Studio in conservatory, what light power?

[coldpenguin]

I am thinking of getting some proper backgrounds (3x3m grey stand up, possibly also a white+train), and another light unit, to try and make a small studio area in a spare room. The dimensions of the room will be 3m wide, and 4 metres long (shooting length). So not ideal. This will be for personal use only though.

However, the conservatory is long(er) (6m) but thinner (2.5m?). Is it worthwhille considering a light source which could be moved to there I am wondering?

I am thinking that speedlights might be most usable to me, as I can taken them to other houses for the odd family occasion, but am also thinking that a single good mains light might be more effective.
I currently have a Canon 580 EX II, and a Yongnuo 460 EXII, both slaved off of a Canon 7d (YN is manual mode only).

I have a small (30cm) reflector, which I am thinking I should get a bigger one of (110 circular look reasonable costs at ~£10) as it requires 'accurate' placing to give any effect.

So what sort of light power should I be looking at if I am to get a softbox with a 'studio light' in order to make any effect in the conservatory? Unfortunately the most likely shooting scenario would be for the model to be facing into the direction the sun will come from, although it shouldn't be direct light to cause them to squint I don't think..

 

[meonshore]

In a 3m wide conservatory/room studio I'd say you'll be fine on 250-300W lights as a maximum. You could easily get away with 200w lights especially if you don't need to shoot at f/22 ;-)

Ideally you'll want the largest soft box you can logistically fit into the space to give you soft light, otherwise you might as well use the speed lights.

The only reason to go higher than this would be if you need to over-power the sun but I'd think you'll be fine if you are shooting against a backdrop, or if you expect to need to light large groups in a large area with the same setup.