Home Photography Studio Kit - What would I need?

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Snakedance

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Hi,

Hopefully a few here can help :)

My sister would like to put together a home studio for family portraits and is looking at buying a home studio photography kit, but we're at a loss as to exactly what we need. It's going to be used mainly for portrait photography as I said and for taking photos of the young children in the family as they grow up over the years.

I guess we'll need a backdrop, white probably. And also some sort of lighting system, umbrellas, etc, but we don't really know more than that.

So some advice would be greatly appreciated! What exactly would we need and why? What are the basics and what are the extras? Whcih brands are best and which brands should be avoided? And how much would it likely cost in total?

Thanks :)
 
Start with a two-head studio flash kit - two heads, two stands, two brollies/softboxes, reflector, roll of white paper and supports. Could be all you ever need. £400-600 upwards.

Elinchrom, Bowens, Lencarta.

More important is learning how to use it ;)
 
I'd be tempted to go for three heads, with a snoot on the third.

One as main light with softbox, one as hairlight with snoot, one to light the background.

I'd also get a flashmeter - really handy if you want white backgrounds.

Top tip for a white background - measure the background illumination with flashmeter- aim for about f/16 with meter pointed towards flash. Turn meter round to point to the background and walk away from the background taking readings until you hit f/8. Set main light to give f8 as well. Gives perfect white background without too much 'wrap' - this is where the background is so brightly lit that it starts lighting the edge of the subject and reducing contrast.

Hope this helps

Phil
 
Thanks for the advice. It's a nice bit of info for my sister and I to investigate further :)
 
This is quite a big subject - it isn't complicated but there are a lot of different things that you need to think about.

You mention white backgrounds. Well, if you want a white background then you have a choice of either a 'normal' background or one of the Hi-Lite backgrounds. The Hi-Lites are expensive and aren't perfect, but they need a lot less space than a normal background, so which you go for is really affected by how much space you have available.

If you want a white background the background becomes a separate subject, so you will be lighting both the front subject and the background, which means that you need more lighting and will need 2 lights just for the background.

Lighting on the front subject? 1 light and a reflector is a good starting point but you may end up wanting more than that.

Makes to go for? Any that are well established with a reputation for quality and customer service.

Makes to avoid? Any that are sold only on Ebay, any that are just re-badged cheap products - not difficult to spot, you'll see exactly the same item sold by different firms under different names.

More info on what you might need? There's a lot of info on the web, some of it is good and some of it is total rubbish. You'll find some useful info in the Lencarta learning Centre Unfortunately, due to some website problems, some of the links don't work. I'm trying to get that put right.
 
I bought a Bowen Gemini 400/400 kit. It's a great starter and I'm still learning a lot from it now a year on. Always been reliable and solid kit.
 
I second Bowens mine too have been really reliable cost me £800 for two flash heads soft box umbrella 2 stands and the wireless trigger it's a good starter kit may purchase another light next month
 
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