Lighting kit for 645 and 35mm tabletop/portraiture

[keith_merrill]

I posted this on the medium format page because it has to do with me

shooting a P645, but I think I should have posted it here - duh.

Anyway, I have been searching around for quite a while trying to get

an idea for a lighting kit for my 645 and 35mm cameras. I come from a

television production background and have worked - sometimes not

well - with fresnels, softlights, chimeras ect... doing on location

corporate video and studio work. I have a pretty good location grip

kit with gels, scrims, and a couple of flex fills, ect... that I

bring into work with me. What I don't have is any flash (cold) lights

for use in studio photography. I have a small studio that I am

setting up in my house (15'-17') that I want to do some table top and

portraiture. What I really want is a lighting system that I

can "grow" into and add on to in the future, it also needs to be

durable and able to fine tune the light. I have been looking at the

Dyna-lite packs and heads. Would a 500 series pack with two heads

have enough light for table top (some macro too) and portraiture, or

should I be considering the 1000 series packs? Also, what is the

operative difference between the ER and DR packs? What I mean by this

is that I have read the manuals and the website at Dyna-lite for the

differences, but I would just like to know from people who have used

the packs how the differences are missed in the real world. I am

going to have a chance in the next week to get to Calumet in Chicago

and try to play around with the lights they have on display, but I

just want extra knowledge before I buy. Also, if I decided to use

this kit with my 4x5 too, will this be enough light for a beginning.

Thanks for all your help. - keith

[ellis_vener_photography]

A 500 watt pack and two heads will definitely be a good start, two 500 watt packs

and making oneofthe heads a bi-tube unit is better, if you are shooting still life

withthe 4x5 more power is always better but you can multi-pop to increase the

effective exposure. But if you will be photographing people, then having more

potential power is always better.