Lighting

[liveinlite]

I would like to set up a small studio in my home to photograph individuals. I'm not that experienced with lighting and need to purchase lighting and a meter on a budget. Any suggestions.

[tim]

In your position i'd look around for books on the subject, I bet there's a lot to learn.

[cmM]

you can either get hot lights (tungsteen), like home depot kind of stuff, or you can get some AC strobes like Alienbees. ( B800 is more than plenty for portraits - 320W/sec)

[liveinlite]

I know it probably seems that I have not done my homework....I have read books and countless magazines and worked with photographers. I wanted some professional advice before I purchased anything because everything outdates so quickly with photog. equipment and I have a limited budget. I have also read so many differing opinions on the subject of lighting.

[robertwgross]

I wanted to put together a garage studio with lights, mostly to experiment on a budget.

I bought a bunch of 500-watt halogen work lights for $10-12 each, and they each had a steel light stand. They put off a lot of heat! If you have the power cords scattered over the floor, you might trip over one and crash a light, which would be bad. Instead, I ran the power cords up to the garage rafters to plug in. That way, nothing can fall over.

Then I set up the white balance for the tungten setting.

If I were doing this again, and if I intended to use the rig for many dozens of subjects, then I would likely go to Alien Bees lights instead. It depends on the budget.

---Bob Gross---

[Ken Fong]

I've been reading the threads on Alien Bees. Then I saw that one "Alien Bees B800 too powerful" even after they turned it down to 1/32 power...they were advised to install ND filters. My question is: What exactly is the extra power for? If you are only doing portraits at f/8 or f/11 and always have the reflectors 10 feet away, when would you ever need the extra power? Some sort of a group portrait situation or other application?

thanks,
Ken

[cmM]

I've been reading the threads on Alien Bees. Then I saw that one "Alien Bees B800 too powerful" even after they turned it down to 1/32 power...they were advised to install ND filters. I remember reading a thread like that, but if I remember correctly it was because of user error.

I have the same light and depending on distance between light and subject it'll take different amounts of light. I never found it too bright at 1/32 however.