What do I need?

[TenaciousTins]

I really am not into studio shots, but my husband's grandfather gave me 6 umbrellas and 3 light stands. However, I don't have the lights or anything to hold the umbrellas. Here are the umbrellas and stands I have:

And the picture on this box (mind you these are many many years old but in spectacular condition) shows a piece that appears to hold both

I know next to nothing about lighting and I don't have a fortune to spend, I don't really have anything to spend at the moment, but I want to know what to get when the time comes that I have money for stuff.

 

[Big Mike]

What will you be shooting?

If you are going to be shooting people (things that move) then I'd suggest flash/strobe type lighting. If you are just going to shoot still subjects (camera still as well) then you can go with continuous (lamp) type lighting.

If you choose, you could use hot shoe flash type units. You could use umbrella adapters like THIS. It mounts to the light stand, has a shoe for the flash and will hold the umbrella. This is a good option if you want to be portable, because the flashes run off of AA batters. You would likely need a remote flash trigger system as well.

Most studio style strobe (flash) lights have their own bracket to attack to a light stand and have their own way of attaching an umbrella.
BF160 Flashpoint Budget Studio Monolight Flash, 160 Watt Seconds, with User Replaceable Flash Tube.
FP620M Flashpoint II 620M, 300 Watt Second AC / DC Monolight Strobe. (D/C Operation Requires FP2PPN Battery Pack)

If you just want to use lamps, you can use something like THIS to attach an arm or an umbrella to the light stand.

 

[tirediron]

Nice score! What you need to go with those are lights and triggers. Most modern monolights have an umbrella bracket built into them. Lights are like anything else; you can spend as little as $100/head for Adorama's 'Flashpoint' series, or $1000+/head for top-end Profoto units. As-is, how-is, there's not a lot you can do with them. Spend some time researching different brands, and start saving. Studio lighting takes your photography to a whole new level!

 

[Village Idiot]

The big question is where will you be shooting? If you're shooting where and available power outlet will never be more than several extension cord lengths away, then "studio lights" may be your best bet. If you're going to be shooting where you're not going to have available power and portability is key, hot shoe flashes will possibly be a better option. You can go away from an outlet with studio strobes, but you're going to pay $250+ for a battery to work with them.

Adorama makes the Flashpoint mono lights (a light that has the power unit contained inside the light's shell. One piece light. Mono light.) for fairly cheap. They're about $100 for a 100-150w/s strobe, IIRC. A studio light generally will attach to the top of the stands you have and have an umbrella holder attached. If you go with speed lights, you'll have to get an umbrella adapter with hot shoe and they run about $15 eacy.

You'll also need a way to trigger them. Most studio lights have built in optical slaves that will trigger whenever another flash, like the one on most cameras, does. You can also use a cable from the camera to the strobe or pick up radio triggers that are like mini walkie talkies. They fit on the camera and then on each light and will tell the light to fire when youre camera does. There's different brands and different prices along with differen reliability and different build quality.

If you look into the lighting resources thread, there's a link to the Adorama Flashpoints as well as a link to the Strobist Blog's Lighting 101 tutorial. That's mainly about using smaller hot shoe flashes, but can easily be translated to larger lights. I suggest you start reading through that and then come back and ask some more questions. That'll cover some of the basics and give you an idea of what you need and what you can do with lights so that way you can ask better questions and get more specific answers rather than this generic spiel I feel like I'm giving you.

 

[TenaciousTins]

My subjects will be mainly people if I ever get serious with indoor stuff. I won't be using it outside that I know of. I don't have a studio or really anywhere to set up except at my house in my living room. I'm not looking to do a TON of indoor photography but I sure would love to play with it. Also want to look into getting soft boxes. I'm a very natural light shooter, so the thought of using anything but natural light is a little out of my element. Or a lot. It seems like there is SO MUCH to learn, even if you want to learn the basics...and I know it will be worth it, I just need to take one step at a time. With no lights and just a simple reflector and a 430EXII flash with a softbox over it, I was able to get a few OK pictures like these:

And this is the setup I had (I photographed kittens in the basket first)

A. I realize I know nothing about white balance so that will be my next real thing to learn

B. I have no walls I can set this up against so will look for a temp wall to have behind the backdrop

C. This is the first time I have ever shot indoors with a backdrop

So I can imagine just how much easier/better/nicer it would be with some lights and umbrellas. I feel so over my head in what to learn, but it's one thing at a time. Thank you so much for the links and the advice...so helpful!

