Your Basic Lighting Kit: A Spin Around the Block
Abstract: A Guided Tour for your first steps with your new lighting kit.
Okay, so the UPS guy has just dropped off your box of new lighting gear. What do you do with it? Where do you start?
That is exactly the gap we explore in person whenever I teach a beginner's lighting class (with exactly this gear, by the way.) So today we are going to walk through a "first steps" exercise with your new gear. If you are reading ahead just to explore, fine. Just make sure you come back to this page when your kit arrives.
Today we will be working with a standard JumpStarter kit. First we are going to put it together, then we are going to use it to make some simple, dramatic portraits.
Assembling Your Lighting Kit
Most of this is pretty obvious. But we are going to walk through it, step-by-step anyway. Just to be sure. You'll soon be doing it without a second thought.
Open up your light stand and extend it until the top is about at eye level. We can adjust this height easily later, but you may as well be assembling your swivel, remote, flash and umbrella at an easy-to-see working height.
Unscrew the little brass adapter that comes atop your light stand and stow it in your lighting bag. It is there in case you every need to convert the 3/8" male thread atop your stand into a ¼"x20 male thread. It's not something you'll often use.
PLEASE NOTE: Jumpstarter kits are now shipping with an improved version of the swivel shown in these photos: it has a better locking arm and bigger thumb screw. So if yours looks different than the version shown, congrats.
Take out your umbrella swivel. There is a brass stud inserted at each end. Loosen the clamp screw that holds each in place and remove the two brass studs.
One of the studs is a "male" version and is attached to a black "cold shoe." We will be using that stud today. The other brass stud is has two female ends, and can be used later to mount your flash to a variety of DIY mounts. So save that extra female brass stud for later.
One end of the swivel has a near-perpendicular "umbrella mounting hole." That is the top end of the swivel. Mount the bottom end to the top of your light stand and clamp it down.
Then insert the stud with the cold shoe into the top hole, and clamp that down.
Here (above) is how it should look, from top to bottom: Cold shoe stud -> end of swivel that has the umbrella hole in it -> (elbow of the swivel) -> open-holed end -> light stand.
If you mounted it upside down, it will become obvious when you go to put in your umbrella in a moment.
Install two AA batteries in your Phottix Ares receiver (the unit without the mount that swivels 90 degrees) and mount it to the cold shoe as shown:
Mount your flash into the hot shoe of the remote receiver as shown:
Take out your umbrella and open it up. If your umbrella has a black backing, remove it. We will be starting out using it as a "white shoot-through" umbrella.
Next, mount your umbrella into the umbrella hole as shown. The shaft of the umbrella should run a little "uphill" compared to the orientation of the swivel. If it runs "downhill" you have it in backwards. This is the correct way:
Now that it is assembled, let's test that remote trigger setup. Put the other two AA batteries into the remote transmitter. Turn on your flash, the remote receiver and the remote transmitter. Set the flash to a midrange power level, such as 1/4 power, in manual mode. (You may have to consult your flash's instructions if you have never done this before. But it is easy.)
The Ares remotes have 8 channels, and a selector on the transmitter to fire all channels at once. Make sure your transmitter and receiver are set to the same channel. It doesn't matter which channel, just that the transmitter and receiver are both set to the same one.
Now press the test button on your transmitter. If you are set up correctly, the flash should fire into your umbrella. If not, check to make sure the flash is turned on, seated well in the remote receiver and that it has not fallen into sleep mode.
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Okay, so the UPS guy has just dropped off your box of new lighting gear. What do you do with it? Where do you start?
That is exactly the gap we explore in person whenever I teach a beginner's lighting class (with exactly this gear, by the way.) So today we are going to walk through a "first steps" exercise with your new gear. If you are reading ahead just to explore, fine. Just make sure you come back to this page when your kit arrives.
Today we will be working with a standard JumpStarter kit. First we are going to put it together, then we are going to use it to make some simple, dramatic portraits.
Assembling Your Lighting Kit
Most of this is pretty obvious. But we are going to walk through it, step-by-step anyway. Just to be sure. You'll soon be doing it without a second thought.
Open up your light stand and extend it until the top is about at eye level. We can adjust this height easily later, but you may as well be assembling your swivel, remote, flash and umbrella at an easy-to-see working height.
Unscrew the little brass adapter that comes atop your light stand and stow it in your lighting bag. It is there in case you every need to convert the 3/8" male thread atop your stand into a ¼"x20 male thread. It's not something you'll often use.
PLEASE NOTE: Jumpstarter kits are now shipping with an improved version of the swivel shown in these photos: it has a better locking arm and bigger thumb screw. So if yours looks different than the version shown, congrats.
Take out your umbrella swivel. There is a brass stud inserted at each end. Loosen the clamp screw that holds each in place and remove the two brass studs.
One of the studs is a "male" version and is attached to a black "cold shoe." We will be using that stud today. The other brass stud is has two female ends, and can be used later to mount your flash to a variety of DIY mounts. So save that extra female brass stud for later.
One end of the swivel has a near-perpendicular "umbrella mounting hole." That is the top end of the swivel. Mount the bottom end to the top of your light stand and clamp it down.
Then insert the stud with the cold shoe into the top hole, and clamp that down.
Here (above) is how it should look, from top to bottom: Cold shoe stud -> end of swivel that has the umbrella hole in it -> (elbow of the swivel) -> open-holed end -> light stand.
If you mounted it upside down, it will become obvious when you go to put in your umbrella in a moment.
Install two AA batteries in your Phottix Ares receiver (the unit without the mount that swivels 90 degrees) and mount it to the cold shoe as shown:
Mount your flash into the hot shoe of the remote receiver as shown:
Take out your umbrella and open it up. If your umbrella has a black backing, remove it. We will be starting out using it as a "white shoot-through" umbrella.
Next, mount your umbrella into the umbrella hole as shown. The shaft of the umbrella should run a little "uphill" compared to the orientation of the swivel. If it runs "downhill" you have it in backwards. This is the correct way:
Now that it is assembled, let's test that remote trigger setup. Put the other two AA batteries into the remote transmitter. Turn on your flash, the remote receiver and the remote transmitter. Set the flash to a midrange power level, such as 1/4 power, in manual mode. (You may have to consult your flash's instructions if you have never done this before. But it is easy.)
The Ares remotes have 8 channels, and a selector on the transmitter to fire all channels at once. Make sure your transmitter and receiver are set to the same channel. It doesn't matter which channel, just that the transmitter and receiver are both set to the same one.
Now press the test button on your transmitter. If you are set up correctly, the flash should fire into your umbrella. If not, check to make sure the flash is turned on, seated well in the remote receiver and that it has not fallen into sleep mode.
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