very amateur questions

dgillespie

dgillespie

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daryl
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hello....ill begin with a short description of what i want to do.

On site portrait photography using lastolite hi-lite background/train with as little lighting as possible ie lowest cost but good quality (if such a thing)

I know it sounds ridiculous but as i am just starting i am limited funds..limited knowledge and limited...everything.

i have read up many different options and thought and noted many different makes/models of heads,softboxes and brollies.

any help at all would be great
thanks
Daryl
 
Is this for a professional venture or Amateur?
 
You will need two guns for the HiLite, and one with a softbox/brolly for the main light.

Could be hot-shoe guns or studio lights, or a combination of both. Depends on what you want to do, how you want to do it, and your budget.
 
amateur venture...as i am stil an amateur with little to no training

so still unsure on which type of lighting.i think a 3 head but i dont want to spend unnecessary money as i am very kindly being given the cash to buy a kit
 
These questions drive me nuts. EVERYBODY wants the best kit they can get for the least amount of money but unfortunately it doesn't work like that as the two are entirely proportional to one another.

So, asking what is the best kit I can get for the least money is pretty pointless. You need to have either a minimum kit requirement or a maximum price and then people will be able to tell you what the minimum cost you can get the set up you want for, or, what gear you can get for your budget.

You could do portraits with a white bed sheet, some cheapy wireless triggers and a couple of crappy flash heads off ebay... and then there's the other end of the scale. You need to decide what it is you're trying to achieve first.
 
1. It would be good to know what your exact budget is

2. We need to know how flexible you want to be, i.e would you need all the kit to be easily transportable, are you doing a lot of location work, or more studio based. Are light modifiers going to be high up your priority list of things to work with?

That info should help people give you more accurate advice.

Back to your original question though, depending on the size of your bg, you could get away with one flash head, however for the bigger size you would need 2 for even lighting.

when starting lighting a subject, its often best to start with one light and a simple reflector, no need to overcomplicated things because you can get great results without using 2-3 heads. 2-3 heads will probably confuse you to begin with.
 
youtube is your friend here, check around youtube and they'll have tutorials and reviews on both types of hotshoe guns and studio lights.

in my opinion studio lights give the power but take alot of electricity whereas hotshoe guns will eat up AA batteries but are convenients and portable, not to mention that if a studio light was put into a bag the space used could probably house around 10 hotshoe flashes.
 
jontucker said:
These questions drive me nuts. EVERYBODY wants the best kit they can get for the least amount of money but unfortunately it doesn't work like that as the two are entirely proportional to one another.

So, asking what is the best kit I can get for the least money is pretty pointless. You need to have either a minimum kit requirement or a maximum price and then people will be able to tell you what the minimum cost you can get the set up you want for, or, what gear you can get for your budget.
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i agree it is pointless from one side of view...but with not a lot of money not a lot of training and not a great idea of what is required i dont think its an unreasonable question.
if i knew my requirements id ask that specifically but aswell as asking about the financial side of it i have been also enquiring about the technical side,maybe you are of the opinion that if i dont know i shouldnt be here but if i dont ask i will never know.
anyways,,,
my budget is around £400 for lighting.i am 99.9% on buying the hi-lite as it seems the best option for me.

rob_aston: yes im looking for it to be portable, i will be using mains electricity so powerpaks and such are not needed.
the size of the hilite i am looking to go for is the 6x7 as i am looking to do small group shots.

i hope this gives you a better idea...sorry for the vagueness in previous posts but ive read and read and read so many different posts from so many different people i seem to be back to the same point all the time....STUCK
 
dgillespie said:
i agree it is pointless from one side of view...but with not a lot of money not a lot of training and not a great idea of what is required i dont think its an unreasonable question.
if i knew my requirements id ask that specifically but aswell as asking about the financial side of it i have been also enquiring about the technical side,maybe you are of the opinion that if i dont know i shouldnt be here but if i dont ask i will never know.
anyways,,,
my budget is around £400 for lighting.i am 99.9% on buying the hi-lite as it seems the best option for me.
Click to expand...

On the contrary, this is exactly the place you should be but you do need to think about what you're asking.

Go on a car forum and ask: "I haven't got much money, whats the best car I can get?" and see if you get any sense out of anyone. You (or rather, we) need to know what you want to achieve and how much you have to spend. The answer may be that you can't achieve it for the money you have and you have to set your sights lower.

I don't mean to have a go at you but I see these threads ALL the time and today I'm ill and grumpy!

Anyway, I don't have any experience of the Hi-Lite boxes but I gather they give good high key shots relatively easily and in a compact set up so that probably is the best way to go. I would also agree that the Lencarta kit would be a good place to start.
 
jontucker said:
On the contrary, this is exactly the place you should be but you do need to think about what you're asking.

Go on a car forum and ask: "I haven't got much money, whats the best car I can get?" and see if you get any sense out of anyone. You (or rather, we) need to know what you want to achieve and how much you have to spend. The answer may be that you can't achieve it for the money you have and you have to set your sights lower.

I don't mean to have a go at you but I see these threads ALL the time and today I'm ill and grumpy!

Anyway, I don't have any experience of the Hi-Lite boxes but I gather they give good high key shots relatively easily and in a compact set up so that probably is the best way to go. I would also agree that the Lencarta kit would be a good place to start.
Click to expand...

i understand... there are so many of the same questions...thats why i read a lot of previous topics before and was no further forward.
Cars i know about so i wouldnt ask that :) but lighting...its very new to me and very confusing as the opinions are so varied but thanks for the opinion.
I think the lencarta 3 head kit is the way to go for me..i have looked all around and read reviews and it seems to be a good base start with price and quality very reasonable.
thanks
 
dgillespie said:
i understand... there are so many of the same questions...thats why i read a lot of previous topics before and was no further forward.
Cars i know about so i wouldnt ask that :) but lighting...its very new to me and very confusing as the opinions are so varied but thanks for the opinion.
I think the lencarta 3 head kit is the way to go for me..i have looked all around and read reviews and it seems to be a good base start with price and quality very reasonable.
thanks
Click to expand...
The Lencarta SmartFlash 200 3 head kit that Rob linked to is ideal for your needs, and at the current price doesn't have any serious competition.

There's a VERY sharp learning curve involved with studio photography, everyone seems to have a different opinion on what consitutes a well lit shot and nobody is either completely right or completely wrong, because different people have different needs. The only thing you can really do is to bite the bullet, experiment and learn.

Rob is right when he says that you should use just one head and a reflector initially, it's much easier to learn lighting with just a single head - but it makes financial sense to buy the kit because when you buy the 3 head kit you basically pay for the heads and get the stands, softboxes, 5 in 1 reflector and radio trigger set for next to nothing.
 
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