10D and portrait studio

[Vaio]

Planning on setting up a in home studio... nothing to elaborate or expensive, however my concerns are with what lighting to use with the 10D.

I have heard that continuous lighting works best for the digital enviornment but wonder how strobes will work?
Also, does anyone own the LASTOLITE midi and Mini scroll backgrounds?

I was curious of how good quality they are. Seen them on B&H for sale.

Thanks

[justme_dc]

Sorry for the length of this post.... I hope it is helpful to you.

Well I use the Bogen autopole/expan system in my home and location work. The auto poles are quite a bit heavier duty than the supports that come with the lastolite kits. As I needed the durability, I went with Autopoles. I looked into that lastolite system but as I use a lot of Seamless paper and hand dyed muslins it wouldn't be ideal for me. It is a fine set up and if you put it right up against a wall it takes up vey little space when not in use. Bogen makes fine, sturdy products, I am happy with everything I have purchased from them. Likely you will be too.

As to the studio lighting thing......Digital cameras work with all lighting. That is one of their best features, at least as far as I am concerned.

Continuous lighting is easy and functional but has some drawbacks. For one tugsten based systems get H-O-T hot! I mean it! That means your house, your model and you get to sweat. With tugsten it is also difficult to adjust the amount of light you get, using a dimmer for instance, will change the color temperature of the light significantly.

The daylight corrected fluoresent "Cold Lights" are awesome for digital! They are however still a little pricey for home use in my opinion. They also need a bit of warm up time to get to the right teperature which can be a hassle. Some are dimmable, others are not. If you can afford them, buy'em.

Which brings us to studio strobes. They can stop action so you can get that perfect moment frozen with no blur. If you don't run the modeling lights at full power you will keep your studio much cooler. Ease in controlling F-stop and depth of field, most studio strobes have at least a 5 stop range. Monolights can be had for reasonable prices. The better brand names have pretty soild color temperature at all power settings. Some monolights will even work with both AC and DC which is handy! The power pack systems range from dirt cheap to crazy expensive but are versatile and durable.


I personally have shot with all of the above at one time or another but I own, and use monolights, lots of monolights.... For the work I do they are the easiest, most versatile lighting product around.

I hope some of this was useful or at least made sense....

Good Luck to you!

[Dans_D60]

My first studio setup was mobile and relatively inexpensive, but still works fine today. I use a JTL portable backdrop frame and three JTL strobe units with umbrellas. Total cost about $500. My home “garage” studio uses a homemade backdrop setup that was constructed from 16 foot aluminum pipes attached to a metal frame so I can drop down different backdrop colors or materials. I don’t use continuous lighting just because it gets too hot. However, it would also work fine with the 10D since color temperature is not an issue especially if shooting in RAW. My current garage setup includes Novatron V400D (four strobe heads), Alien Bees (hair light), and other equipment as needed. Below are a few images from these setups:
Dan
http://www.pettusphoto.com

PORTABLE JTL BACKDROP SETUP –COMPANY HOLIDAY PARTY ON LOCATION
http://www.pettusphoto.com/studio/party2002.jpg

GARAGE SETUP – MULTIPLE BACKGROUND DROPS
http://www.pettusphoto.com/studio/garage02.jpg

GARAGE SETUP – SUPPORT EQUIPMENT
http://www.pettusphoto.com/studio/garage01.jpg

GARAGE SETUP – EXAMPLE BLACK PAPER BACKGROUND
http://www.pettusphoto.com/studio/black01.jpg

GARAGE SETUP – EXAMPLE MUSLIN BACKGROUND
http://www.pettusphoto.com/studio/muslin01.jpg

[Vaio]

I wanted to thank you guys for your input..