Starting Off Lighting

[computerguru3190]

I'm trying to broaden my horizons and start taking some portraits and models in studio. I'm just going to be using a room in my house, but i'm looking mainly for what lights and accessories I will need. I'm so confused by the voltage, type of lights, and accessories that I'm stuck. I've read about alienbees and many other brands. I've even looked at the Strobist kits but I don't think they will work for me.

All I'm looking for is a simple lighting setup that can be triggered by my pocketwizards and is good for basic portraits. I definetly don't need power pack systems fro outside photos yet. I'll stick with my flashes for those.

Please any help would be appreciated.

[markhyo]

There are many ways you can go about this but what are you looking to do? Are you looking for portability or will you be keeping you strobes in one place. I currently have gone the strobist route with Vivitar 285's. I can use them indoors in my room/studio, outdoors, or on-location. Alienbees makes a great strobes for the prices and I don't think you'll find much better as far as quality and service. I've heard they really stand behind their product and customer service is a priority for them. Man can't live by flash alone. The most simple modifier would be a shoot through umbrella. Softboxes are good for isolating the subject and use wrap around lighting. As for power even a 400 bee would suit most tasks in a small room but if you want smaller fstops then 800, 1600 may be ideal. If you consider using the bees outside then you may want a bigger one to overpower the sun.

As far as simple setups. Start with one light. Then add a reflector then build on the one light. Much can be done with one light. I just shot this image yesterday. One vivitar in a westcott apollo 28" softbox. The light was positioned overhead in a butterfly configuration but no second light below for fill (kind of a modified butterfly lighting pattern).

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1310/1445947632_4ebe5bb7bd.jpg

[computerguru3190]

I'm looking to be able to be portable some, but I won't be hiking out to the middle of the desert or anything. I would be taking the strobes to another house or studio. I have a couple old Nikon flashes I can use if I need on sight lighting. I'm looking for a more powerful, permanent, and expandable setup.

[sparcd]

I've also embarked on a the same, I'm using two 430ex flash units and an st-e2 remote trigger. I just need to grab a couple of light stands and umbrellas!

[fotodan]

http://www.white-lightning.com/starter.html


You wont go wrong with this kit. All you need to start out with, and can be easily added to in future. There customer service is 2nd to none, and quality cant be beat.