Affordable and portable equipment for portraits and headshots

[BList33]

Hello everyone! I want to start venturing into headshots and portraits. I do not have access to a studio, so starting out at least, I will be doing them in an apartment or home. Having done my research, so far my shopping list and setup will look something like:

• 2 Canon speedlites - one for key light, the other for a background light. Probably 430ex
• An umbrella (and maybe a softbox)
• 3 reflectors - one on each side of the model's face for fill, plus one underneath the
• 4 stands, one for each light, plus a couple for the reflectors
• grey and white backgrounds and stand

I'll be shooting with a Canon T2i

Check out this link below for my inspiration on the setup and look I'd like to achieve!
Peter Hurley Style Headshot Lighting on the Cheap! Headshot Lighting with a Strobe and Reflectors

So my questions are:

• What's the best way to connect the two flashes to my camera? Remote or hard wire?
• Assuming I am shooting in an apartment with appropriate ambient light. How can I go about managing that light, and what are some considerations when in comes to my lighting setup?
• What's your overall impression of my proposed setup?
• Alternatively, I am also looking at a few lighting kits that include stands, lights, and 'brellas and/or softboxes. I like the ideas of these kits because I can get lights that are a bit more versatile than the speedlites. Are there any kits you recommend? My priorities are affordability and portability, with the understanding that you definitely get what you pay for!

Thanks guys, I appreciate in advance any replies and thought!

 

[tirediron]

Your setup seems fine. I would bin the white background and add a pack of gels for your background light; that will turn the grey paper any colour you want. I use a very similar set-up for location head shots consisting of 1 30" Lastolite Ezybox w/ speedlight for key, one 42" 5 in 1 reflector close in opposite for fill, and a second speedlight for a background/rim/hairlight. Works very well. I would invest in radio triggers; PC cords are a HUGE pain in the butt, especially with multiple lights.

 

[BList33]

Is there a specific radio trigger system you recommend for a two-flash setup?

 

[Derrel]

A few comments, which I also posted in your other post, asking about this "budget lighting set-up" that allegedly imitates world-renown headshot shooter Peter Hurley's work...

The darker the ambient light, the larger and more dilated the pupils of the subjects will be, which gives black, colorless eyeballs, which makes the people look like heroin users....all bug-eyed and such. If anything, you want to keep the ambient light a big BRIGHTER than you might otherwise think, so that the iris will be closed down somewhat, and the people will not have that drug-addled, black,vacant, glassy, cow-eyed look.

In the article you link to the lower-eyeball catchlights are huge and bright, and round, which causes a very unnatural, oddball look to every person in that article. I would think long and hard about using rectangular or square reflectors which will create a broader, less-circular under-eye catchlight. I thought the photos in that article look like they were done by a very inexperienced headshot shooter, and that the eye catchlights from using those $19 collapsible disc reflectors were woefully short of imitating Peter Hurley's headshot look. On a close-in headshot, if the eye catchlights look gimmicky, with awful, round and ellipsoidal, bright, silver catchlights in the lower half of the eyeball, with dark, vacant, cow-eyes, the lighting setup is utterly a failure.

Look again at those shots in that article, and see how awful those round, bright circular catchlights look when seen on-screen at the size of a playing card; now imagine that look on 8x10 headshots. No...go with something that's been an industry standard for the under-chin reflector: a rectangular-shaped reflector that will throw an EVEN, steady catchlight across the entire width of the lower eyeball.

 

[runnah]

My travel portrait kit is pretty light:
1 canon speedlight
1 wescott rapid box
1 reflector
Medium gray backdrop.
Light stand
Reflector stand
Optional backdrop stand
2 pocket wizards.

Using the reflector I can simulate a second fill light. There are many single light set ups that provide excellent results.