studio lights or speedlights for childrens portraits?

dubcat

dubcat

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Amir
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Hi - i had some studio shots taken of my twins (high key) and the prints are costing me a fortune. I would like to take my own pictures of my kids and once my ability to compose and take pictures is good enough I would like to take pictures of other peoples kids (to help fund my hobby).

I was wondering whether I should be able to achieve good results with speedlights (already have two speedlights and so would only need to buy radio triggers, backdrop, lightstands and reflectors/umbrellas) or whether i should invest in studio lighting (e.g. lencarta or elemental)?

FYI I would like to take pics of the kids against a white background and floor - is this even possible with speedlights? How many studio lights would i need?

Would appreciate guidance - have no real idea what speedlights can really do as i have only used one flash on camera so far.

Dubcat.
 
I would advise studio heads as long as you are working in a backdrop (ie inside enviroment) - easier to modify the light, cheaper heads (or similar price anyway), and a slight nicer quality of light due to the colour consistency of heads.

Standard for white seamless is 3 heads, 2 on background, one on the subject... might be able to get away with 2 if only shooting small kids though, but to quote zack arias, 'the less lights or space you have, the more bad words will be coming out your mouth' :)
 
Both methods are usable but studio lights will make your life much easier.
There's a degree to which it just isn't worthwhile to make do and mend, with the wrong king of tools because of the extra time it takes, the extra retouching time needed and the higher level of skill needed in the first place.

I agree with Dave, it's 2 lights minimum for a white background (most of the time) and one on the foreground. Please see the tutorials/videos in the Lencarta Learning Centre
 
itsdavedotnet said:
I would advise studio heads as long as you are working in a backdrop (ie inside enviroment) - easier to modify the light, cheaper heads (or similar price anyway), and a slight nicer quality of light due to the colour consistency of heads.

Standard for white seamless is 3 heads, 2 on background, one on the subject... might be able to get away with 2 if only shooting small kids though, but to quote zack arias, 'the less lights or space you have, the more bad words will be coming out your mouth' :)
Click to expand...

I agree with this, for £500 you should be able to get a decent enough setup including backdrop and stand, I spent £650 on mine but they weren't the cheapest lights.

I was getting away with two lights though with a bit of PP work in PS, but now I've recently bought a third it does make life a lot easier.
 
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