What kit for this situ and where to hire?

shabba

shabba

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Hi folks,

Hoping you can assist, work need a few photos doing - think corporate headsosts against a boring background etc.

Anyway they don't want to pay a pro £400+ for just a few shots of a few members of staff. They know I do a bit of photography so I've been asked to do it, which is fine.

However I only have a 430EX, remote trigger and thats it.....so need some lighting kit. What will I need, a couple of lights and umbrellas/softbox?

I'll be using my Canon 40D and will go with the 50mm Prime.

I was thinking....

http://www.lux-studios.co.uk/StudioLightingHire.html

One of the kits, plus a backdrop and I'd need the triggers too right?

Any advice would be appreciated, on the best equipment to get for this job and where to hire it from (we are central London, W1).

Work are paying, upto £200 for hire kit would be fine.

I don't know much about studio setups as personally I find those types of images very boring.
 
1. Rob at Lux is cool - have a chat with him.

2. I'm always tempted to do corporate shots with one light and fill from a reflector (or TBH a white wall) but I'll bet you could manage it with those kits. Though you could also probably manage with a 480 and brolly. This ain't Vogue :)

3. You don't strictly speaking need the triggers - you could just use the sync lead for a fairly static scenario.

4. You really want a backdrop? You could do something nice with a wall. Like the ones below showing different moods with a simple wall. (Both lit with a single speedlight)

5. It always baffles me why firms will pay £200 to hire kit for somebody who doesn't really want to do it (and apparently has little experience) but not £400 for a proper job. If it can be done on a day when I'm up town anyway and banged out in a couple of hours then we could talk about a good price ;)

D3S_3106.jpg


D3S_3107.jpg
 
To be fair, if they want to spend £200, why not ask them to buy you a cheap studio kit? Means that you can do more than one shoot if they need it, and you get a new toy? It will give you time to practice to get it right, and TBH I can get a good headshot with my gear, which is a couple of cheap flashes and tripods with a simple background, so you should be able to do it with a single flash. Although thumbs up for getting work to shell out!

On the flip side, by the time they have spent £200 on kit hire, and a day of your wages, they may as well have paid a pro for a half days shoot and not lost out on the valuable work that you do on a day to day basis.
 
Ah I really do not mind doing it, and I did some before and they were happy with them - that was just uisng natural light.

Would be £500+ all in, so £100-200 and me doing it is cheaper and an easier option. Thanks for the reply though, appreciated.
 
So why do you think pros charge these rates? They need to have top kit! Bit of a cheek hoping to get advice from pros.
 
I realise that, but being brutally honest we simpy do not need pro quality here. They will not be able to see a difference between my camera and one costing 5 times as much, same story with the lighting. Also I'm already empolyed by them, no extra labour charge.

Im not for 1 moment questioning why a pro charges what they would charge - but for a few shots of a few people a pro does not offer value for money in this situation - I'm sure anyone can see that.

No idea why it is a bit of a cheek, I fix computers for a living - if you have a PC problem I will give you freely advice and not charge you for it....

Good idea on buying some kit - I will loo into this, maybe I can use my flash and 1 additional light - I'd rather have light on both sides. Will be good practice for me and I'll have a mess around with the setup with some of the girls too as they probably wouldn't mind a few personal photos doing while I've got it set up.
 
As an example of what £200 gets you (course, that includes VAT......)

http://www.jessops.com/online.store/products/74367/show.html

Not the best, not as upgradeable due to the fittings the lights use are not as common as others, but for lights, softbox, reflector, stands etc, it is a good start.
Ask on the lighting thread, there have been a few people ask recently, or have a chat with Garry from Lencarta.
 
They will not be able to see a difference between my camera and one costing 5 times as much, same story with the lighting. Also I'm already empolyed by them, no extra labour charge.
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You charging them for rental of your camera?

And the difference here ISN'T the quality of the camera...

On the flip side, by the time they have spent £200 on kit hire, and a day of your wages, they may as well have paid a pro for a half days shoot and not lost out on the valuable work that you do on a day to day basis.
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And the valuable work that the CEO does in the time longer that you will likely take to get the right shots, over those from an experienced professional.


But yeah, one light, an umbrella and a reflector and you'll likely be fine :)
 
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Please folks, leave it - not sure really what you're problems are but I don't appreciate negative comments - keyboard warriors stay at home.

I asked about lighting kits.......that is all I want info on - I appreciate all those who replied regarding the original subject question.
 
If it's just head shots I'd get a small softbox (one of those £35 ebay ones that are decent for modifiying light) and hook it up to the flash either through a sync lead (for TTL) or just one of the triggers you have. That's it.

You'll get basic lighting from that but it'll be good light that you can move around to create some shadow. Whack a reflector into the shadow and you have it softened further. You could even build in some good daylight through a window if you have it.

Find a nice backdrop, something interesting for the light to hit, but something that won't overpower the shot or overpower the subject, and you're done.

If it's a quick job that you want to do with a bit more flair than a straight flash on top of the camera, this is pretty much foolproof. ":)
 
Thank you, most helpful. I think a light would be cool too though, may as well as they are paying :)
 
lawrie29 said:
To be fair, if they want to spend £200, why not ask them to buy you a cheap studio kit?
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An accountant would start sucking air through their teeth and talk about revenue vs capital expenditure. But TBH £200 should come out of petty cash.

awp said:
So why do you think pros charge these rates? They need to have top kit!
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Part of the answer is in my response above. If I was passing the door and could nip in and shoot it then costs would be very reasonable. If I have to block time out of the diary, travel to place, set up, wait for people etc etc then costs rocket.

As for kit - nah. G9 + flash + trigger + brolly + stand would sort this. I got slightly vexed the other week retouching 31 MP files from the 'blad to find out they were for web use. Mind you - they paid me 'blad money so I can't really complain :)

And yeah - read that post on Strobist on the magic corner. Very easy way to get a basic quality job done. I reckon if you rent one of those kits and get 10 mins to practise (there's always somebody in an office who will want a skive) then you'll have no worries.
 
shabba said:
Please folks, leave it - not sure really what you're problems are but I don't appreciate negative comments - keyboard warriors stay at home.

I asked about lighting kits.......that is all I want info on - I appreciate all those who replied regarding the original subject question.
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I can perhaps help in the understanding of what peoples problems are.

You are effectively taking a job away from a pro and doing it cheaper. Now your company won't pay any more than £200 for their photography and the benchmark gets lower again. Plus you don't actually know what you are doing. So again the standards get lowered.

So if you wish to post on a forum where some people make a living doing this then don't be getting all insulting when you get that as a reply.
 
If you're only doing headshots and need a plain/white background, you could you use a screen from a projector if there's one hanging about. I've done this before and also used the reverse light blue side as well.

However, corporate headshots often look good if you can include part of the office as background, or even a window (seen that done before and it looks great)

As you've been advised, one light & a reflector should make it work, unless you go for the white background and need to light that as well.

Steve
 
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