Small Home Studio for Baby Portraits - Flash Head Advice

[Superhuman]

Hello,

I was hoping you could shed some 'light' on this query I have. I would like to set up a studio in my apartment for baby photography and general studio portraits. It is a small apartment and the room I will be shooting in is approximately 9 metres squared.

I have been considering purchasing some items to complete a suitable setup. The options I have looked into so far are:

1) Buying an Elinchrom studio kit (the D-Lite RX 4/4 or 2/2)
- Pricey option and I'm not sure I like the softboxes that come with the kit. I already have two light stands, so could be wasting money on the extras.

2) Buying separate items - i.e. a single flash head, a large softbox and a separate studio background stand
- if I went down this route, which flash head would you recommend as being best suited to the type of work I am looking to do???

The kit I currently own is:

• Canon 5D Mk3
• 50mm and 35mm lenses
• 600 ex-rt flash
• Yongnuo wireless trigger
• Rogue flash bender
• Light stands x 2
• 100cm reflector

I have experimented on portraits inside my apartment using the 600 ex flash and the rogue bender but the quality of light is not great, which is why I am keen to upgrade to more powerful flash heads.

Thanks

Superhuman

 

[simonbarker]

1) Buying an Elinchrom studio kit (the D-Lite RX 4/4 or 2/2)
- Pricey option and I'm not sure I like the softboxes that come with the kit. I already have two light stands, so could be wasting money on the extras.

The portalite softboxes are naff, they're perfectly fine if you just need something basic and extremely light but beyond that you'll do better with something else. The stands are good though, well made and have a decent weight/size so they're pretty stable and should last many years under normal use. It's handy to have multiple stands as you may want to place a collapsible reflector somewhere etc.

2) Buying separate items - i.e. a single flash head, a large softbox and a separate studio background stand
- if I went down this route, which flash head would you recommend as being best suited to the type of work I am looking to do???

Any flash head will produce light you can work with but the added cost comes in when you concern yourself with things like consistency, speed, added features but don't let this distract you from understanding that your requirements are fairly basic and most heads will do what you need. A relatively modern head of around 200w should be sufficient, Lencarta SmartFlash 2, D-lite 2s and even a speedlight would work although the studio heads are better suited to actual studio work.

If you really don't need all the extras included with a kit (storage/transport cases, stands, remote, softboxes, umbrellas, reflectors etc) then it makes sense to avoid the kit and buy only what you think you need for the moment but kits do save a bit of money otherwise. I believe Lencarta will let you choose which pieces to buy in your kit and refund the difference from the standard parts. Regardless of if you buy a kit or not, start with only one light to learn as adding in multiple lights increases the complexity greatly for a beginner.

I have experimented on portraits inside my apartment using the 600 ex flash and the rogue bender but the quality of light is not great, which is why I am keen to upgrade to more powerful flash heads.

What was it you didn't like about using the speedlight? Many studio heads will offer more power than you can use in a home environment so using the right power to produce a correct exposure is normally the simplest task (also why you don't want to get the most powerful head you can afford or an especially old head which can't go low).

Instead of power you're supposed to be thinking about achieving the right look, do you want hard or soft light, what kind of style suits the subject and a ton of other questions I assume are important for portraiture. As you've identified you didn't like the look from the speedlight and rogue bender you'd probably do well to get a book like Light science and magic, not perfect for portrait styles but it'll give you an understand of how to use that light to get the look you want.

 

[Superhuman]

Thanks for the comprehensive reply, really appreciate it.

The reason I didn't like the speedlight + flashbender combination is because it produces a relatively harsh light. It isn't as soft as I want for the look on baby portraits, for which I think I will need to go down the soft box route. I have found the speed light to be great for bouncing flash during event photography, but not overly keen on using it inside a studio setting.

One thing I haven't considered is a lightmeter. I assume this is a common gadget for use in studio settings to ensure the exposure is spot on, every shot?

 

[simonbarker]

The reason I didn't like the speedlight + flashbender combination is because it produces a relatively harsh light. It isn't as soft as I want for the look on baby portraits, for which I think I will need to go down the soft box route. I have found the speed light to be great for bouncing flash during event photography, but not overly keen on using it inside a studio setting.

That's what I assumed, the reason it produces a hard light is because relative to your subject it's a small light, if you could magically make it ten times larger (and adjust the power to produce the same exposure) you'd instead have a very soft light. This is why I suggested the book to you, it covers these fundamentals and will help you understand exactly how to achieve the look you're after.

One thing I haven't considered is a lightmeter. I assume this is a common gadget for use in studio settings to ensure the exposure is spot on, every shot?

Yes they're common, a light meter as far as you're concerned is a time saving device. You'll use it to see how much light is hitting your subject where you place it, without one you'd have to take the shot and view it to see if it's correctly exposed. In the long run for very basic work once you understand how the kit works you'll probably know roughly what settings to use without relying on the light meter.