New guy lighting question

[brewercm]

Just found this site a couple of weeks ago and have been reading around quite a bit. I'm interested in setting up a studio in a spare bedroom at the house and am on a fairly tight budget for lighting at the moment. Just curious if anyone has recommendations for a inexpensive but decent startup kit, or what to stay away from. At the moment I have a Sigma EF-530 DG SUPER I'm using on my Nikon D90.

I started getting into this hobby a few years ago as a spinoff from my other hobby's of keeping a reef aquarium. The two go together hand in hand too well at times. Nedless to say, may of my photographs at this time are either macros of corals or my family.

Thank you in advance for any recommedations.

[kimberley]

studio light Alien Bees are very reasonable

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

Really you can start as simply as using a couple halogen work lights (just do a grey card or white card to do a white balance before that shoot) or you can go with a used studio set up. You can buy used powerpacks and lights for about 20%-30% of their original price if your not in a huge rush-just search ebay-and pick and choose-there are a lot on there and many times the accessories such as reflectors/barndoors,grids,etc are well below the "new" price though the item may actually be brand new. Heck you can buy a scratched up, on the inside reflector, and repaint it with some heat stable spray paint (some of these flash tubes can really heat up the reflectors for short times).
Lighting & Studio | B&H Photo Video look at the ac powered set ups to see the main names in the business (some of them sell monolights also)

[Dobick]

If you can find a class of some sort that can demonstrate some studio lighting to you you will be better off if you are going to try to buy used.

The reason that I suggest that is all of the information available on the internet can become a bit overwhelming unless you know some of the basics of what you are looking for, and more importantly what you are looking at (when it comes to used sales)

If you can find someone that is leading a class and that can show some of the basics of hot lights, and then move to monolights, and maybe even a pack and head system, it would be worth the money

[WarrenG]

In my opinion, I would not look at the Alien Bee's until you have a firmer understanding of lighting, and the space to use them. In a small room even the 400 may be overpowering.

If you want something inexpensive with decent power that you will be able to use later on as you grow... get yourself a couple SB28's or a couple Vivitar 285's (they are dirt cheap) and would work great in a small room studio.

B&H has a little kit that includes 2 light stands, umbrellas, and adapters for 100 bucks. For $300 you would be set with the stands and Vivitars! Once you are proficient and have more space, you can upgrade to monolights... and the Vivitars or Sb28's, etc will still be beneficial on location.

W

[brewercm]

Thanks for the info, I'll look into the class thing as that would be great to go through regardless. The Camera Exchange store here in San Antonio might have an idea about any available local or semi-local classes.

[Matt_G]

Even though you shoot Nikon I suggest spending some time searching for "key" topics on POTN ( Canon Digital Photography Forums - Powered by vBulletin ) Especially the first five "sticky" threads at the top of the lighting section.

[Tom]

Originally Posted by kimberley

studio light Alien Bees are very reasonable

Elinchrom's DLite 4 series is a much better buy. Less expensive, better lights, built with transmitters already in.




If you are on a limited budget, I would do this:
MPEX Strobist Kits

Get a starter strobist kit that fits your budget. If you can't afford this, well, take people in front of windows and take their picture there.

Then go to www.strobist.com and go through lighting 101 and 102. You will be better than 95% of all photographers at lighting after going through those two series of lessons.

[sldi]

Camera exchange used to put on some beginning and intermediate studio lighting classes. They did carry the Elinchrome systems too, an awesome setup as far as portability.

[a2rob]

Originally Posted by kimberley

studio light Alien Bees are very reasonable

++ for AB's

[brewercm]

I know this is much more than I probably need but ran across this locally used set. What do you all think.

Paul Buff Ultra 600 lighting kit. Three flash heads with wires, accessories in a hard shell wheeled case. Numerous Lowel lite barndoors, snoot, scrim, etc. All in like new condition with original boxes.

[ronocnikral]

if you were in houston, you could come pick up the hot lights and stands sitting in my garage parking space. c'est gratis. that's for anyone.

[brewercm]

The reason I'm looking at a little brighter set than what I'd really need in just a bedroom studio is I do quite a bit of photography for our church. I'd like to have the option of bringing in more light when the occasion allows.
Actually that brings up a good question as to what would be better for me, hot lights or strobes in that case.

Conor,
That's a great offer and wish I was closer by to do that. My brother in law works out of Houston a lot and if you still wanted to get rid of them next time he's there I could see if he could pick them up.

[Tom]

Hot Lights are rarely a better option than strobe, but they are generally always a cheaper option than strobes.

[Coogie]

Another vote for the Alien Bees, but as someone else mentioned, study up on lighting before you get them. Since you have a D90, which has a built in flash commander mode, it might be good to just get an SB-600,800(if you can find one) or 900 and just practice with the one light. You can use it in TTL mode or manual mode. Once you reach the point where you need more power, then you'd really appreciate the extra power the big lights will give you and you can always use the Nikon speedlight for general photography.

Also, there are a lot of websites, DVD's, and workshops out there and each one has their own philosophy, but the concepts are pretty much the same. How you get there is a personal choise, but it will take a little time to see which way you want to go.

For me personally I started with the strobist philosophy briefly (didn't think it was too practical and not really cheaper) and moved on to CLS and later to the big lights (B1600 and 400 plus my buddy has a couple of lights and a vegabond i can borrow). I still go back to CLS if I just need to get a shot without much fuss.