Stands and grips are used to support your light sources, strobes, and even light modifiers or backdrops.

Reflecting umbrellas produce a diffused and soft light due to the larger size of the reflecting surface. They are mounted in such a way that the strobe light is actually facing away from the subject or model.

Most strobe lights allow you to completely remove the reflector and attach different kinds of light modifiers.

Wide reflectors produce a larger pool of light and a softer light quality, narrow reflectors produce smaller pools of light and a harsher light quality.

If you’re shooting outdoors or with complicated modifier setups, you are going to need a lot of power to overcome the sun, or the light loss caused by the modifiers.

Head/pack systems have a big advantage in the power department. Whereas, if you’re shooting indoors or inside your studio, monolights will probably be more than enough for regular work.

Head/power pack kits also offer faster flash durations than monolights, which can really come in handy when you want to freeze action during fast motion. They also have faster recycle times.

Professional studio light sources generally fall into one of two categories: you can get a kit with a flash head and a power pack, or you can get a monolight kit.

Symmetric power packs split power equally between multiple flash heads.

Assymetric power packs allow the user to vary the power supply to different flash heads.