Not sure what I did wrong...

I tried to do a studio shoot this morning (for a friend, not paid), using my basement as a studio. I think that they liked some of the shots, but I was not quite as happy with them...

for lighting I used 2 500W work lights, a 300W work light, and 3 more halogen lamps for side/ highlight lights. This was not a good idea...

I am fairly sure that I will not try and do another shoot with this set-up, there just isn't enough light to shoot well...

Any other suggestions on how to do CHEAP studio lighting?

Post a couple of shots and lets take a look!

Are you using 6 lights because you want more light or because you believe you need them?

I ask because regardless of power you don't want to just pour a lot of light on to your scene or subject area.

Can we see an image and perhaps a diagram of how you are positioning these lights?

For simple head shots, you can do them with 1, 2 or 3 lights on the subject area and perhaps a 4th on the background.

Placement and also the characteristic of the light source (hard light vs. soft light) are key, you can do great lighting with merely ONE artificial source for example. Post a photo, voice the reason for dissatisfaction, and we'll make some suggestions.

Wilt wrote in post #6076803
Placement and also the characteristic of the light source (hard light vs. soft light) are key, you can do great lighting with merely ONE artificial source for example. Post a photo, voice the reason for dissatisfaction, and we'll make some suggestions.

Ditto....

You may be using lights with different color temperatures as well. The shop lights are likely to be warmer than the halogens, although not as severely as the difference between shop lights or halogens and daylight or flash.

If quantity of light is a factor, you might try increasing the ISO.

And what Wilt said.

Here are a few pictures, and a quick draw of my setup.

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What I see is very "flat" lighting - no shadows to define shapes, etc.

how would I fix that...

JPM Photography wrote in post #6077075
how would I fix that...

I would start by losing the two 75-watt "fill in the shadows" lights. They could be used to put a "halo" on the background.

I'd also recommend getting the subjects further from the background (at least six feet) and using a wide-enough aperture to blurr the background more.

And get rid of the 300W lamp on the ground, too, or at least raise it up to about camera level or higher if you're going to use it for fill (and that doesn't mean getting rid of all shadows).

PacAce wrote in post #6077450
And get rid of the 300W lamp on the ground, too, or at least raise it up to about camera level or higher if you're going to use it for fill (and that doesn't mean getting rid of all shadows).

I agree. I missed the part about that light being on the ground at first.

ok, that sounds doable. Thanks for all of the suggestions.

nothing to do with light but; try not to cut off hands, it makes the subject look incomplete.

mikeassk wrote in post #6078763
nothing to do with light but; try not to cut off hands, it makes the subject look incomplete.

Also try not to crop at joints (i.e. knees, elbows, wrist etc.)