Review of Einstein Studio Lights from Paul C Buff

For a long time (mmm, maybe 1 - 2 years) I've been using some meager studio lighting supplies.  Don't get me wrong - they really did quite well for the price.  $42 for two light stands and umbrellas, $50 for two huge lightbulbs.  Though I've had to buy a couple extras over the years (new umbrellas, lighting sockets) since the gear was about as cheap as you'd expect as that price and starting to fall apart.  Still, it served me well.

And yet still, something was missing.  I looked to some amazing photographers and knew I could do better.  And since I decided to hold off on the 85mm 1.4G lens (read my last post on the D800 to find out why), I decided to splurge on an awesome studio light setup - The Genius package from Paul C Buff, with a few modifications (swapped one of the 64" Extreme Silver PMLs with a 51" Soft Silver umbrella - and very glad I did).

I thought I went way overboard with this purchase, as I usually set up my mini studio in my living room, on my living room table, but once I realized the power of these lights, I moved everything into the basement.  No need for any additional natural light with two Einstein units!

The above photo was taken with the soft silver umbrella at the back pointing forward and left, with another unit in front, right, which was shooting through a white umbrella.  You can see the two shadows these units produced, the one on the bottom left caused by the soft silver (a harder shadow) and the one mid right, caused by the more "soft-boxy" effect of the white umbrella.

In none of my photos did I use the Extreme silver umbrella - it arrived broken (and seemed impossible to put together even if it wasn't).  Paul C Buff called me up and offered to ship a new one, and sent me a return shipping label for the broken one.  I decided that the umbrella was too large for my small area, and I'd like to use one of the Einstein units as a background light, or hair light, rather than a second fill light, so I asked instead for a reflector and a set of honey comb grids.

Here the white umbrella was placed extremely close to the little guy (who was up on a table).  The soft silver umbrella unit was placed facing the backdrop.  In this situation a little fill light would have worked nice, but I do like the drama of it.  Though a white reflector would probably be sufficient.

Overall I am super, duper pleased with the Einstein lights.  Having never used strobes before, I was very nervous about the learning curve, but it turned out to be really easy to pick up.  The cyber commander is really incredible.  You can adjust the power level on all the lights, set your ISO and shutter speed, hit the meter button, and it tells you what f-stop to use!  How cool! (First time I used a light meter.)  I was able to keep my ISO at 100 and shutter speed 250 for every shot, with plenty of power to spare in the Einsteins.  I forgot how smooth and sharp images can look with such a low ISO.  And the flash made my images look sharper (if that makes sense?  It seemed so anyway).

Excited now to play around with the honeycomb grids!