Want to take professional family portraits at home

<p>Hello. I am looking to take professional portraits of my children and family at home instead of going to the bigbox stores to save the money and hopefully increase the quality of the pictures.<br>

I believe ideally I need a 3 light source system. Can I obtain a complete set for under $400? Any recommedations? Ideally not really h ot lamps. Go used? Where?<br>

Backgrounds-where I can I get a basic, blue, gray and black backgrounds? Looking for small as possible. How much? Where? <br>

How big of stand to hold the backgrounds do I need. Looking for small as possible.<br>

I have a Canon EOS Rebel t1i. Addition to the standard lense that comes with the camera, I have Canon 70-200mm L non-is and Canon Flash 450exII. Do I need a 50mm lense and at least f 1.8?<br>

Thank you.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Here is a start: <a href="../learn/studio/primer">http://www.photo.net/learn/studio/primer</a><br>

That will be $150 for my services thank you.</p>

<p>Adorama sells various sizes of backgrounds and stands, but if you can sew, you can get any heavy fabric, make a loop at the top for the stand rod to go through, and you'll be fine...then you just have to buy the stand.</p>

<p>If you have the room to back up enough, the 70-200 will be great. Avoid using the kit lens at a wide setting, as it will distort features, but out at 40-55mm you'll be fine.</p>

<p>Instead of getting a light kit, consider getting a light stand & shoot through umbrella for your strobe and a reflector. You'll need either a flash cord that's long enough or some wireless triggers, either infrared or radio; people swear by the cheap knock offs found on eBay. Adorama sells an inexpensive version too under their Flashpoint brand.</p>

<p>Position the strobe and use the reflector for fill, and you should be fine for head & shoulder shots and such (I assume that's what you'll be doing since you want a small backdrop...you need fairly large ones to do full length portraits). Full length shots probably won't work so well with the single flash anyway.</p>

<p>If you really want studio strobes, $400 is a bit limiting, especially if that includes the background. Cheap strobes usually don't have much power and you'll be stuck doing head and shoulder shots anyway.</p>

<p>Check out <a href="http://www.strobist.com">www.strobist.com</a> for doing studio quality lighting on the cheap. Go to <a href="http://www.bhphotovideo.com">www.bhphotovideo.com</a> and search "People Popper" for a background system that includes a 6x8 or so backdrop in your choice of colors plus support stand all for about $100. Lenses you have are all you need for a studio portrait shot. Lens speed is not relevant since you're typically going to be shooting around f/4 or 5.6 anyhow. As for saving money and getting better results? The store studios virtually give their pictures away, so there's no way you're going to save compared with what you'll spend even on a basic lighting setup. And they have the straightforward basic portait down to a science, so if you haven't done this before it's going to take you a while go climb the learning curve to where you can equal what they already do with their eyes closed. But you can have a lot of fun, and once you've read and practiced enough you may very well like your results better.</p>

<p>"I believe I want a three light kit" ...if you want to learn about lighting you need to start with a single light and learn how to use that before adding extra lighting sources.<br>

Before you go for continuous lighting read the safety note I added for Amy "I want more light for mybasement' thread. You can get 500w 'workshop' lights from a hardware store to be in your budget but they consume power and generate heat. Better would be to get a single flash gun and coupled with your camera's flash you have a key light and fill light, a second flash unit with slave trigger might keep within your budget to light the background and provide 'hair' light for the subjects. This is not a 'professional' outfit but could do the job for you within your budget and be far more powerful = smaller f/stop and/or faster shutter speed ... than the workshop lights.<br>

The f/1.8 lens would be good for small depth of field but remember if you have a good editor , or even the free Paint.Net, which has layers and quite capable, you can put backgrounds out of focus without much trouble. [untidy and flowing hairstyles can be a problem]<br>

The three light umbrella outfits which you probably saw when you took the family to a professional outfit is what is used these days for convienience and to match the lighting style introduced by TV over the past decades for colour which tends to be rather bland instead of the harder lighting you could get from my suggestion. It is tending high-key instead of low-key which is more interesting when done properly which would be the challenge for you to work out how. <br>

