advice on lighting for portrait

[jimwong]

I need advice on a moderately priced starter lighting for portrait/glamour photography. I have a 420ex flash and a 10D, but would like to make use of strobes or continuous light, softboxes, or reflectors.. a bit confusing. Can someone suggest a starter set up?

[jhankins]

Check out Alien Bees at http://www.alienbees.com.

They are what I'd consider moderately priced Studio Strobes lights that include the features one would expect to find for what you're looking to do. They also like many others, have packages available from single light kits to 4 light kits.

I would suggest grabbing a book or two on the topic that show examples of what you can do with various lighting setups. This will help you decide how many lights and what kind of accesories you want to start with. Also, a hand held exposure meter will be a asset. I was recommended to buy a http://www.sekonic.com/Products/L-358.html. Somewhat expensive but considering getting the right exposure is so key this might be an area you wouldn't want to economize on, much like your lenses. I haven't received mine yet but from what I've read sekonic makes top rated meters. I plan on creating some configuration diagrams/photos of my studio when it's complete as well as the source and costs as others have done here very well as well as the thoughts/motiviations behind my selections and experiences.

A great example of a portrait book I was referring to is:

"Photographing people" Portraits/fashion/galmour
ISBN 2-88046-652-0
http://www.rotovision.com/description.asp?bookid=551

Book has wonderful examples of what is possible and each photo has a writeup of what the purpose of the shot was, and what specific setups were used as well as diagrams of the lighting layouts. It does not dive into the technical aspects of lighting, more a what can be done through example book.

Finally, search the forum for Studio Lighting. This is a well documented topic here and many have done an excellent job discussing the topic.

In summary, make sure you understand what effects you're looking at being able to accomplish and go from there. Remember, if budget constrained you can use bounces/reflectors for fill light reducing your light count requirement somewhat.