sandbag recommendation - how heavy do I need?


haring

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Nov 4, 2010
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I have a Flashpoint Rovelight 600 monolight. I would like to take it to the beach for engagement photos and wedding photos.
The only problem is that it is a little bit top heavy. The battery is in the head unit itself.
I would like to use the light on a manfrotto light stand and a medium size softbox.

I am just wondering what size of sandbag do I need? What is your recommendation? We often shoot engagement sessions ans wedding portrait sessions on the beach. Wind is an issue.
 

Since you are shooting at the beach, just bring along many plastic bags, fill it up with sands, tide it to the lightstand.
Not heavy enough? Just fill up some more bags.
 

if you really need to know how heavy your sandbags be, you need to know how big is your softbox, how high your softbox you extend, where is the centre of gravity of the light stand, the wind speed, the hardness of the ground... etc.
probably you need someone with an engineer degree to work out the ideal weight for your sand bags. :)
 

And don't forget to check the maximum weight for the light stand. You need to strike a balance between 'blown away' and 'collapsed'.
 

any size will do as long as its heavy enough
 

Somehow I am picturing a big soft box sailing across the beach...you better get some pretty heavy bags...I would say long thin ones to horseshoe around legs.
 

The rule is minimum the weight of your strobe light with the softbox since you did not cantilever using a boom. Thus I guess 5KG would be enough. If you afraid of the wind, then additional 2-3KG to counter react with the wind.