The advantage of continuous lights, and strobes with pilot lights, is that you can see how the light is falling on the subject, though with instant playback of digital this would not be such a problem if you are working by trial and error.<br>

You could do worse than visit <a href="http://www.jcuknz-photos.com/LIGHTING/LIGHT.html">http://www.jcuknz-photos.com/LIGHTING/LIGHT.html</a> where you will find a little exercise I set myself working with a single light .... that my model was small caused me a problem in that I had to reduce the power of my flashgun which if working with a human being I would not needed to do as the flash would have been further away. My flashgun is at least 30 years old which should be another clue for you :-)<br>

I recently saw an advert offering to show you how to take good portraits with just a single speedlight, so I guess I'm not the only one thinking this way :-)</p>

<p>That's</p>

<li><a href="00YMdV">Need help adding to continuous lighting </a>(Page: <a href="00YMdV?start=0">1</a> <a href="00YMdV?start=10">2</a> ) by <a href="../photodb/user?user_id=6490213">amy bakalov</a> <a href="../member-status-icons"></a>| 2011-03-09 | <a href="00YMdV">11 Responses</a></li>

<li>Not what I wrote above.</li>

<p>As for backgrounds, yes, you could sew some, but you'll have seams to Photoshop out, because other than plain cream or white muslin online, in fabric stores you're limited to about 52" wide, and that's for expensive home dec fabrics. That width is only good for a headshot. How many family members will you be photographing? If it's more than two, then you'll need a wider backdrop. I have a 6 ft. wide portable black backdrop, and I can't shoot more than two people with that unless I want to clone in the edges in PS. I have a 10x20 ft. backdrop with a 12 ft. wide stand that's great for family shots. I have a small living room, and it fits, but I have to back up into my dining room area to shoot, since your subjects need to be at least four feet from the backdrop to keep from casting shadows.<br>

As for lighting, $400 is a very small budget, but I agree with JC--start with one light and a reflector, and build from there as you learn. You could get an Alien Bee, a large umbrella, and some foamcore to use as a reflector (I'd get the lightstand elsewhere if you need one), and work with that. You can do alot with just that if your family isn't too large.</p>

<p>One light.</p>

<p>Start here:</p>

<p><a href="http://zackarias.com/workshop/">http://zackarias.com/workshop/</a></p>

<p>Not sure how you end up saving money taking the shots at home, as you need to buy the equipment, learn the skills, and still arrange for the printing, etc...but all the suggestions above should get you going in the right direction. You might also check out books on model posing, makeup, etc.</p>

<p> <<And they have the straightforward basic portait down to a science, so if you haven't done this before it's going to take you a while go climb the learning curve to where you can equal what they already do with their eyes closed.>></p>

<p>After you go buying all this equipment, then making a huge mess in the living rooms with lights and power chords ("don't step there--don't touch that!"), and then spend what will seem like an infinity to your loved ones shooting off big lights in their faces, checking the back of the camera, and reshooting, and then tearing it all down till the next year....<br>

Let us know how that all works out.</p>

<p>I think he will probably get the bug and start inviting the neighbours in to practice on and have a heck of a lot of fun ... and with digital it costs nothing but time to experiment. Oh to be an enthusiastic younger man again :-)</p>

 

<p>My suggestion is to try not to replicate studio shots. Studio shots can be boring because they're made in cavernous spaces with boring backgrounds. They are sterile and impersonal.</p>

<p>How about: pose a family member near a window with diffuse light coming in from the side. Fill the other side with a reflector (large sheet of white art paper from the dollar store is cheapest). Background could be a bookcase, Christmas tree, or something else that looks nice when blurred with selective focus. Bounce your hotshoe flash with FEC to add light where it's needed (e.g. background).</p>

<p>Voila, much more interesting photo than a studio shot. Be creative. I think all you need is a tripod. Use your 70-200 if you have the space, but my guess is that you'll need something shorter.</p>