Those of you following me for a while know I’m all about the power when it comes to lighting. If I test monolights and the lights flicker in the neighborhood, that’s got it just about right.

Unfortunately there are times it’s just not convenient to haul 1,000 W/s monolights and in those situations it’s time to bring out the portable lighting kit. It comes as a surprise to many that portable strobes can be nearly as expensive as indoor, plug-in lights but are somewhat less powerful. Some of that is understandable as portable strobes are trying to light the world powered only by a battery pack.

I’m every photographer would love to have an unlimited budget for putting together a portable lighting kit but that’s not the reality most of us live with every day. Since I can’t know your budget ahead of time, the best route is to give you options and let you pick the price range that’s right for you. I’ve tested all the brands listed here and used them on paying jobs, though the exact model numbers may be different.

Quite a few of the accessory components will work with either kit. Just because you pay more for light stands doesn’t mean you get a lot more. Diffusers come in all shapes and sizes, depending upon the job. Portable lighting boils down to the strobes and electronics to control them. The rest of the kit will depend on the application.

The Premium Kit

The premium kit starts with a pair of Canon 600EX-RTs, one of the newer additions to Canon portable strobes with improved weather sealing and wireless capability. It’s hard to find a better strobe that will function reliably in almost any shooting situation. I have used Canon strobes and love the results.

These Canon strobes have built-in wireless transceivers.

Normally you need a transceiver on the camera and flash to control those nice strobes but with the 600EX-RT all you need is the ST-E2-RT radio trigger and you’re right in business. The strobes have wireless radio built in and there are no triggers to set up. Just set the master wireless controller and go. No transmitters to match up, the functionality is in the strobe itself. So, if you need more light, just buy more strobes and you have everything you need. From the master controller you can control the light ratio and power controls of the remote strobes.

The wireless controller for the Canon 600EX-RT.

The Budget Kit

While this is a budget kit, I’ve used all these on paying jobs with only one hitch, which was a strobe set to slave mode that wouldn’t fire in daylight. It worked fine indoors, just not outside. I replaced it with a reflector and got on with the job. Outside that odd quirk, my budget lighting kit has worked in weddings, events and other paying gigs.

For my budget kit I went with the latest from Yongnuo.

The budget kit starts with a pair of Yongnuo 568 EX II strobes, which retail for around $186.99 each. Like with any budget product there will be a higher failure rate so be sure to buy them through a reliable vendor and use them a lot during the return window.

I’ve used a slightly different model of the same brand in the worst conditions imaginable and they just keep chugging along.

For controllers I picked the Yongnuo YN-622C that are getting high marks from users and are e-TTL compatible (note I have not used these on a paying job yet).

The YN 622C TTL compatible wireless controllers.

Again, you’re paying less than $45/each for these units so buy from a vendor with a generous return policy and test, test, test out of the box.

Other Gear

The rest of the gear is common to either lighting setup and would include light stands, which are relatively inexpensive. You’ll need brackets to secure your strobes on the stands and some type of diffuser, which can be those little white plastic caps, a shoot-through white umbrella or a portable softbox.

My personal favorite are white umbrellas. I’ve used small softboxes with some success but the throw is a little confined, which is fine if that’s the effect you want.

Besides that you’ll want a collapsible reflector and a clamp to hold it to a light stand. A lot of times a reflector can take the place of a fill if positioned right and most have white, silver and gold foil all in one package.

With two strobes on wireless controllers I’ve shot fairly good size group shots, wedding formals, and standard three-light portraits with a hair light set in slave mode. In most situations you can’t crank up the power… I miss that… but you can add more strobes. Even your old flash units can fill in dark corners and hallways if they have a slave mode, so old strobes never die they just backlight the bottles behind the bar.