Studio Lighting

[InaGlo]

I was told recently by Matt that he uses a Bowens Esprit DX 250 light for his work and he suggested that the same would be fine for my hands pics.
Would this also be ok for portraits (Matt?) or would I need to move up to a 500 watt?
Also do you think I will get away with one & softbox for a while, or will I not be able to do without a pair!
Ill be working in a 10'x12' room.

 

[Arkady]

You only really need one softbox for portraits - all of your other lights should be for fill only and brollies are fine for that. Depending on the look you're after, you don't even need a softbox at all - they're a fairly recent (30 years-ish) introduction to the studio arsenal... Look at the portraits by some of the greats - Avedon, Karsh etc - look in the eyes for the highlights, you can tell a lot about types of lighting and positioning from the catchlights in the sitters' eyes.
Also the output of these heads depends on the distance to the subject - in a reasonable-sized room the 250's will be more than enough. I have the 500's and they're seldom on more than 1/3 output for the main light.

 

[dazzajl]

I have the 500's and they're seldom on more than 1/3 output for the main light.

Yup, I shoot with 800 heads which is great for when you need to extend DoF for table top product stuff as I can shoot at around f18/22 on 100 ISO but that's no real use for portraits at all.

On the other hand (I'd like to say that was unintentional.... ) you will need to get the camera in pretty close I guess and that might push your aperture requirements beyond the 250's.

It all depends on how much DoF you need and how high you are prepared to go in terms of ISO as to how much light you'll need.