Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I'm going to buy one AB strobe, and need to figure out whether to get the B400 or the B800. More than half of my work puts the flash about 3-8 feet from the subject. I normally will use a shoot thru umbrella, but of course i'll get other modifiers from this website. My question is, if I put the B800 about 3 feet from the subject, will the light strength be too much even at 1/32?

This will be my first studio light. I've been using speedlight setups up to now.

I would estimate that you would get f/11-f/32 at full power (ISO 100), depending on distance. You can then go 5 stop below that.

Whether or not this is too much power will depend on your creative choices. If you want to shoot at 1.4, then it may be too much (in fact, a B400 may still be too much).

You could opt for the Einstein, which is more expensive, but it also goes as high as a B1600 or lower than a B400. It is also more consistent in color from power setting to power setting.

If you need less power, you can also use a lower ISO, if available (sometimes this is a numeric value, like 50, 64, or 80. Other cameras, this may be "Lo1" or "Lo" or similar wording at a level below 100 or 200).

Thanks for you helpful response. Just what I needed to know.