Lighting Starter Kit

[carwynlloyd]

Hello, just registered here.

Apologies if this has already been covered, but i had a quick search and couldn't find anything.

I'm looking for advice for a lighting starter kit. I'm looking to buy some starter studio lighting, basically at work we want to do some more product/still life photography in the office, and even though i have been an amateur photographer for years now i know nothing of lighting.

Iv'e seen you can buy kits such as:

http://www.jessops.com/online.store/products/74368/show.html

but is this really the right way to go around it?

Any help will be appreciated, i'm working to a budget of around £1000

Thanks!

 

[kevshore]

I went for a Lencarta kit. It was the smartflash 200 and its brilliant for the money.
Here you go:

http://www.lencarta.com/smartflash-mains-powered-flash/fla0018-smartflash-3-head-softbox/umbrella-kit-with-background/index.php


More than enough power for what you need.

Kev.

 

[carwynlloyd]

Thanks for that! i will look at that now

 

[HoppyUK]

You can do a lot for £1k Leading brands are Bowens, Lencarta and Elinchrom and TBH they all do much the same thing. Start with a two head kit for £400-£600 or so, then add a nice big softbox, reflector, third head, background system, flash meter etc.

Some brands only sell direct, eg Lencata so to avoid buying blind, go to the Focus show at the NEC March 7-10. V good show. Lencarta will be there, on a third party stand I believe. But you won't go wrong with any of those makes.

 

[davetucker]

I went for a Lencarta kit. It was the smartflash 200 and its brilliant for the money.
Here you go:

http://www.lencarta.com/smartflash-mains-powered-flash/fla0018-smartflash-3-head-softbox/umbrella-kit-with-background/index.php


More than enough power for what you need.

Kev.

Hi
Welcome to the forum, 2nd vote for Lencarta, I own 2 sets of the Smartflash 200, I find Lencartas products and service exceptional.

Dave

 

[carwynlloyd]

Hi, many thanks for the welcome and the recommendations .

I will be going to Focus Show in the NEC!

 

[markw08]

I will be going to Focus Show in the NEC!

Best place to go and have a play with the many different makes...

You want lights at least 400w+ and 3 of them.

Im sure there will be plenty of deals at the show.

 

[Triggaaar]

You want lights at least 400w+ and 3 of them.

The cheaper Lencarta SmartFlash's are 200Ws, and the more expensive ElitePro's are 300Ws (although you can get 600Ws). Why do you feel they need to be at least 400Ws?

 

[Kris]

Check out the new Elinchrom D-lite IT at focus.

 

[HoppyUK]

The cheaper Lencarta SmartFlash's are 200Ws, and the more expensive ElitePro's are 300Ws (although you can get 600Ws). Why do you feel they need to be at least 400Ws?

I think that's a good point about power. It depends.

When I was shooting film at ISO50 I hardly ever had enough power, but now I have a couple of Elincrom D-Lite with 200ws and they are hardly ever used flat out. I don't need or want more power.

The difference is that ISO. I would happily use ISO400 on my 40D, and now I have a 5D2 I can increase that to ISO800 very easily for zero IQ penalty.

So with digital, a three or four stops increase in ISO over film equates to a power increase from 200ws to 1600-3200ws Massive difference.

The other thing is I tend to shoot regular small scale portrait and table-top stuff, at fairly close range and medium f/numbers. It would be very different if I was shooting cars or something, needing to a fill a large area at distance, and at high f/numbers. That needs serious power. And if you want to shoot outside in bright sun, ISO won't help at all and you really need every drop of power you can get.