Donating! continuous studio lighting w/umbrellas and bulbs

[petrochemist]

This would certainly be useful for our photo workshop, but we're the wrong side of the pond.

 

[FITBMX]

Expand your horizon as a portrait photographer.
expand you offerings to clients.
expand the temperature in your house when the furnace goes out.
the possibilities are endless!

anyway, ill let this run for a bit longer and see what happens.

 

[FITBMX]

Well I have also wanted to get into taking portraits, and bought a 135mm 2.8f in spring. I didn't want to through my hat into the ring earlier, because I figured that someone with much more portrait experience than I would have posted. But there really hasn't been anyone.
This would be a really handy setup to have around, and I would find lots of uses for it. And if down the road I invested in something better, I would do as you are and give these to someone starting out.
I do have a Pixel Mago flash, I got a few months ago. So you know what gear I have.

P.S.
I love the heater idea!

 

[Dave442]

OK, I am without any lighting. My SB-600 broke last year when I was starting to really enjoy some portrait type work.
Here are a few of my shots:

 

[FITBMX]

Here is a BUMP for Monday!!!

 

[pixmedic]

Ferret bump!

 

[FITBMX]

Ferret bump!

View attachment 107453

We had Ferrets years ago, they are really cool!

 

[thiscityizdead]

Oh man, I would defiantly benefit from these. I love portraiture and have been doing an extraneous amount of research. In the mean time, I have been experimenting with natural daylight, reflectors and a cheap desk lamp. Most of my photographs are portraits. These lights will provide me with more than just light, but experience and more ways to experiment with lighting.

 

[pixmedic]

so...
I need some input.
particularly from those that have posted here interested in the lighting.
for the first time evah, I have ran across a potentially good match for the donation, locally. (but not on the forum)
While the thought of a local recipient does not bother us, my fear is that since I posted it here, and thus listed being an active member a requirement, it might seem a bit egregious to those people who met my requirements and posted here in good faith for me to donate the lighting outside of this forum.
here's the breakdown.

A coworkers 12 year old daughter is into photography.
she (with dad of course) is very active at a local shelter helping with cat adoptions.
(I mean, I prefer dogs but...you know...kids...what can you do?)
Dads budget as a single parent (and working in private EMS) is dismal.
He did manage to scrounge up enough to buy her a used canon T1i with the kit lens recently which she uses to photograph the cats they foster waiting for adoptions. the pictures get used in the adoption ads at the shelter. Now she wants to incorporate video clips on the website and the shelter gave her the go ahead.

Anyway...
Dad was asking me about lighting, and what he could pick up cheap (or less) that would work for cat portraits and short video clips without reducing them to bologna and raman noodles for the month.
(he was thinking floor lamp or halogen shop light...*shudder*)
now, I know what you are thinking...I know...cat portraits. sheesh.
Seriously though, I would like some opinions on this.
I think this would be more than sufficient lighting for what they need, but more importantly, I would like to know if this is going to seem a little shady on my part by donating it locally after posting it here.
I have not said anything to the dad about my lights, so if the general consensus here is that I would be a total douchenozzle for not keeping the donation on the forum, then I will just stick with the original plan and me and the wife will simply pick a recipient as we normally would.

thoughts people?

 

[Derrel]

I see nothing wrong with halogen floor lamps, when paired with PVC pipe frames and rip-stop nylon diffusion fabrics. That's what I think the dad and child should use for their cat adoption photos. There's a really GREAT pamphlet available on-line in .PDF format, authored by **the guy** who really popularized scrim lighting, the late Dean Collins. Collins was color blind, but he went on to become a highly successful, high-end commercial pro who taught classes on how to use scrim lighting, as well as how to light backgrounds using colored gels and his ChromaZones system for getting just the right density to gelled colors, based on a light meter and mathematical relationships. His pamphlet shows a ton of do it yourself lighting equipment blueprints, for devices made from PVC framing materials. Tinker Tubes is the name of the pamphlet. A FREE, low-res, 4-megabyte version is available here http://media.software-cinema.com/documents/tt-book.pdf

This type of lighting, scrim lighting, or "panel lighting", is tremendously versatile. Just simply tremendously versatile, and affordable as well.

 

[sm4him]

Well, my vote, basically, is that it's YOUR donation and you get to do whatever you think is best! If anyone gets their knickers in a twist about that, I'd say that's one person I'd be GLAD the lighting didn't go to!

But since you asked:
Do you know just how capable this girl is? I mean, obviously, she's good enough with the camera, if the shelter is using her photos. But this kind of lighting setup--I dunno, it seems like it would take someone who really has the ability and ATTENTION SPAN to use them. At 12, I was using a camera, but there's no way I'd have had the attention level to mess with a lighting setup like this.

