Help with beginner studio equipment + lens for shooting Beauty & Fashion

[Sebastian85]

Hello!

I hope this is the proper place to post this.

A few months ago i moved to a larger city and came into contact with a number of modeling-interested young women, whom i promptly started to shoot. Through contacts and some other things, i eventually managed to begin getting them payed jobs in modeling, as well as recieving a number of requests for doing paid photographing as well. I figure that it may be time to move on from the realm of the beginner with a kit lens to something more...interesting. Overall, i've photographed for a couple of hours daily for 2 months now.

My current equipment: Nikon D90 / 8-105mm 1:3,5-5,6G VR

I've had pretty good results with this camera and some creativity. Not awesome pictures, but not crap either. I figure what's limiting me right now is the following

* My lack of ability to control indoor lighting conditions. I need a studio setup. A backdrop, lighting, simply a complete beginner's kit for photographing portraits, beauty and perhaps some tasteful nudes (gotten requests, i hope the things required for those are the same).
* The camera lens. A kit lens probably isn't the best tool for this kind of photography. I'm looking into buying a Nikon AF-50/1,8G lens. Would this be a suitable improvement for semi-amateurprofessional shooting? Any advice is welcome.

So, i'd like some advice regarding what studio equipment and lens to begin with. Currently i'm thinking a small framework, maybe 2,5 meters high and 5 meters wide. A green backdrop and a white one, interchangable. A beginner's set of lighting tools. I have no idea what's good here, so i'm desperate for some advice. I was watching a youtube video of a guy using a zone controller YouTube - ‪How To: Using the AC3 ZoneController for Nikon‬‏ with multiple speedlights for some pretty interesting and seemingly effective lighting. The flashes there seem pretty small when compared to, for instance Elinchrom, so i'm wondering if they can deliver. It would be rather practical if they could, since a speedlight can also be mounted on my D90 for outdoor photography.

Anyway, any kit advice is welcome. Any product list of what i could need, anything.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Village Idiot]

Budget?

 

[NikonME]

The Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D would work for you and would cost less. (about half of the G)

 

[IgsEMT]

Glass:
I'm guessing its 18-105, not 8-105 , anyways... its good enough of a lens for what you need. 50mm (normal lens), depending on how much room you have to work, might be to tight for full length shots.
18-105 does a decent enough job at f/6.3 to 11. I found that outside of these parameters is where it begins to lack in quality
50 1.8D, I have this lens, love it. Use it mostly for newborns or anything that doesn't move . On the crop body its too tight for my flavor as a walk around lens or even portrait lens.
Lighting
Ebay has some kits for few hundred dollars where you can get full set up of light-stands, strobe-lights, backgrounds, etc.
I used Alienbees w/ cybersyncs, all work GREAT! Few years ago, friend of mine bought few shoot-through umbrellas w/ some lightstands and transmitter/receiver - all from ebay. I used them at a wedding w/ my SB600 and SB800(s) - WORKED GREAT. The only few differences b/n some cheaper units and more expensive units, beside price, would be built quality, range (on radios), etc etc BUT on small home-studio, it should not be an issue.
Camera:
D90 is plenty for what you need right now BUT since you started taking on payed assignments its time to get a backup gear (body, lenses, batteries, lighting, etc, etc)