Studio gear but not in a studio

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pabotto

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Phil
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Morning all,
I hired a studio at £30 an hour for my sister in laws birthday she wanted some shots done of her and her boyfriend, it was my first time in a studio and as such was a learning experience and one of the softboxes in there seemed to be randomly going off which was annoying on a lot of the shots.
So to gain more practice I was toying with the idea of hiring a studio a few more times then thought, why not just by some cheap stuff off eBay and set it up at home, I can have unlimited practice and there will be no issue with being against the clock.
Here's what I was looking at getting (I am on a small budget, I am married!):

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Photo-Studio-...graphy_StudioEquipment_RL?hash=item3ca76336fc
with
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1000W-PhotoSt...graphy_StudioEquipment_RL?hash=item3a54b9d844

You can see some of the shots I took originally at the studio with the stupid dodgy light( http://www.philbottophotography.co.uk/gallery_282953.html ), I can't rely on photoshop to tweak it much as I can't use it very well so getting the shot right first time is important, any advice will be gratefully received!

Thank you!
Phil
 
I'd certainly recommend getting the kit to practice at home but I wouldn't go for continuous lighting. Its more use as a source of heat than light ;)
I'd look for some decent studio flash heads and many people on here use Lencarta.
 
That set of lights are continuious and not really suitable if wanting to do portrait type work
Too slow already had same reply
 
im so glad you told me, i hadn't even noticed! any recommendations for cheap flash softboxes online or ebay?
 
Have a look at Lencarta www.lencarta.com - depends on your budget - but maybe just buy one light to start off - two if you can afford it - and work up from there - you can do an awful lot with just one light and a brolly or SB.
 
Contact Flash In The Pan, you can see the stuff he sells here. I just purchased some bits from him including a softbox and it's very good quality.
 
lol you should tell that to Jerry Ghionis then Jim!

One of the world's best photographers and he uses continuous lighting a lot. In fact he took most of these using a continuous LED light panel http://www.jerryghionisblog.com/?module=blog&page=35&category=25

You can use continuous lighting to very good effect but you need to be aware of it's limitations. Flash IS widely acknowledged as being more versatile and has a much wider range of lighting modifiers that you can use for different effects. The other HUGE limitation of some continuous lighting setups is that they are either off or on. With no adjustment on power you can easily find yourself in a cramped area where they are just too strong and there is no way of turning them down.

You can use any kind of lighting you want from studio flash to speedlights, continuous to video light, torchlight, window light lamplight. It's down to you.

For the traditional portrait either flash or continuous will do the job but do bear in mind the limitations that come with continuous.
 
The cause of the flashes firing randomly could be poor quality flash units, poor electrical connections, flickering fluorescent room lighting etc. These things tend to happen in some hire studios.

I'll join the chorus - don't get continuous lights, get flash.

There are a few short tutorials on the Lencarta website that may help you to understand what you need and why - if you have specific questions they are probably best asked in the Lighting Forum
 
thank you all for your help, will look on lencarta, well excited about getting going!
 
Can anyone explain why those types of light (the one mentioned in the original eBay link) is not suitable? I've been browsing a few YouTube tutorials and they suggest using them (on a budget of course).
 
BouncyMelons said:
You can use continuous lighting to very good effect but you need to be aware of it's limitations. Flash IS widely acknowledged as being more versatile and has a much wider range of lighting modifiers that you can use for different effects. The other HUGE limitation of some continuous lighting setups is that they are either off or on. With no adjustment on power you can easily find yourself in a cramped area where they are just too strong and there is no way of turning them down.
Click to expand...

Already had Nicky ;)

Plus you are very limited in what you can do with them, flash heads take a lot of different modifiers for creating different effects. With these kind of kits you are very limited to what you can do and you'd probably get frustrated with it very quickly. There are about three lighting setups you can do with these (left, right and from above) and that gets boring very quickly :D
 
nickyc said:
Can anyone explain why those types of light (the one mentioned in the original eBay link) is not suitable? I've been browsing a few YouTube tutorials and they suggest using them (on a budget of course).
Click to expand...

as stated above . . .

* main problems are the heat they produce - not good working close to models
* relatively low light output - so you'd be working with low shutter speeds - not good with lively models and may restrict you if you have to use a tripod
* lack of modifiers - basically they just throw uncontrolled light at the subject
* colour temperature - is lower than using flash - won't balance with ambient light without filters - which are not easy to fit to these - gaffer tape is the only way
* non-dimable - so you only have tyhe one output - or use ND filters over the lights

go for flash everytime!
 
Hi Phil,

I bought a similar stand with backgrounds on eBay a few months back. Its a great setup, nice and light and easy to assemble. One thing to note though is that if you buy the extra backdrops, the black and white ones work fine but I have found that the blue and green backgrounds seem to absorb allot more light (around 2-3 stops more than the b/w). This can give some odd results when you correctly expose the subject and even when you go for w high key shot. I purchased a blue and green backdrop from another store and they work fine.

robbino
Contact Flash In The Pan, you can see the stuff he sells here. I just purchased some bits from him including a softbox and it's very good quality..
Click to expand...

I have similar softbox's to these, they are brilliant. Being able to fire flash or fix a continues setup within gives you loads of scope to play about.

Rgds,
Dave
 
Phil, sorry to hijack your thread but I bumped into this while searching also for some studio kit. I have flash guns and stands but now I am looking for a backdrop. Can anyone recommend also something I can use? Ideally I need something I can take to locations for portraits etc, so if I can pack it up with me and take it is really ideal. I recently took a few portraits of a friend and got some nice shots but then noticed that a cluttering background just ruined it all. I just saw something like this http://www.karlu.com/hilite-18m-215m-6x7-p-9619.html and it appealed to me because of the possibility of illuminating the background, being collapsible etc. Any thoughts anyone please? Or can someone give any suggestions or point me to the right direction?
Thank you
 
zulupentax said:
Phil, sorry to hijack your thread but I bumped into this while searching also for some studio kit. I have flash guns and stands but now I am looking for a backdrop. Can anyone recommend also something I can use? Ideally I need something I can take to locations for portraits etc, so if I can pack it up with me and take it is really ideal. I recently took a few portraits of a friend and got some nice shots but then noticed that a cluttering background just ruined it all. I just saw something like this http://www.karlu.com/hilite-18m-215m-6x7-p-9619.html and it appealed to me because of the possibility of illuminating the background, being collapsible etc. Any thoughts anyone please? Or can someone give any suggestions or point me to the right direction?
Thank you
Click to expand...

You could look at something like this or something like this. I have a blue version of the second one, 5'x 7' and it works well to have in the car and very light to carry.

Rgds,
Dave
 
Was looking at this and seems very versatile particularly if I had 2 or more people for portraits, wanting to change backgrounds, was thinking of white and a black one to begin with, etc. Anyone has used this or thoughts about this please? Price seems pretty reasonably. I was looking to order one of the background lights also
 
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