$500.00 or less budget

I'm converting part of the garage into a home studio. I have only an

18'x 10' space to work with because of previous remodeling. The

ceiling is 8'. Could someone please give a novice some lighting

suggestions? Thanks...John

You can pick up a Sunpak 383 Super for about $70 USA online (B&H has worked fine for me personally). Or you could use the Vivitar 283 for about the same price. The Sunpak 383 comes with a PC connector cable saving your $15 USA per flash for the PC to hotshoe converter. I do not know about the Vivitar.<p>

Hence, 3 flashes will cost about half your budget. Add in two or three umbrella clamps (~$15 USA), a selection of umbrellas (~$20-$35 each), and some wiring and most of your budget will be gone. You will also need a hotshoe to PC converter and some PC cord. Or you can use a soldering gun and splice the connectors that come with the Sunpak 383s into some standard stereo or mono line you can pick up at Radio Shack. You will also need some type of stands or tripods to hold the lights.<p>

This will give you some basic lighting, but nothing fancy. You will likely want silver rather than white umbrellas as your main diffusers due to the loss of light they incur unless your are shooting glossy objects which reflect a lot of light. In a small space the lights will also bounce about the room and create some diffuse fill. Outdoors this light is lost.<p>

Personally, I use a radio slave connected into a network of 1/4 mono plug wiring to control the lights that I soldered into some PC to hotshoe adapters. I have yet to pick up a third light, but it is on the list.<p>

You should bear in mind that this solution does not have modelling lights and so unless you are shooting digital with the instant feedback you might be better off using hotlights. But this solution is also portable and you can use it for macro work in the field. It will be a bit weak for shooting large subjects like humans. I got my setup for shooting mushrooms so that is not an issue. <p>

Not really an answer, but some ideas within your budget. Ideally you really do want at least 3 lights unless you are using more expensive and powerful studio lights where reflectors can create powerful fill light. <p>

my $0.02,<p>

Sean