Advice on lighting equipment.

Mmarques

Mmarques

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Marco
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Hey everyone!

I'm newish to photography and have a Nikon d3100 18-55mm lens and tripod, my birthday is coming up and I'm thinking of asking for some lighting/studio equipment.

What would I need as a beginner or the minimum at decent prices?
Recommendation? Links? Any help would be great.

Thanks
Marco
 
Hi Marco,

Recommendations are likely to be Elinchrom D-Lites, Bowens Geminis, and Lencarta Smart flash heads within the beginner range.

Money on lighting is always money well spent :)

Hope that helps

Danny
 
Mahoneyd187 said:
Hi Marco,

Recommendations are likely to be Elinchrom D-Lites, Bowens Geminis, and Lencarta Smart flash heads within the beginner range.

Money on lighting is always money well spent :)

Hope that helps

Danny
Click to expand...

Hi Danny, thanks for the recommendations, are they different models of lights? Would I need umbrella things?( non technical term). White background and floor? Just for a home set up to start with?
 
Any more recommendation to which starter kits?
 
Last edited:
dan_yorkshire said:
I have one of these background support systems for sale if interested.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ws/eBayIS...=300566315437&ssPageName=ADME:B:WNAFP:GB:1123

Only had it 6months as quickly upgraded to lastolite hilite.

Also have cotton white backdrop which is two lengths that I velcro together to make it about 3m wide which cost me £30.
Will be putting it into sale forum soon I reckon.
Click to expand...

Hi there,

Is that just the backdrop frame? Does it come with case to carry it in? There's quite a while left on there (25 days) I'll see how much it goes up to, how much would you be selling the background drop and frame? Pm me a price if you like.
Thanks
 
To meet forum rules I'll have to do any prices in a sales thread eventually etc.

That eBay sale is buy-it-now, so it's £33 delivered.

With the cotton backdrop and the frame I'd be looking at about £30ish delivered. It all goes in a carry case which is pretty tidy. Ive also added another rod to strengthen telescopic horizontal rods
 
To be honest, if you are just starting out, you need to learn the basics and practise as much as you can. Once you have an understanding of how to use light, you will know what kit you will need to further your skill.

Start simple and get yourself some cheap chinese hot shoe flashes and a couple of umbrellas and a soft box, plus cheap rf602 radio triggers.

With these you can do most light setups, high key and low key stuff and really get to grips with shooting in full manual off camera.

With those skills honed, then start to look at spending more money, you won't lose much on second hand flashes, and to be honest, there is no harm in keeping them for rim or fill lights where needed.

Money in expensive kit at this stage is a waste. Go on lighting course and understand how to use basic kit first.

You will surprise yourself what a pair of £50 flashes and £40 worth of triggers and umbrellas can do.
 
To be honest, if you are just starting out, you need to learn the basics and practise as much as you can. Once you have an understanding of how to use light, you will know what kit you will need to further your skill.

Start simple and get yourself some cheap chinese hot shoe flashes and a couple of umbrellas and a soft box, plus cheap rf602 radio triggers.

With these you can do most light setups, high key and low key stuff and really get to grips with shooting in full manual off camera.

With those skills honed, then start to look at spending more money, you won't lose much on second hand flashes, and to be honest, there is no harm in keeping them for rim or fill lights where needed.

Money in expensive kit at this stage is a waste. Go on lighting course and understand how to use basic kit first.

You will surprise yourself what a pair of £50 flashes and £40 worth of triggers and umbrellas can do.
 
dan_yorkshire said:
To meet forum rules I'll have to do any prices in a sales thread eventually etc.

That eBay sale is buy-it-now, so it's £33 delivered.

With the cotton backdrop and the frame I'd be looking at about £30ish delivered. It all goes in a carry case which is pretty tidy. Ive also added another rod to strengthen telescopic horizontal rods
Click to expand...

Could you send me some pics? No rush, whenever youve got spare time.
Thanks
 
jamesoliverstone said:
To be honest, if you are just starting out, you need to learn the basics and practise as much as you can. Once you have an understanding of how to use light, you will know what kit you will need to further your skill.

Start simple and get yourself some cheap chinese hot shoe flashes and a couple of umbrellas and a soft box, plus cheap rf602 radio triggers.

With these you can do most light setups, high key and low key stuff and really get to grips with shooting in full manual off camera.

With those skills honed, then start to look at spending more money, you won't lose much on second hand flashes, and to be honest, there is no harm in keeping them for rim or fill lights where needed.

Money in expensive kit at this stage is a waste. Go on lighting course and understand how to use basic kit first.

