home studio lighting

[phishhead_23]

I'm new to SLR photography and am interested in learning more about portraits and lighting. Am I able to use a regular lamp (that I could get at walmart) to reflect off a wall or something for ambient lighting? If so, what is the best light bulb to use?

[tim]

Lamps don't put out much light compared with strobes, but it might get you started. Most photographers use strobes, they put out a lot more light, and don't make the model/subject too hot. Strobes have modelling lights built in, they're like a preview light so you can see where the light will fall.

A good book is the studio lighting book from lightingmagic.com

[MadMesh]

I did the floro lights and normal lights... Ive already returned all that stuff too...

Im just saving my money for more speedlights for a master/slave setup... Smaller, portable, works better, more output, and wireless.

Unless you going to dedicate youself to using incandesent or floursent lighting in a serious way... Like investing $300-$500 on fixtures and lamps, I wouldnt even bother. After thinking about how big and how much stuff you would actually have... Like a bunch of 4 foor or 6 foot floro lights, + all these mini ones, having having to cordinate with using all good bulbs... It works out better in the long run just to get some Alien Bee strobes if your going to have bulky stuff laying around...

I guess that old saything keep commin up, "do it right, or dont do it at all"

[MadMesh]

This is what i tried with Floros,,, I worked, but i really needed WAY more light that what i was using here...

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=93928

[tim]

It's often cheap to buy studio lights from http://www.alienbees.com than buying a few speedlites - you get way more power and control, but less portability. Unfortunately for me shipping to where I live costs half as much again as the actual lights, but they're the top item on my wish list right now.

[MadMesh]

This is a sample of the Floro lighting with 3 bulbs and 3 reflectors... See above link for the type of bulbs used...


The bulbs were REALLY close to the object, so i know it wont cut it for portraits...

[MadMesh]

Same here Tim, i just gave up on the floros... I cant even imagine taking that crap to a customers home, office, or whatever...

Im still going to persue my speedlight setup, and eventually one day get the AlienBees too... Im gonig to try the speedlight setup first, since thoes puppys are way easy to resell if i didnt want to keep em...

[MadMesh]

other problem with using differt types of bulbs here and there, is you run into color temp problems... All thoes floro bulbs were 3000k temp, but they didnt put out enought light to cover the small spread i was trying to take a picture of.

And to go out any buy 8 6 foot floro lights... 4 sets of 2 lights in each... Is just way to bulky to take anywhere, unless all your doing is product photography like what i just displayed... But thats not all i do, so thats why i returned the floros...

[JuhaHa]

I'm new to SLR photography and am interested in learning more about portraits and lighting. Am I able to use a regular lamp (that I could get at walmart) to reflect off a wall or something for ambient lighting? If so, what is the best light bulb to use?

I am not native english speaker, so hopefully you will understand at least half what I am trying to tell :)

If you want to reflect the light (to have some ambient light), I suppose you will do better with external flash (I have Sigma 500 DG Super) and bounce it from ceiling for example.

I personally bought couple el-cheapo 500W halogen lights (20$ each, includes adjustable light stand) and diffuce them with white umbrellas. Direct lights with diffucers are better for portrait than "just" ambient light.

Those are nice for learning.. Without umbrellas (or some other diffucers) you will soon discover that... you need some diffucers :)

You can experiment a bit by buying some diffucers, reflectors or what ever you seem to need (to play with the lights and shadows).

I also bought some wireless remote controller for the lights (this was also 20$) to switch on/off the lights I want.. It is also very handy to turning off the lights when you are not photographing.

Well.. Soon you will discover that you are in need of proper studio flashes. This is where I am now (saving money for them).

Why? Because:
- They don't provide enough light to let me use faster shutter speeds and smaller apertures (I am using 1/60sec, ISO400, F5.0 settings with current lights)
- They really generate heat.

Here is couple examples what I have done with such setup (both taken against just plain white wall):

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=94247

[MadMesh]

I like the pictures...

If your using a flash and hologen lights, your going to run into a color temp problem, but if your adding a lot of Sepia like you did here, im sure you can get away with it.

[JuhaHa]

I like the pictures...

If your using a flash and hologen lights, your going to run into a color temp problem, but if your adding a lot of Sepia like you did here, im sure you can get away with it.

I am not mixing flash and halogen lights. I should have mentioned that :) That is important point however. Those two photoes just happened to be sepia-toned.

Here is one colour one (as example). Two halogen lights w/ umbrellas, NO flash :) Colour of the wall is nothing near white, so it really looks a bit brown.