4 Top School Photography Kits for the Back to School Season
Are you looking over your trusty school photography kit and thinking it might need a bit of an upgrade? Old flash units, softboxes starting to fall apart a little out of years of use and transportation, scuffed stands? We've got just the blog for you. Here are 4 of our top kits for school photography that are built specifically to snap quality photos of smart students with ease.
1. The LUMI200 II Dual Light Kit
The two-light LUMI200 MKII Kit is a great option for school photography, for either individual student portraits or for groups. Use just one 200w LUMI200 or both at once depending on the situation, diffused with the 40" Translucent Umbrellas provided in the kit! This kit also includes a Grey/White Vinyl Backdrop that has a special Ultra-Matte finish and crease-free material to eliminate reflections, making this background great to fulfil school photography requirements.
Air-Cushioned light stands are also included, plus a telescopic background stand to hold up your vinyl backdrop, as well as a ST-IV (Godox XPRO) trigger to work with the built-in 2.4Ghz receiver in the LUMIs. The LUMI200's themselves are also affordable but perfect for school photography. With flash duration of up to 1/2000th of a second, and recycling time of just over 1s, these strobes are perfect for the setting and they run on mains power, so you don't have to worry about batteries draining mid-shoot.
2. The LUMI200 II Single Light Kit
If you're looking for a smaller kit, however, or you don't need two lights for group shooting, then the Single Light kit option may be for you. With just one LUMI200 and one umbrella, this monolight set-up is easy to use, and is perfect for single student portraits.
Besides this, the main difference between this and the two-light LUMI kit is that the background. Whereas kit 1 uses a long vinyl background roll, the single light kit uses a collapsible Blue/Grey background, which is easily folded into 1/3rd of it's size for easy transportation and set-up. The blue side of the background is also perfect if you want to blue-screen your backgrounds to add a specific pattern or colour in the final image.
A spring clamp and standard 240cm Air Cushioned stand is then included to hold the background behind your subject.
For a different Monolight option, the PIKA200 Pro kit is also a strong contender. This kit is identical to the above LUMI kit, with the difference of the flash.
Unlike the LUMIs, the PIKA200 pocket strobes are battery powered, making them super-portable and easy to use on location. On average, the PIKAs can hit up to 500 full powered flashes on full charge. With 200Ws of power controllable from 1/256th power, and flash duration of up to 1/13000s, the PIKA200 outputs the same wattage as the LUMI but has a little more versatility, and a faster recycling time of 0.01-2.1s if you prefer to snap a few photos in quick succession.
However, if you prefer a dual light set-up or you're after a kit that is more suitable for group shots, the Dual PIKA200 kit will be more appropriate. This is also where the battery powered PIKA200s come in handy, as if you're requested by the school to take the group shots outside for a more natural backdrop or because there's more space, you can do so with ease and without having to find a cable solution to take mains-powered lights outside.
It may also grant an extra peace of mind knowing that the wireless lights won't pose a tripping risk to any staff or students at the school if they get too close to the equipment!
Still not sure which one would be best for you? If you need some more advice, why not get in touch with our team via info@essentialphoto.co.uk and our Product Advisor can offer some tailored assistance based on what you need.
