 1/200s).
I have two different setups:
1:
Yongnuo YN460ii x3
RF-602 x3

2:
Godox EX400 x1
Yongnuo YN460ii x1

I was wondering which setup would be best for freezing fast action, skiing and snowboarding. Also it would be used for portraits.
Which setup do you think would be best for my needs?

fhotoace
fhotoace

1) when shooting under bright sun, you do NOT need a flash unit. All you have to do is make sure that your shutter speed is set to 1/500th or faster
2) a single flash is the absolutely worst possible lighting for shooting portraits. You need at a minimum of two lights (key and fill) and most portrait photographers use four lights. Key, fill, hair and background.

Here is a short video that discusses shooting sequential photography and is done in NZ at a ski slope. You will notice that NO flash unit is used to take the shots

deep blue2
deep blue2

The 3 Yongnuos & off camera triggers I would think. If you know where snowboarders are going to be ahead of time (jumps for example) you can set up some interesting off camera cross lighting.

Having the other setup would limit you with only optical triggering available off camera.

Shoot with a wide-ish aperture if you can - this will keep speedlight recycle & power levels down (which will in turn keep the flash duration at it's fastest - which will be best for freezing action).

Try to get the ambient light maybe one stop under & shoot against a plain b/g (like sky).

For portraits, you might want to bounce the light off a large neutral surface as unless you have modifiers, bare flash might be a little too hard (depends on subject).

This is a shoot I did in a swimming pool with a couple of Yongnuos & RF602 triggers - able to kill the ambient light here though;

Edit: I disagree with fhotoace about a single light being no good for portraits - it depends entirely on how you want to light. A single light & reflector is fine or even no reflector if you want to go low key, like this;

Zack Arias (who let's face it is not too shabby when it comes to off camera lighting) has a whole series devoted to single light portraits.

Nick
Nick

Personally I'd choose three speedlights for freezing action, but I'm not familiar with Yongnuo models in terms of power output. All I can say, is make sure their power output is enough for the distances and shutterspeeds you plan to shoot at.

Godox flash guns are plenty powerful, but probably not versatile enough for shooting sports.

Four point lighting schemes are definitely nice in the studio, but you can get great results with 1 and 2 point schemes for outdoor portraiture.