welshnoob i only liked that set up for the two softboxes and the background stand its the main reason i wanted it to eliminate any other background. I've looked at huge set ups but they are all so expensive and i work a crappy job for £3 an hour! haha i have done loads of reasearch on reflectors and found some decent ones so thanks for that pointers. I feel abit out of my depth with flashes ive watched videos and read about them i just find them so confusing!
Let's see if we can help to distill what you really need then:
two softboxes?
How many lights are lighting a subject you shoot outside in daylight? That's why (in the lighting and studio section) we advise starting with one light and learning all you can do with it.
background stand its the main reason i wanted it to eliminate any other background?
The background stands will come in handy, but how many great baby shots are on a black white or green background? A big soft sheet, spring loaded clips and a couple of sweeping brushes leant against a wall will give an appropriate seamless background for free(ish).
work a crappy job for £3 an hour!
Then not wasting your money on stuff you don't need, or is crap, is more important to you.
I feel abit out of my depth with flashes ive watched videos and read about them i just find them so confusing!
Light in photography is the big key, light creates shadows, shadows create form. Here's 3 principals that you need to grasp that help you work out your own solutions:
1. The (apparently) larger a light source the softer the light, the further away the source the smaller it appears*
2. Light travels in straight lines and therefore the ingle of reflectance is equal to the angle of incidence**. In laymans terms it bounces off surfaces same as a pool ball.
3. As light travels it's intensity is subject to the inverse square law, if you double the distance between light and subject, you need four times the power for the same amount of light.***
* a couple of thoughts from this; the sun is massive but on a clear day it's a point light source because it's so far away. On an overcast day the cloud cover creates one giant softbox, beautiful shadowless lighting for shooting babies or your mum, rubbish for architecture (no shadows means no wrinkles, or architectural dimension).
** from your physics lessons about 6 years ago
***luckily for you, you're shooting a small subject lit from fairly close, so you don't need lots of power
All of that stuff is discussed in the lighting section on a regular basis, I might have mentioned it before.
IMO you need to think the lines of how much can I afford to spend and not skimp on the money??? If too little money give that step in your plans a delay until you can afford the best you can get for the money.
