sam1971

First, try to find a white melitta filter rather than stationery as a white balance target as most copier or printer papers aren't quite neutral.

If your Godox holds it's colour temp with reduced output, you won't need to change the w/b in a studio setting. The same goes for modifiers. If they are neutral they won't affect the colour, but cheap or old modifiers tend to give a slight yellow cast.

 

I tend to use auto w/b, but shoot a colorchecker passport when I have changed something significantly in the setup. W/b then takes place as a part of my postprocessing. The auto w/b is good enough for the histograms to be usable in camera with the low-contrast preset I use for my raw files. As I use Adobe software that discards everything but w/b of the Nikon settings in the Nef files, this makes things easy for me.

Hi Peter, Thanks for the reply. When you say try the Melitta filter do you mean those coffee filter thingies?. I'm a tea drinker so I'll have to go get some if thats the case.

Sorry I missed this question.... Obviously I do have these (as i started the thread). I have used them fairly extensively since getting them. I couldn't imagine going back to speed lights now (although I have them on me at all times as they have their purposes). I have used Elinchrom strobes in the local studio i hire and these Jinbei ones are every bit as good as the ones I used. Build quality seems about the same. Similar power levels and controls. Certainly better ones would be better.

I mostly use them on location, so have the battery pack. Because of this I think I would prefer a couple of the Jinbei HD600's if budget stretched that far. Not only do they have the battery built in and no need for cables, but with a suitable trigger they are capable of HSS which the DM3's aren't. I am thinking about adding one to my DM3 kit and having a 3 light setup.

 

As for some examples....

Single strobe with gridded beauty dish

Emily by Crew One Photography, on Flickr

Peter Hurley style head shot and lighting. Two strobes. One with 2'x3' softbox on an angle and 4'x1' softbox to the right.

IMRF Headshots by Crew One Photography, on Flickr

One strobe with included 55 degree reflector camera right. Speed light camera left. Shot during the day, so these are capable of putting out some light

Maddie by Crew One Photography, on Flickr

And again single strobe with 55 degree reflector (for portability more than anything)

Anelia by Crew One Photography, on Flickr

Hi dcBear, thanks for your post. Great photo's by the way!. I decided to pull the trigger on the Godox QS-400 range as I remember you saying that the build quality would probably be better, which after some extensive research I found to be actually true. I haven't got the strobe yet but am quite confident that it will be very good for $300.

I have the Jinbei DM3 400 in my shortlist of strobes I'm looking to buy. Has anyone got any hands on experience with these strobes?.