sten_lofgren

<p>(Sorry about double posting. I clicked one time too many.)</p>

<p>There is no one answer to how close the lights should be, it depends entirely on the effect you want to achieve. The closer you move the softboxes to your subject the softer the shadows will be because the light source will be relatively larger and seemingly coming from a spread of directions. By moving the lights further away the shadows become sharper. By moving the background further back the background will be darker as suggested above because of the light fall-off. Even a white wall can be made to look black with sufficient light fall-off. You may wish to make the two lights have different intensities to make one the key or main light and have the other at less intensity/greater distance to provide some light in the shadows cast by the key light.<br>

You are at the beginning of a journey on lighting. For an excellent guide on that journey go to Strobist.com</p>

(Comments from another Strobist fan.) DO NOT get the Wein triggers for your SB-28. In response to my frustrated questions a spokesman for Wein e-mailed me that the Wein triggers require at least 5 V to trigger. That explained why no Wein product has EVER triggered any of my Speedlights (SB-24, SB-28, SB-600) but triggers 100% of the time using my ancient SunPak Auto411 flash that triggers at about 200V (and would fry most modern cameras). Your SB-28 triggers at a much lower voltage. For info see www.botzilla.com/photo/strobeVolts.html which has a listing of the triggering voltages of what seems like every flash ever made. Through Strobist I found the Sonia slaves at FlashZebra.com that trigger reliably at lower voltages. Give them a try.

Check out www.strobist.blogspot.com. It is a site for learning about off camera flash using affordable or DYI (Do It Yourself) equipment. A flash meter will be superfluous and too expensive for your budget. Use "chimping" instead - use the monitor on your camera to display a histogram and vary your exposure until the histogram shows that you have lights and darks that don't go beyond the edge of the histogram but get close to it. In effect you already have a flash meter. My suggestion for a bare bones studio: 2 Light stands @ $30 ea., 2 Umbrella holders @ $20 ea. 2 Umbrellas (at least 1 shoot-through)@$30 ea., and 2 Vivitar 285HV flashes @ $90 ea. (make sure they are HV, the older model will fry your camera). Total $340 (although some of the items may be had for less). Add connecting wires, etc and a sheet of white foam core to act as a reflector. That should give you some options to work with lighting that can make a good portrait.