I guess I just find myself wondering how much, and for how long, the setup would be really be used by a 12-year-old. They are pretty prone at that age, to move from one hobby to another, testing things out and seeing what "fits" them. My experience with my own kids was that, often, the more enthusiastic *I* got about their hobby, and the more I contributed "serious" equipment, the less likely they were to stay involved in it!

Still, I'd certainly have no problem with it if you decided to give it to them.

If you DO stick with the TPF field for donations, I'd definitely suggest having the guy check on Craigslist and/or Ebay for a similar lighting setup, if he thinks his daughter will really use it. I picked up a very similar set to this not too long ago. Can't remember the brand (but it *wasn't* Cowboy Studios!!). Mine was pretty much the same setup--two lights, stands, umbrellas, etc--but the lights do actually have a variable power setting, can be used as continuous lighting or triggered by the flash, AND it came with a backdrop stand. I got the whole thing for $40 from someone who bought it, used it once, and tired of it.
I couldn't have gotten two halogen shop lights for that cheap!

 

[robbins.photo]

A coworkers 12 year old daughter is into photography.

She's 12.

she (with dad of course) is very active at a local shelter helping with cat adoptions.
(I mean, I prefer dogs but...you know...kids...what can you do?)

She helps orphaned kitties

Dads budget as a single parent (and working in private EMS) is dismal.
He did manage to scrounge up enough to buy her a used canon T1i with the kit lens recently which she uses to photograph the cats they foster waiting for adoptions. the pictures get used in the adoption ads at the shelter. Now she wants to incorporate video clips on the website and the shelter gave her the go ahead.

And Dad is a single parent who could barely afford a T1i.

Yup.. anybody who has a problem with these folks getting that donation didn't deserve it in the first place, IMHO.,

 

[pixmedic]

Well, my vote, basically, is that it's YOUR donation and you get to do whatever you think is best! If anyone gets their knickers in a twist about that, I'd say that's one person I'd be GLAD the lighting didn't go to!

But since you asked:
Do you know just how capable this girl is? I mean, obviously, she's good enough with the camera, if the shelter is using her photos. But this kind of lighting setup--I dunno, it seems like it would take someone who really has the ability and ATTENTION SPAN to use them. At 12, I was using a camera, but there's no way I'd have had the attention level to mess with a lighting setup like this.

I guess I just find myself wondering how much, and for how long, the setup would be really be used by a 12-year-old. They are pretty prone at that age, to move from one hobby to another, testing things out and seeing what "fits" them. My experience with my own kids was that, often, the more enthusiastic *I* got about their hobby, and the more I contributed "serious" equipment, the less likely they were to stay involved in it!

Still, I'd certainly have no problem with it if you decided to give it to them.

If you DO stick with the TPF field for donations, I'd definitely suggest having the guy check on Craigslist and/or Ebay for a similar lighting setup, if he thinks his daughter will really use it. I picked up a very similar set to this not too long ago. Can't remember the brand (but it *wasn't* Cowboy Studios!!). Mine was pretty much the same setup--two lights, stands, umbrellas, etc--but the lights do actually have a variable power setting, can be used as continuous lighting or triggered by the flash, AND it came with a backdrop stand. I got the whole thing for $40 from someone who bought it, used it once, and tired of it.
I couldn't have gotten two halogen shop lights for that cheap!

Ive seen some of the girls work as far as some previous foster cat pictures, but that's about it.
shes got a good eye, ill give her that. her dad says she has two.
I think she is more interested in doing video than still shots.
I dunno...maybe I just thought it was so cute that some 12 year old girl was working so hard to save some cats that I was blinded to the fact that she might be a crappy photographer. to be fair though, this has been a project she started over a year ago, so it isn't just the latest fad of the week. then again....cats.
right now, shes very focused on helping with the adoptions. shes on a mission. tomorrow? next week? next month?
I really don't know. who's to say? The reality is, shes 12. we only have a 6 year old, so I don't know what being a parent to a preteen is like. Dad does help out a lot, but its her show.
on the other hand....how many of our donations have gone to seemingly excited recipients, only to be never seen or heard from again? Certainly a few. Its just how things go sometimes. We don't get upset over it. its the chance we take.
maybe I am incapable of being objective concerning a single dad and his young daughter desperately trying to stem the tide of euthanized cats in their area.

 

[sm4him]

Solution: Get the dad to sign up on TPF and start posting like crazy to qualify for the "active" member part.

 

[Dave442]

I think the cat girl is a perfect candidate for the donation. I was 12 when I got my first SLR so I don't think the age should be any barrier.