Photography is all about lighting. Being able to manipulate and create light is a major skill for most professional shooters. There are numerous lighting brands to choose from but only a few are commonly used by pros. Here’s a breakdown of the brands you’ll see frequently.
https://www.profoto.com/us/en/, Profoto are best for renting. They are available in almost every rental network in the world.
Broncolor, https://broncolor.us/ , slightly better than Profoto, but not as a large rental network. The top flash brand in my opinion.
https://us.elinchrom.com/ was an early leader for portable strobes. They are priced between Profoto/Broncolor and the budget-friendly brands. They are most known for their industry-standard octabank and their Rotalux softboxes, which you’ll see everywhere.
https://www.fjwestcott.com/collections/fj-wireless-flash-system-lighting - excellent monolight system with a lot of accessories and modifiers to match.
https://www.godox.com/studio-flash/ - Godox offers a wide variety of strobes and LEDs. It’s a solid system. However, their customer service and warranty are limited in the US.
Flashpoint https://www.flashpointlighting.com/ - Flashpoint is basically Godox for the US market. Less options, but proper customer service and warranty in the US.
https://paulcbuff.com/products/einstein-640-studio-flash - Paul C Buff makes a few different brands of low-cost strobes in the US. The Einstein line is the pro line. Alien Bees and the others are too slow, low-powered or have other issues that keep me from recommending them for pros. Their new designs are called Link and are a battery-powered update to Einstein. I haven’t used them yet. The Einsteins are lightweight, low-cost and come with a solid ecosystem of modifiers. There is no rental network.
Profoto and Broncolor are the best strobe brands for a variety of reasons. But, in order to deliver you the best performance, they are very expensive. Due to the price, they are better to rent than buy. In my opinion, Broncolor makes the best strobes and is the better option. You get more bang for your buck than Profoto, as they are priced similarly, but offer more power, more output, more controls and other features. Like Profoto, they are best for renting, but if you need those features, buy Bron instead of Profoto.
If you need to own lights, buy something more affordable and rent Bron or Profoto when the job is right. If the job is big enough to pay for Profoto or Bron rentals, you can still bill a rental fee for any other lighting you bring to set, even if it is just for backup or extra heads.
Speedlites are the small flashes that are designed to sit in the hot shoe on your camera. They are best for using on-camera flash techniques. There are ways to use them off-camera, but I don’t recommend this. It was popular to use them off-camera decades ago, but the costs of battery-powered monolights are now competitive, or cheaper, and their performance far exceeds speedlites.
For speedlite brands, typically the best one is the one made for your camera. ie if you own a Canon, buy a Canon speedlite. If you own a Nikon, buy the Nikon speedlite, etc. Profoto and Godox make nice speedlites but they don’t give much benefit over the performance you will get from getting your camera-brand’s speedlites.
Aputure, https://aputure.com/en-US
If you are a photographer and growing into video, Aputure LEDs will be the most natural fit. They have taken over the video world with their ease-of-use, quality of light, large lighting modifier and accessories ecosystem and budget friendly pricing. Some photographers have switched to using Aputures instead of strobes. They now have a large rental network.
Tube Lights
LEDs shaped into tubes, some work with batteries for maximum convenience. They are usually low power.