Creating a Portfolio for Cosmetology

[vampyre_tech]

My wife is currently studying hair and makeup in her Cosmetology course. She is wanting to start taking some photos of her work and I was wondering what type of camera and lighting would best be suited for her. Currently I have a Canon PowerShot SD40 and would most likely only be shooting the subject's hair, makeup, eyes, and nails. Currently she's concerned about having the best possible camera, I believe the lighting may be more important and using a cheaper camera. Since this is just starting out, we're only looking to spend about $300-350 in equipment until she gets more business. Thank you for you time.

[inthedeck]

That's a tough one, especially since you are basically looking to take beauty shots. Especially with your budget, in mind.

I would look into some reflectors/foam core, and maybe one studio strobe, and study lighting techniques with those. Beauty shots are tough enough in themselves to light, but post-processing on those will require some 'serious' skill to make them 'really' stand out.

On-camera flash in your case should be avoided, since you are attempting to promote her business. Bad pictures may be bad business. Maybe you can rent some lights, for a couple of days, and do a few sessions to get her started...or, hire someone to take some professional beauty shots...and use the money you have budgeted for equipment, on that itself.

Just my $0.02 cents. Good luck to her. :)

[ckckevin]

a Rebel xs+ kit lens (18-55mm) will be around that price on ebay.....This is the cheap slr option.

[Cosha]

Why Not get some Lamps from your local DIY store?

look on youtube for Home made ring lights - i think its 12 cold day light energy savers you could get some nice shots from that.

Just an idea

just dont do what adverts do these days, spend 30 seconds on a advert about a beautiful woman and then find out that the advert was to promote bacon at the super market for 1.99

good luck :D

[vampyre_tech]

Thanks for the replies. I'll start looking into the DIY lighting and reflectors this weekend and experiment with that. If I wanted to get the Rebel xs that cheungupdt mentioned and continue saving for a better lens, what would your recommendation be for lenses? Is the "18-55mm" real good for portrait-type shots? Say for example, if I wanted to move up to a half body shot, while we worked on techniques, before I moved to close makeup shots.

[Cosha]

The 18-55mm is fine so far, i would if you could spend a little extra on lighting first and read up on about that.

A well composed shot with the lighting to back it up will go much futher than having a really decent lens with harsh lighting and poor composition in MHO

dont get to complicated with your camera set up just yet, i have a 450d and 18-55mm (same as the XTI i belive) and it will do you just fine, i love my camera!

have a look at a few web pages of the same stuff your trying to shoot and see how they did it, above all the most important thing is get the camera out and shoot away, you will soon see what works yourself :D

[ckckevin]

18-55mm IS is one of the best zoom lens for the price (50mm f1.8 for the prime). As long as you stop down to f8 and lower (f11 gives me the most sharp picture), picture quality is really decent. But step down to at least f8(or f11 that i like) will require some really good lighting indoor(really good lighting). IS(image stablization) can help you a little for handheld. I think with the 1.6x crop body(rebel xs or anything above) will work fine for portrait. At least it works for me.

[ckckevin]

but f8 and lower doesn't give good bokeh effect, so for pure portrait reason, and low indoor lighting, i would recommand 50mm f1.8, but the trade off is that it is not as versatile.....