A good starter studio lighting kit?

CapturedByGrace

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Scott_Quier

Lots of people start out with Alien Bee lights (here). Depending on what your needs are, you can probably make good use of a couple of AB400's. I went with AB800's and ended up with 4 of them (so far). I've had them for better than a year and have really found them quite useful. A couple of lights, a couple of shoot-through umbrellas, and a couple of light-stands and you're in business.

You can trigger the first light with a PC cord from your camera and the second one will trigger via an optical slave (built into the light). Another technique I've had good success with is to trigger both ABs with an on-board or external flash dialed down to the lowest manual setting. The small amount of light from the flash, especially if it's not pointed at your subject, doesn't impact on the illumination of your subject but is quite enough to trigger the optical slaves of the ABs.

swintonphoto

I also endorse the Alien Bees - I don't have them, but I have White Lightning's. They are made by the same manufacturer. The White Lightnings are slightly more expensive because they are in metal casing instead of plastic. Both are excellent:

http://www.white-lightning.com/

http://www.alienbees.com/

claudermilk

A question on those. How well do you like the accessory mounts? That's the only thing that gives me pause on these & has me looking at Interfit Stellars with their Bowens-style mounts--same as the loaner Calumets I'm now using & I like those.

rpcrowe

You can't go wrong with Alien Bees
Alien Bee units are great - especially for the price and you cannot go far wrong selecting a set.

SUNPAK, best known for their great 383 and 120J units has also been producing studio strobes for years. I use a MS4000 (400 WS) unit with a 36"x48" Chimera Softbox. This is a large and heavy unit and I would not recommend this specific light for most folks - however it is well made and has been going strong for years (and I bought it used).

I mention this because SUNPAK is now distributing a relatively new series of studio strobes called Platinum and Platinum Plus series. They range from 150 WS up to 1,500 WS which is really a bruiser. A Platinum 150 WS unit runs only about $140-$150 and has a full range of accessories available at a reasonable price. Strobes of 150 WS are plenty powerful enough for most home/garage studios.

Now for really inexpensive set-ups, you might try eBay. If money is a definitive factor; the older White Lightning 5,000 (coffee can units) are good basic lights with no frills that can usually be had for about $50-$75 used on eBay. I have a pair which I have been using for about 25 years (and I bought these used for $50 each). I have shot what seems like gazillions of images and they, like the Energizer Bunny, "just keep going and going". Pro rated, these lights have cost me about $2.00 each per year. I really like their light when bounced into an umbrella. Although, I have other, more sophisticated lighting setups, I still use the old "coffee can" units for my dog portraiture. They are adequate for human portraiture also.

http://cgi.ebay.com/White-Lightning-WL5000-Studio-Strobe_W0QQitemZ290179325490QQihZ019QQcategoryZ30087QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

The image is of my dog portraiture setup with White Lightning 5,000 units.

Another way to do lighting "on the cheap" is to buy an older used powerpack setup (such as Novatron) on eBay. Novatrons also keep going and going, and like White Lightning; they support their older units with replacement parts such as flash tubes.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=250182185702&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=015

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=320174779148&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=011

IMO, you would be better served by going one of the above routes than by purchasing "no-name" Chinese studio type strobes on eBay or, especially trying to purchase and modify expensive and IMO really inadequate camera hotshoe strobes like the 580ex or 430ex to use as psuedo studio lights.