Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I have one 800 light and want to use another one for more even lighting. I'am thinking of setting up each on the side of the subject (portraits) at 45 degree. Is it best to match with another 800 and the same umbrella (white/silver) or use a 400 and another type of umbrella?

There really isn't a "best" here.... It sounds like you want the lighting to be fairly even / symmetrical so using the same type of modifier on both lights is a reasonable approach (although using the same modifier is not absolutely necessary for this). As for 400 vs. 800 - do you normally shoot your 800 at full power? If not, then you could certainly get by with a 400 instead. This offers the benefit of giving you one stop lower output for those occasions where the 800 can't quite go low enough.

Thanks! Your info helps. Joe

The recycling rates are different between the 400 and 800, also I would think that color temeperature migh vary, especially if you are dialing down one unit to obtain the proper lighting ratio.

Fair enough but in many setups you want different light output between the strobes anyway. With recycle times. Also, I believe they recycle to full at different times but to the same Ws level equally assuming the source is stiff/strong. So a B800 at half power recycles in the same time as a B400 at full.