What do i need and What do i bin?

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CraigF

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Few questions folks if you dont mind.
I suffer from a complication in my right shoulder and its taken a severe turn for the worse in the past few weeks.

Im now going to have to face facts that humphing a big Rugsack around full of kit is a no no.

My plan now is just to stick to Portrait Photography and possibly leading to doing this for extra cash in the future.

I will list my kit i have and hopefully some of you can advise me on what to keep and what to sell to raise funds for other equipment.

Canon 40D.
Slik Pro 700 DX Tripod and Head.
Canon 50mm f1.8 mk11
Sigma 10 -20mm
Sigma 24-70 EX DG Macro
Sigma 105mm EX Macro
Canon 55 - 250mm IS
Canon 430 EX.
5 In 1 Reflector (Large version)
A big Massive Proline Rucksack (Built like a tank)

My plan for the short term rather than give up photography is to keep it nice portable.
What line would you go down equipment wise if you were just going to be doing portraits and such?
 
Keep:

40D
Tripod
50mm f/1.8
Sigma 24-70
430ex
reflector

Sell the rest...
 
And buy what?
And would a 50mm f1.4 be better than the f1.8 for portraits or is there another gem out there i should look at?
 
I would keep the 40D body, 24-70 and the 105 macro, plus reflector, tripod and flash.

Some head/shoulder portraits look better shot with a longer than 105mm lens, so the macro would do that as well as any close up work.

When I was a wedding and portrait photographer, I did get a few jobs photographing accident damage and scar tissue for insurance claims, would have been difficult without a good macro lens.
 
CraigF said:
And buy what?
And would a 50mm f1.4 be better than the f1.8 for portraits or is there another gem out there i should look at?
Click to expand...

Not really, although I personally wouldn't use a 50mm for standard portraits, maybe half body shots (even with the 1.6x factor). the longer the lens, the better the perspective although you do need to keep a reasonable working distance to enable you to fit the subject in the frame and also communicate adequately. With 35mm ratios, 105 is the shortest telephoto I would have used for a head and shoulders and 135-150 would have been more common.

What sort of portaiture are you thinking of doing? Why do you need to be portable?

If you are planning on doing candid portraits then I would keep the 55-250 over the 24-70, if not I would sell the rest and buy a couple of used studio flash units and be less portable, and more saleable.
 
A the start just stuff with my 3 kids until i am happy with the standard.
Portability was more in reference to not having too many lenses to cart about. Studio lights wouldnt be an issue as thats a case of put them in the car, drive to destination so i wont have to hump them around everywhere.

Here was my thinking, you can let me know if im on the right track.

Canon 40D
Sigma 24-70 mm
Canon 135mm Soft Focus ???
3 Head Light Setup, seen a set that many rave about for £350 ish.
430 EX (not sure if you use that in combination with the studio lights) or sell that and buy a 530 EX 11.
Backdrop (again i havent a clue about these)

Do i appear to be on the correct line of thinking?
 
in terms of budget can you consider stretching to the likes of full frame or 1.3X crop cameras if you sell some of your other kit? Might be worth considering?
 
Let me know how much you want for the Sigma 10-20mm - very interested! ;)
 
CraigF said:
A the start just stuff with my 3 kids until i am happy with the standard.
Portability was more in reference to not having too many lenses to cart about. Studio lights wouldnt be an issue as thats a case of put them in the car, drive to destination so i wont have to hump them around everywhere.

Here was my thinking, you can let me know if im on the right track.

Canon 40D
Sigma 24-70 mm
Canon 135mm Soft Focus ???
3 Head Light Setup, seen a set that many rave about for £350 ish.
430 EX (not sure if you use that in combination with the studio lights) or sell that and buy a 530 EX 11.
Backdrop (again i havent a clue about these)

Do i appear to be on the correct line of thinking?
Click to expand...

Okay, so I am taking it that you would like to go into home studio type portraiture. If so the 135mm will be too long as it equates to a 210mm on the D40. I would look at a zoom range of say 50ish to about 100ish giving you a range of 80 to 160. or keep your 50mm, buy an 80-85mm and keep your 100mm macro. Or just keep your 24-70 and 100 macro although you would get better results with larger aperture primes.

The Canon flashes are great for portability and candids, but are not a lot of use in a studio situation in conjunction with studio flash lighting (except for perhaps as a small fill light or hairlight (assuming you can set them to manual and get them to flash off camera).

As for backgrounds, I would start with a couple of the 6x4s from lastolite, I would get a couple of the darker colours (you can always add light to lighten them, easier to add light than take it away) say a brown and grey sky effect. Portable, Look good as long as you have a bit of space between the b/g and the model and not too expensive.

i have bought some non foldable backgrounds from the states on ebay, and they were very good and very cheap in comparison to prices here, but they are large and need a lot more in the way room, stands and framework to look correct.
 
craig, i would say the best thing to do is start taking pics with what you have got and see what you dont use.

i think the 10-20 is a little small for portraits, but if you have a large group shot might be the only way to get it, home portraiture in your living room will normally put you on the 24-70 range, i would keep the 50mm just because it is so cheap and excellent image quality. the 55-250 would be good for candids from a distance.

have you thought bout getting a couple of smaller bags and splitting your kit depending on what your doing?? if oyu had a small rucksack as opposed to the big one(or a slingshot, which only has one strap taking the weight off one shoulder) with less weight you may still be able to do the trips out.

if you have to get rid of some, then i would suggest the 55-250 and the 10-20.
 
i just noticed your trade thread, i would suggest a flash as opposed to continous, they are a lot better:thumbs:
 
Fletch you have now got me thinking,....
Would i possibly be better going down this road and how would i achieve it.?

Bin all my gear and buy

Nikon D200 (my thinking here is that Nikons CLS would save a fortune on triggers if i go the flash road)
SB800 and 2 or 3 SB600 or SB28's

Main question on this though is can flashes be used to great effect with soft boxes or is that a no no?
 
Strobist kit would certainly be easier to lug about than studio lights, but you don't need to use CLS if you go Nikon, or even if you stay with Canon,you can simply use the strobes in manual mode and trigger them with a set of Ebay triggers.

You can use soft boxes, umbrellas, beauty dishes etc with strobes like the SB-800/600 quite easily.

Kit wise the 10-20 isn't much use for portraits (and it's sale would pay for a couple of SB-600s), but the 50, 24-70 and 105 are useable. I'd bin the 430ex too as they have problems communicating with the Ebay triggers if you choose to go down that route.

If you do want to change to Nikon then try and get ahold of a D70/s or a D40 (not the X version) as they can, with a bit of jiggerypokery be made to flash sync all the way up to max shutter speed (1/8000 in the D70's case) as opposed to 1/250 with the likes of the D200 or your Canon

Oh and if it's continious studio type lights you want then a couple of 500w work lights from B&Q can be pressed into service quite effectively ;)
 
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