ABSTRACT
Most photographers use three basic kinds of lights when working on location. These are: heavy-duty “portable” strobes, lightweight “hot-shoe” flashes, and LED continuous light panels. While the first of these, portable strobes, are sometimes used, many photographers—both professional and amateur—have switched from them to the other two. Battery-powered, these flash units are less powerful than their studio counterparts. They are, however, considerably lighter and thus much easier to carry. Averaging from 100 to 1,200 watt-seconds, the lower-wattage power packs can be carried by shoulder straps and attached to a flash head by a power cord. The higher-wattage units are most often set on the ground and connected to a flash head mounted on a light stand sturdy enough to support it. One of the great things about hot-shoe flashes is that they can be combined, or “ganged,” together to produce as much light as, but allow far more flexibility than, some “studio” strobes.
