HCE Indoor Workshop

[acscarrow]

Went to the HCE Indoor Lighting Workshop this weekend. Was a packed house, but learned a few things. Namely, I need about $4000 for new lighting and another $4000 for a new full frame Sony and 135mm 1.8 lens of my own..hahaha

Since I probably won't get that, here are a few shots I managed to sneak over the other 60 photographers there. Lighting was pretty much set up for us, so we just shot when it was our turn. Comments welcome and thanks for looking!

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[groovyone]

The 135Z is awesome. Tony is selling his A900+VG for $2100 or so...

[acscarrow]

I thought I had seen on Dyxum that it was sold already.

[groovyone]

Was it? Guess I hadn't been looking.

[texxter]

Was a packed house, but learned a few things. Namely, I need about $4000 for new lighting and another $4000 for a new full frame Sony and 135mm 1.8 lens of my own..hahaha

Of course a photography store will want you to walk away thinking you need lots of stuff to do anything. Not so. You can create great images with little gear, and add more gear as you grow in knowledge and experience. The one thing I do recommend is to think hard about the lighting system you'll start with - as it's easy to end up with a bunch of different types of lights that don't work particularly well together. I'd recommend deciding whether you're going the portable flash route, or the (possibly portable) strobes route, select a good brand and buy things one at a time so that you end up with a single system that grows with you. One light, one good metal reflector and one good umbrella or softbox will allow you to do plenty of good work for quite a while.

Sorry if you already have a bunch of lighting equipment and you don't need my words above.

[acscarrow]

Thanks Paco, I will never turn down advice! I completely agree about building one piece at a time.

They weren't pushing, just letting us know the equipment they were using and of course me being curious, asking how much the kits were. They had Profoto and Photogenic kits and then Spiderlite TD6's constant lighting from Westcott.

I started off cheap with 2 Interfit 150's for $300 and some umbrella/softboxes. For portables, I still use my Sony F58AM lights for on and off camera. I also have 2 Cheetah QBox 24's.

I use Elinchrom Skyports for remote triggers and love them. So when I decide to upgrade, I'll probably go with Elinchrom.

Thanks again!