Building Studio

Scootersbabygirl

Hi guys - I wasn't quite sure where to put this post so hopefully I got the right forum! After almost 4 years of doing portrait photography my business has grown enough that I can now justify a studio - yay! We're transforming a large room I have in my home into a studio. The room's empty, some light gray paint's going on the walls soon - but I need advice, please! I'm not sure what to do for studio lighting.

I've been doing research and let me tell you that it scares the crap out of me just because I've never had the opportunity to play with studio lighting. I know that I want three lights - two main ones and one for a background light - but I'm not sure what to do. I'm thinking softboxes will be better, and I like the idea of continuous lighting but don't want it too bright. And of course I'm looking for backgrounds as well - if anyone has any advice, I would REALLY appreciate it!!

Art Scott

The problem with continuous lighting is not the too bright aspect as that should be controllable but it is the heat..from most unless you are looking at the fluorescent models and I don't have a real clue about them... I would look at Alien Bees...either AB800's of 16oo's or the really cool Einsteins...no need to really worry about too much light as you can adjust the power out put..The Paul C. Buff Line of Lightning is great, USA a made (nashville Tn) and really fantastic customer service....they cheerfully answer my questions about my 25+yr old White Lighting 5000's.... Currently I have a mix of White Lightning and Alien Bee lights ...

As to modifiers... ... ... I have never really liked softboxes for portraits, I really prefer the octagonal catch light of an umbrella, how ever there are softboxes that are of the Octo shape and that might be fine....as to umbrellas i use a lot of Gold umbrellas for portrait for a little added warmth to skin tones....for stands....I much prefer a boom stand so that the light/modifier can be positioned much more easily that with it on a plain light stand...and they can be had fairly inexpensively off ebay.

Sam

I recommend going with studio strobes rather than continuous lighting. I know it looks like continuous lighting would be the simplest and would provide a what you see is what you get environment but looks can be deceiving. The only continuous lighting that really works well is very very expensive.

While at first strobes do seem very intimidating a little reading and practice will yield clean well exposed images. After that comes the more creative aspects of controlled lighting.

My recommendation is to have a look at the Alien Bees line of equipment. The best bang for the buck option out there.

What kind of a budget are you working with?

Again I don't recommend continuous lighting and remember cameras need lots of light.

Sam