You will surprise yourself what a pair of £50 flashes and £40 worth of triggers and umbrellas can do.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advise, I'm going on a course in march, until then I will keep practicing as I know I've got loads to learn and am an eager beaver lol.
 
What James said.

If I could only give one piece of advice to somebody starting out with studio lighting it would be "don't use a white background".
 
JonathanRyan said:
What James said.

If I could only give one piece of advice to somebody starting out with studio lighting it would be "don't use a white background".
Click to expand...

Hi Jonathan, does this apply to black backgrounds and other plain backgrounds?
 
Mmarques said:
Hi Jonathan, does this apply to black backgrounds and other plain backgrounds?
Click to expand...

Not really.

This is probably worthy of another thread but it's something I've been thinking for a while. Lots and lots of beginners want to shoot white b/g. This means generally that they buy more lights than they absolutely need (decent white is hard with two lights, and very very hard with 1) so the light companies are happy. But it also means economising on lights. 3 cheap lights are more expensive than one good one - so they buy lots of poor kit.

Even more importantly, people seem to fixate on the pure white background to the detriment of the subject. So you get hideous amounts of wrap and edge degradation. You also get little thought for subject lighting. It's more a case of "hurl enough light to make the b/g white and the subject will be fine".

Plus there's all the paraphernalia - you can shoot perfectly good portraits against a wall. And they don't need background support systems to hold them up. But most people don't have white walls so they buy flimsy stands to hold wrinkled white sheets against them. Or "invest" in a hilite which makes their subject lighting even trickier.

Lots of reasons really.... :)
 
JonathanRyan said:
Not really.

This is probably worthy of another thread but it's something I've been thinking for a while. Lots and lots of beginners want to shoot white b/g. This means generally that they buy more lights than they absolutely need (decent white is hard with two lights, and very very hard with 1) so the light companies are happy. But it also means economising on lights. 3 cheap lights are more expensive than one good one - so they buy lots of poor kit.

Even more importantly, people seem to fixate on the pure white background to the detriment of the subject. So you get hideous amounts of wrap and edge degradation. You also get little thought for subject lighting. It's more a case of "hurl enough light to make the b/g white and the subject will be fine".

Plus there's all the paraphernalia - you can shoot perfectly good portraits against a wall. And they don't need background support systems to hold them up. But most people don't have white walls so they buy flimsy stands to hold wrinkled white sheets against them. Or "invest" in a hilite which makes their subject lighting even trickier.

Lots of reasons really.... :)
Click to expand...
:plusone:
I'm always saying much the same myself, and when people ring me up for advice I always ask people why they actually want to produce white background shots (or 'High Key" as so many people like to call it):)

Good lighting is about creating controlled shadows, and controlling the light in general. chavgrounds beautiful white backgrounds are about producing light, airy images with no background (or at least they are if people do them in a space that isn't big enough for the job, which is most spaces smaller than a large studio).

If people want to produce white backgrounds because they personally like the results, or if their customers like them and they're making money from them, then fair enough - but the overwhelming reason that people give me for wanting them is that they think they look 'professional'. Well, some of the very best fashion and portrait photographers in the world never use any kind of studio background, let alone a white one!

People who have rung me up about this will confirm that I advise them to buy enough lighting to light the subject and to concentrate on learning to do that really well, and if they later decide that they still want to light white backgrounds, to buy more lights at that point, not now.
 
Totally agree with the Garry and Jonathan and I've only been playing with
lighting a few months.

I previously spend so much time making sure the background litghting was
correctly getting me that 'professional white' that I wasnt concentrating
on lighting the subject...... it soon became apparent that in getting the
background white I was bouncing far too much light into the room and
washing over the subject.

The best thing I bought was the lastolite hilite. It has let me concentrate
so much more on the subject.

Its so easy to set up and you hardly get any light spill on the subject so
once I know the power settings of the two flashguns lighting it I can use
the lastolite in 1 of 3 ways. I get the lighting just as I want on the
subject using a 140cm octobox and then.....

1) Shoot against the lit hilite with white background.
2) Shoot against the white hilite with flashes off to give me a clean grey
background.
3) Shoot against the rear of the hilite with flashes off to give a black
background.

Another good move I had was purchasing a Lencarta smartflash from Garry
instead of using a flashgun for the keylight, great bit of kit which
delivers more power, cuts down on recyling time and the biggest advantage
to me is the model lamp which makes nailing the subject light so much
easier.
 
After reading all your advice it's scared me off lol, I think I'm going to take the advice and I will go to this photography course I'm booked on first before doing anything with lighting equipment.
Really appreciate your time and advice.
thanks!!!
 
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