Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

Hi,

I have a question coming from ye ol' world of large format film.

Would a single Einstein shot through an umbrella be powerful enough for studio portraits of a single subject (from head and shoulders to full body) when using an 8x10 film camera at f/22 or f/32 on ISO 100 film?

Many thanks!
John

If you use an 86" Silver PLM at 10' you can get close to f45 and head to toe coverage. Using a softbox or shoot through umbrella will drop this down to the f8 - f11 range. The shoot through could probably get you f22 at about 5' but you'll have some fall off across the full body.

Silver PLMs produce very sharp images and soft shadows.

Thanks, Paul!

So, I am taking from your description of the falloff on the full body application that the Einstein/umbrella would then probably work for just a head and shoulders portrait at f/22 or f/32?

John

Dusting off some distant memories from using 8X10 cameras, don't forget that there's a heck of a bellows factor to be considered into the mix too.

Absolutely. I meter f32+5/10 to f45 at 10' with PLM Silver 86" or 64" at 10' ISO100 at 640WS. This will cover a full body if adjusted right, so head and shoulders should be easy. I get about f16 at 30', so you should get f22 at about 14'.

Thanks again, Paul.

Somehow I missed the 3200 model strobe (1320ws). A helpful person on the Large Format Photography Forum pointed this out to me.

It seems to me, since I am an all manual guy anyway, this would be a better choice for my 8x10 application? If so, one further question, will this work (I assume yes but don't see it mentioned specifically on the product page) with the Vagabond mini battery power supply? (I understand not to use a modeling light with that.)

John

Yes, Vagabond Mini will power the X3200 at about a 7 second recycle time.