Advice on what studio lighting is most essential (editorial/beauty)

[xstarx]

Heya, so i am doing a shoot for a hair dresser which will only be my second ever in a studio so im thrown right in the deep end as ive had no training etc on anything to do with studio work.
They were happy after the first shoot where i somehow lucked out and it went okay enough to pull out what i thought was an okay shot after photoshopping it (will attach below)
The hairdresser said she was fine to get more lighting just to let her know what would be good to get and i really am not sure. There were only 3 dim lights (shown in picture below) and no natural lighting. Also i cannot get the lights to flash with ext flash thing i had so has to work without that.

Would a beauty dish/light be most helpful?
Feel free to critique the photo below but enlarge it first as its coming up in weird colours below, was really hard trying to shoot without even being allowed in the studio to practise before the day!

P.S I have a canon 60D with a 18-135mm lens

 

[Village Idiot]

A beauty dish is a modifier, but it's one ofy favorites and I'd I'm biased when I say that I'd probably pick that over others as a main light modifier for what you're shooting. You'll probably want at least a second smoothed light for a hair light and maybe even a black background to create separation and bring the model out. What kind of light are you currently using? The modeling light is terrible for photography if you're actually using a flash.

 

[xstarx]

Hiya thanks heaps that was really helpful =)
The only lights i had to work with were the ones in the photo (had 2 of them and another very similar) it was really hard because they were not that bright so i had to turn the shutter speed down to between 150-250 and it made it just that much harder to get a super sharp shot. I didnt end up using a flash as when i tested it out it looked awful like you said! =)

A black back ground could be very interesting. Is it much harder to get a good shot (in regards to camera setting and lighting etc) then with a white background? Sorry i know thats a really basic question but i havnt been able to test using my camera out on anything in regards to studio lighting/backdrops etc

 

[Designer]

You would have better results with flash. Maybe you can borrow some and some modifiers too.

I don't understand your statement about not getting the flash to work. Do you have a flash?

 

[xstarx]

Heya, i had an internal camera flash but i couldnt get that to look any good with the model and white background, i had been leant an infrared external flash but for some reason it wouldnt trigger the studio lights and i had no time to really figure it out. There was a cord that fitted into a light i had at home but it wouldnt fit into my canon camera so maybe there was some issues there.

 

[Designer]

The built-in flash is limited in that you can't move it away from the axis of the lens, so it will always have that same look.

The lights on your stand appear to be CF which will not actually "flash".

Your best shot at good lighting will be using the speedlight that was lent to you, although getting it to flash may be the trick. Try putting it into "slave" mode and fire it with your built-in flash. Go into the flash menu and find where you set it to "slave". Then make sure the little window is unobstructed, and make your built-in flash fire. They should both fire at the same time, and you can check this by taking a picture of the slave flash.

Now all you have to do is modify (soften or redirect) your built-in flash and set up the speedlight with a modifier, such as the umbrella. Then place the light/umbrella stand where you think the light will look the best on the model. You may have to experiment some with the placement, power, etc.

 

[xstarx]

Thanks heaps for that! Oh i should have mentioned that when the flash was attached to my camera and i tried to go into the settings it kept saying incompatible, but it would still flash when i pressed my camera, maybe i should look for a different one that seems to fit the canon 60D
Thanks that was really helpful =)