Bowens Lighting Kit

L3
This is the kit I have used at home, borrowed from College, to take the "producture" shots included elsewhere in this blog. I have also used these ligths to create some of my portraits  at home in my lounge.
The biggest concern when usin gthese light was the safety issue. I had to tell other members of the house not to come into the lounge and dining area as there would be cables trailing over the floor (as tidy as I could get). I had set the lights up in a sensible way though so as not to cause any trip hazards (see note book). I also leanrt how to set up my laptop so that the cables were away from the working side. I also let the model know the whereabouts of the cables etc. Also the backdrop at home was only pegged to the curtains so I had to let the model know where to stand and informed them of the psoosiblities of it all falling down if they stepped back to far. No one did, they did listen. it was just a shame there was no snoot with the kit. I found the kit to be excellent.

The Bowens Esprit Gemini Lighting Kit includes:-

2 x Bowens Esprit Gemini 500W head

2 x Bowens 92 mm Umbrella

2 x compact lighting stands

1 x deluxe Kit bag

The power cords, sync leads and modelling lamps, and also included a battery pack.

The dual purpose silver/white umbrellas feature a white interior surface backed by a removable silver fabric with a black backing which provides a soft, but highly efficient bounced light source. For close-up lighting, the silver black backing can be removed, allowing the photographer to get closer to the subject while lighting through the umbrella. Unique ten-panel design provides maximum reflectance with a circular light pattern.

I found this kit very easy and simple to use, and set to up at home. The power level was also very good and I found there was a good range to suit my potential images. Once I had tried a few images I was able to adjust the lighting to get to where I wanted it to be. Missing however was the ability to use a snoot and softbox, which were not provided with this kit and unable to borrow from college. I feel I could have used these to good effect. However, I am pleased with the results with the kit provided.
Of course the other consideration was not to overload the circuits at home, but by spreading the load over several sockets I had no problem.
I did prefer this kit to another kit that I could borrow, a 150W 2 light system, but I found that although it was very good, it was not as flexible as the kit borrowed from college, ie the 500W lamps.

The major consideration with use of this kit however was to ensure that the cables were not in the area's were trip hazards could be. This took some thought and I had to trail the cables to the one side away from the area of passage as much as possible. Using one light was not too difficult to adjust too, and informing the model as well as to the location of the cables. The other consideration I had to take into account is that I was using my Laptop tethered to my Camera, which necessitated a 5m lead, and of course the power lead.It was extremely good to use the laptop, as the model could then use the images taken to adjust the pose as directed easier than without, as they could also see the images as taken. It is also so much better to see for myself as well on a larger screen, alot easier to make adjustments.

When using the lighting kit I also use my light meter. It is a Sekonic 358 and gives a very good guide to the level of exposure required. Once set it is possible to take several images without changing the settings until the psoe changes, when a new reading is taken.