Speedlight

The venerable speedlight is the backbone of most wedding photography lighting kits and for good reason. They’re small, easily portable, versatile and won’t break the bank.

Why We Love Them

Speedlights can be easily used on or off camera, sandwiched together in a bracket and taken just about anywhere. They can control other flashes or be remotely triggered when used off camera. With radio control increasingly standard, they can be grouped further away from your camera and still pop reliably, without line-of-sight positioning.

Great For

Location, wedding and event photography.

Downsides

Speedlights aren’t very powerful next to many other lighting options. Recycling times can be slow at full power. Mounting a flash to your camera will add some extra weight, which can grow heavier once you start adding flash modifiers to your speedlight.

Petite Strobe aka Monolight “Lite”

This is our word for the emerging class of mid-range strobes in the 200-300 W/s realm—think of products like the Interfit Honey Badger Unleashed or Profoto B10. These off-camera lights are more powerful than your typical speedlight yet are significantly smaller than your full-blown monolight.

Why We Love Them

You’ll get excellent battery life, faster recycling times and more power than a speedlight. This category has also seen some novel features, like Bluetooth connectivity, powerful LED modeling lights and interchangeable flash heads, that haven’t really filtered into any other lighting category just yet.

Great For

Wedding and portrait photography, environmental portraiture, location shooting.

Downsides

This is a relatively new category of strobe so your options are limited for now. Depending on the model, they could be pricier than a speedlight.

Battery Pack and Head Systems

If you need to run more than one light or need faster recycling times and higher output than a speedlight, battery pack and head systems are worth a look.

Why We Love Them

You get the power output of a larger monolight but the flexibility of a smaller speedlight. With a bracket and some creative holstering, you can shoot these lights on camera or use them off camera to overpower the sun, freeze motion or add fill. Asymmetric power outlets give you more fine-grained control over light output when rigging multiple flash heads to a single battery.

Great For

Environmental portraiture, wedding and sports shooting.

Downsides

With two separate components and a cord to connect them, these aren’t the most compact or elegant solutions when working on location.

Monolight

Combining the power supply and flash head in one compact unit, monolights are an excellent option for studio and location photographers who need sun-blocking power and rapid recycling.

Why We Love Them

You’ll get much more flash output—up to 800 W/s—with a monolight than with a petite strobe or speedlight. They’re packed with features like HSS and TTL that make speedlights so versatile, but they offer faster recycling times and flash durations when time is of the essence.

Great For

Studio photography, portraits, splash and product photography and overpowering the sun.

Downsides

Because they combine the power supply and flash head in one integrated whole, monolights can be bulky and heavy. After prolonged use, cooling fans will kick on, giving you some nice (or not-so-nice) white noise in the background.

Pack and Head

Like the battery pack and head system only significantly more powerful, these studio stalwarts will give you top-of-the-line performance in terms of power output, flash duration and recycling time.

Why We Love Them

For the ultimate in power output and speed, you simply can’t beat a pack and head system. Beyond high output and fast recycling, these systems work with smaller flash heads that can be easily positioned away from the main power pack. Features such as Wi-Fi control and individually controllable outlets are also making their way into pack and head systems.

Great For

Studio and fashion photography, freezing motion.

Downsides

With great power not only comes great responsibility, but a heftier price tag as well. Beyond price, they’re tougher to transport and can mean running plenty of wires around a set or studio.

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