my home studio - suggestions needed (Adelaide, South Australia)

hi folks,

i have an amazing opportunity to shoot a friend of mine in the upcoming few months, however the catch is:

a. i don't have a studio
b. i don't have lights
c. i have never shot glamour before

my housemate uses the downstairs lounge area for band rehersals and music production and he has offered me share the space as a stidio.

the area is large enough and just this weekend i bought 2 lots of 10m high x 2m wide black cotton and a rod and cup hooks to hang it from the ceiling.

Once i have stitched all the sheets together and hung it as the background i will post a pic, however my real question here is about lighting.

I have no idea about what to use and why? for the time being i have two 500w halogen lamps (used for a lightbox - thanks to another amazing thread here on POTN!) plus my 550EX speedlight.

I wonder if someone could suggest a nice simple two light setup and approx how much i should spend on it?

And while we are here am i heading in the wrong direction if i say i was thinking of using permanently lit lights, not strobe? i don't see why i would need strobe (and would this then mean NOT using the speedlight?) or am i completely noob and off the mark?

i have many questions about this and i really want to get the studio up ASAP and get some of my friends in there as guinea pigs before the real thing. the real gig in a month or so is an amazing opportunity - my friend is currently doing shoots for hustler and penthouse and to have this chance is something i don't want to mess up!

will post that pic as soon as the background is done...

cheers all

Glamour for fifty U.S. dollars

Hello Down Under...

I have recently purchased a neat computer program called Portrait Professional. This can be a stand alone program or used in conjunction with Photoshop of any generation or any other photo editing program you might be using.

Although a Photoshop guru can do anything that can be done with Portrait Pro - I don't have that level of talent. The program is quick and extremely user friendly. Even a duffer like me gets great results almost immediately.

It can rescue portraits - especially glamour type portraits from bad lighting, bad makeup and ugly women, including bad teeth, acne and bloodshot eyes. I haven't found a woman who doesn't like what Portrait Professional does to their images.

You can download a test free at:

http://www.portraitpro​fessional.com …PCqm4KIw5MCFScu​agodSlXkDA

By the way, for glamour lighting; do a Google search using "Butterfly Lighting" or "Paramount Lighting" as the search parameters. Butterfly or Paramount lighting is usually a broad light from directly over the camera lens and another light from the camera position. The term "butterfly" comes from the distinctive shadow below the subject's nose. The term "Paramount" comes from the type of lighting done for stills of glamouous females by Hollywood studios including Paramount Pictures.

thanks champ.

i appreciate the link to that product, however as a graphic designer i am pretty competent with photoshop and correcting images (do it daily!)

thanks for the tip on butterfly lighting, i read about the technique and will certainly be trying to achieve something along those lines when i do get this studio set up!

I've got the Elinchrom D-lite 4 kit which fits your description. Retails at approximately AUD $1500. there's been a lot of positive feedback about them here at PoTN, and they shouldn't be hard to find in Adelaide (I bought mine in Sydney's Vanbar Imaging)

thanks rockslut, $1500 is out of budget at the mo, but i do have some lights I can borrow from a friend. don't know what they are but when i know i will post here.

got the background up. here's a few pics as planned.

thoughts?

note the bunched up material at the bottom - there is another 5 meters or so wrapped up - nice amount to cover the foreground

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another angle, the computer desk is on wheels so it is able to be moved aside when i have a shoot on.

and the curtain can be pulled the whole width of the room (when no one is in the kitchen)

i have a friend who is gonna do a test shoot with me this weekend, will post results (but it will be with the halogen 500watt lights)

or maybe i will only use the speedlite?

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The D-Lite 4 kit is currently $1150 at Kayell, which is a hell of a bargain!

nice find rudi, i wonder if the D-Lite 2 (at $950) is also something i could be looking at? i notice it has only 1 sync cable and is only 200watts? is 200watts too little and will i need the 400 eventually. i don't want to outgrow 200w too fast then find i should have just gone the 400!

