Help choosing a lighting kit for a beginner

[omarmc]

Hello , I want to do some portraits and I want to buy a lighting kit but I

don't know what to buy there are some kits on ebay for aroud $400 can some body

recomend me a good kit for this beginner, I really would apreciate your help.

thank you. I don't want to spend alot of money maybe $500 I don't know If i can

get anything for that much.

[colinsouthern]

Hi Omar,

 

What kind of camera system would you be using them with?

 

Cheers,

 

Colin

[omarmc]

Hello, I'm using a Canon Xti, I have a Canon 430Ex Flash and a Macro twin lite MT-24Ex, the 430ex can be used as Slave with the Mt-24Ex.

I want to get some portraits like this. Thank you for your help. Regards. http://www.photo.net/photo/5294837

[syalphotography]

Dear Omar,

Thanks for taking interest in my photos! You can start with two Elinchrome23 studio lights. One as the main light fitted with large soft box, other one as the fill light fitted with small soft box. Do experimentation with two lights than you can go for any additional light as the need may arise.Regarding the lighting on photo in question, I have used light from a large window, my friend.

 

Best regards,

 

Rakesh

[steve_levine]

I think Gene nailed it. It is best to learn next to a north facing window, with some foam core reflectors. Then try and use the mono/softbox combo to replace the window. In time you can add more lights. The fewer lights you try to learn with, the less confused you'll be.

As for the underpowered light kits for sale , save your money. In a large room most of these are lucky to hit F4 at any distance.

[matusciac]

i work with the cheapets flashes money can buy... about 30$ 1/1,

i use umbbrelas, a softbox 120x60cm and an octogon 170 cm diameter...

 

you can start with something like this! and belive me... you can't take good pictures only if you have a 5000$ light setup. start with one light and then with 2... 3 lights for studio is too much :)

 

i have 4 slave units and a 430ex

[nathan_stiles]

Don't for get a decent light meter. It's an often over looked cost. I got a used Minolta I'm happy w/ off of eBay a while ago. You'll be frustrated trying to get good lighting ratios w/o one.

[matusciac]

hmmm light meter... you can take a picture and look at the histogram...

2-3 pictures and you've got the right exposure :)

[uriah]

www.alienbees.com

[omarmc]

Thank you everyone for your help, I really apreciate it. Best Regards.

[adamweso]

I totally agree with Matusciac Alex - buy one, even the cheapest flash. Add some modifiers to it.

 

Many people think that only a softbox can be used for studio lighting. It definitely isn't true. A softbox gives you a very soft light, which is good at the very begining, because soft light is a forgiving light. Even set without much practice and knowledge, can produce satisfying results. With harsh light you have to be very precise. It's also very demanding for the model. Once you set the light, he/she has to stay within a couple of cm/inches, because once they move, the light have to moved as well.

 

A white shot-through umbrella also produces soft light. It cheaper then a softbox, lighter and much faster to set up. It looses some of the flashe's power, but if you intend to shoot portraits you'll rarely need more than f/8 and most of the time even less (assuming your're using a 35mm camera).

 

Talking about a light meter - again, I agree with what Alex said - having a digital camera you can estimate your exposure by looking at the histogram right after the shot is taken.

 

Having one flash, and a reflector you can produce some very good looking photos. When I started using flashes I had only one (in addition borrowed :-) ) flash and a foam core. I coudn't afford buying more lights, but as I see it now - I was lucky :-) The more lights to start with, the more confused you'll be.

 

My advice for the next step would be adding more light modifiers while still having only one flash. Buy a few umbrellas, reflective and shot through, white, silver, gold, mixed... If you intend to shoot portrait, a beauty dish is a small, easy to carry light modifier. It also gives nice reflections in the eyes.

 

When you start getting good results with soft light produced by softbox/umbrellas/beauty dish, then you can thing about using a flash with just a standard reflector (perhaps with a sheet of light diffusing foil to soften it a bit)and start experimenting with harsh light.

 

It's not true harsh light can't produce a good portrait(as I've read in many places). The truth is it can produce some excellent results, however you'll need a lot of practice to succeed.

 

I think it's not necessary to add any more suggestion here. Once you practice all I've mentioned above you'll know excactly what you need and what additional equipment you want to buy.

 

one more thing - don't get fooled with flash's power. You probably won't ever need 1000WS heads for portrait work. Once a flash is used at lets say 1/4 or 1/2 of full power its recycle time is very much reduced, but hey - for the beginning of flash photography even a 100-200WS flashes will give you lots of fun :-)

 

Hope I've helped at least a bit.

 

Regards, Adam.

[maxu]

I use 3 quartz lights of 1000W with softbox of 120x80cm. It's enough to produce a lot of beatiful pictures like the one I have in my portfolio.

[omarmc]

I want to Thank everyone for all the help and advices, I really appreciated it. <br>I can't wait to take some portraits and post them for your generous critiques and comments.<br> Best Regards.

 

Omar MC.