 

[KmH]

A. I realize I know nothing about white balance so that will be my next real thing to learn

I corrected the white balance (a single click in ACR). The orangish color cast is from having the camera white balance set to sunlight, but using incandescent light to make the photo. White balance is about light source color temperature, not white. Understanding White Balance

 

[TenaciousTins]

Hmm...my white balance was on auto, but I believe that was a test shot using the gold side of the reflector (just to see how it would change the picture).

This is her in a natural setting (but auto white balance again, this with a silver reflector)

And that does represent her skin tone very well as well as her hair color. She was very pale that day as she was quite sick. Her eyes are a dark blue that can be light blue at times...very strange. The edit seems to be a bit bright/over saturated/pink...was that on purpose?

Guess I'll be playing with white balance

 

[Tiberius47]

Hi Tins, welcome aboard!

Most studio lights have a little slot that will hold an umbrella for you.

If you want to go with hotshoe flashes, you can get cheap flashes off the net and cheap radio triggers as well. You'll have to operate the flashes manually though. In this case, you need a thing that looks like a little plastic elbow joint that has the flash shoe to hold your lights and a hole through it to hold the umbrella. They just attach to the tops of your light stands.

And yes, i am who you think I am! Great to see you here!

 

[TenaciousTins]

Hi Tibs, didn't know you were here but cool to see you here . I just joined a few days ago when I got the bright idea that hey, maybe joining a photography forum would help me! Yes, that is the attachment that I was talking about. I only have the 430EXII flash and don't know how to operate it manually. I know nothing about flashes (or radio triggers) in general and am feeling overwhelmed by all this stuff. Considering I do mostly natural stuff I don't need a LOT but I would love to be able to shoot all that much better. But really I'm saving up for a new lens (probably the 55-250 is all I can afford) cause my 18-55 isn't good for all that much. So I'm trying to prioritize, ya know? But here and there I'm picking stuff up. These light stands don't appear to have a hole for the umbrella. Maybe because they are so old? Not sure. They sure are sturdy though...very heavy and I can tell the umbrellas are good quality as well. I'm just clueless when it comes to what to get and there's so many options...I turn to others who've been there to get their advice.

 

[TenaciousTins]

I just have to add that I do shoot in RAW and can change the white balance at a later date (and typically do).

 

[Village Idiot]

Hmm...my white balance was on auto, but I believe that was a test shot using the gold side of the reflector (just to see how it would change the picture).

This is her in a natural setting (but auto white balance again, this with a silver reflector)

And that does represent her skin tone very well as well as her hair color. She was very pale that day as she was quite sick. Her eyes are a dark blue that can be light blue at times...very strange. The edit seems to be a bit bright/over saturated/pink...was that on purpose?

Guess I'll be playing with white balance

You'll want to skip auto WB. Auto WB actually shoots within a range and doesn't cover the entire spectrum, that's why you still get orange shots when shooting inside. If you're overpowering your ambient exposure with your flash, you can use the daylight or flash WB for your shoot. The real issue comes when you start mixing and matching light sources, like flash and a standard incandescent light. If you shoot a flash inside with a standard bulb and let the ambient bleed into the exposure, you'll have two white balances mixing. One of the best ways to correct this is to put a gel on your flash so that it matches the color of the ambient lighting and setting your WB to expose the ambient incandescent as white.

All this should be covered in the Strobist 101 link in the lighting resources thread.

 

[TenaciousTins]

Thanks so much for that VI, I will definitely have a good thorough read of the Strobist 101 link! Bout time I expanded my horizons a little with lighting. Thanks again!

 

[Tiberius47]

Hi Tibs, didn't know you were here but cool to see you here .

A n ice surprise to see you here too.

I only have the 430EXII flash and don't know how to operate it manually.

Have a read of the "Manual Flash" link in my signature.

I know nothing about flashes (or radio triggers) in general and am feeling overwhelmed by all this stuff.

Forget about triggers for the moment. Leave the flash on the camera and just turn the head or tilt it so you can use bounce flash. Once you are familiar with manual mode you can play around with getting the flash off camera.

These light stands don't appear to have a hole for the umbrella. Maybe because they are so old? Not sure. They sure are sturdy though...very heavy and I can tell the umbrellas are good quality as well. I'm just clueless when it comes to what to get and there's so many options...I turn to others who've been there to get their advice.

As has been said, the proper studio lights have the umbrella holder built in to teh light, so it isn't needed on the stand itself. If you get the little holder for your 430 flashes, then the holder will have a thing for the umbrella. It's not something that is a part of the lightstand.