Hi BJ,
Just a thought. You could use two bed sheet, a work light from a home improvement store and a few pieces of PVC pipe for frames.
Make two 4x6 frames from PVC and attach the sheets to them with simple cloths pins. Put one at a 45 degree angle with the light behind it and use the other as a reflector on the opposite side about 90 degrees from her and close. Should light her O.K.
Now for the fun. The cheap light should be about 2800 degrees or so. White balance for daylight and it should give a golden tone to her almost like sunset. Experiment a little with white balance and see what works. Additionally use sand paper to rough up the safety glass on the light to soften it a bit before it hits the sheet. Should be sweet.
Now for the bad. Hot lights put out a lot of heat so keep them FAR from any material you aim them at. Bad JuJu if something catches fire! And it is a serious risk! A better solution is to find material that is fire resistant. I just chose bed sheets to give a good idea of what I'm talking about.
Whole set-up should be less than 100 USD. Add a second cheap light as a rim, hair or back light and you should be golden.
Again, please be carefull with those lights!
Sparky

BJWOK wrote in post #5667702
nice find rudi, i wonder if the D-Lite 2 (at $950) is also something i could be looking at? i notice it has only 1 sync cable and is only 200watts? is 200watts too little and will i need the 400 eventually. i don't want to outgrow 200w too fast then find i should have just gone the 400!

200w is plenty for a space that small. Even 100w would be fine.

Your camera only has one pc port so you can only use one sync cable - use it to trigger the key light and then you can set the optical slave on any other strobes to trigger them.

thanks heaps for that suggestion dave, i think i am gonna bite the bullet and go the d lite kit.

and hermes thanks for that advice. so 400w is overkill for the area i have? what do others think? (not questioning you hermes, just want to get a good overall opinion!)

If all you're ever going to do is use that small space then yes, the 200Ws D-Lite 2 kit is all you need. With glamour, a lot of the time you will be shooting from a bit further and at small apertures, so I'd go for the D-Lite 4. Either will do the job in the space that you have shown, the D-Lite 4 will be more versatile if you ever decide to shoot elsewhere.

For example, with my D-Lite 4 at minimum power, the subject can be around a metre away from the 53" Octa and the exposure is around f/5.6 at ISO 100 (going from memory). Now, the Octa has two diffusers in place, but it still gives you an idea - if your strobes will be a couple of metres away or more from the subject, you will have no problems getting reasonably large apertures if you want, but also have the possibility of cranking up the juice and closing the aperture right down. Not that you won't be able to do this with the D-Lite 2, you will just run out of juice earlier.

right, well rudi you have sold me on the d-lite 4. nice work! now, i am gonna order it while it is still on special at kayell. thanks heaps for all the info here guys. i would have been lost without your help.

hey rudi i see you're down the gong way? you know dee kramer? he's an old mate of mine, has a studio in albion park.

i love your storm shots btw. how are you shooting those? any tips?

Madsens also have them for around the same price as Kayell...

Rudi wrote in post #5668742
If all you're ever going to do is use that small space then yes, the 200Ws D-Lite 2 kit is all you need. With glamour, a lot of the time you will be shooting from a bit further and at small apertures, so I'd go for the D-Lite 4. Either will do the job in the space that you have shown, the D-Lite 4 will be more versatile if you ever decide to shoot elsewhere.

For example, with my D-Lite 4 at minimum power, the subject can be around a metre away from the 53" Octa and the exposure is around f/5.6 at ISO 100 (going from memory). Now, the Octa has two diffusers in place, but it still gives you an idea - if your strobes will be a couple of metres away or more from the subject, you will have no problems getting reasonably large apertures if you want, but also have the possibility of cranking up the juice and closing the aperture right down. Not that you won't be able to do this with the D-Lite 2, you will just run out of juice earlier.

If a single D-Lite 4 head at MINIMUM power with a 197cm Octa will give f/5.6 then I really don't see how a lack of power could ever be a problem when the OP will be using multiple lights and (I'm assuming) won't have anything like the massive Octa which absorbs a lot more light than most modifiers.

On the other hand, If he wanted to open up the aperture to blur the background and get a nice shallow DOF he's stuck, the light is already at minimum power and giving exposures of f/5.6 and upwards. In that scenario a 100ws strobe like the D-lite 1 would give a range of exposures from f/2.8 to f/11 and a 200ws strobe would give f/4 to f/16 - much more usable and sensible options IMO.