Home Studio Lighting Help Please

[MotoGP]

Noob here & I'm trying to set up a area of my basement for portraits.
I have a 550EX Speedlite, & a Alien Bees 400, but i need to get a box or umbrella for it. I was wondering what else would go well with what I already have? Sorry for the quality of my pic, it is from my phone. Thanks in advance for your time & input.

 

[tirediron]

The first thing would be a great deal more distance between camera and background! You'll want to get another lightstand (or cheap tripod) and a trigger so that you can get that speed-light off your camera, but other than that, you're off to a good start. The ceilings look a little low for any really creative work, but you will definitely be able to produce some nice portraits. I would give some consideration to replacing that white background with seamless paper if you want to go white though.

 

[Big Mike]

Welcome to the forum.

It looks like you're trying to shoot with a white backdrop...probably to end up wit a white background in the photos. But if you shoot with what you have here, it's likely that your background will not come out white...but grey(ish). The reason is that your background is always going to be farther away from the light, than your subject is from the light. That will cause the background to reflect less light.

The way to do it properly is to have a separate light (or two) that just illuminate the background...and with a fabric backdrop like that, you'll probably want two, because if you use just one, all the wrinkles will show up in the photo.

Also note that the two built-in lights will have a different color (color temp) than your flash & studio light. So you should probably turn them off when shooting.

HERE is a nice tutorial on how to properly set up a studio for a white background.

Now, I'm thinking of a possible solution, rather than having to buy two more studio strobes. Since you already have the built-in light sockets, you could use screw-in AC slave flashes. Something like THIS. They screw into a standard light socket, and are triggered by the flash from your on-camera or studio flash. The only concern is that you have pot-lights and not directional lights. If you could find an adapter or change out those light fixtures, into something that you could control the direction...then you may be able to use two slaves in those sockets, as your background lights.

 

[Derrel]

I think Big Mike's suggestion of $30 Smith-Victor lightbulb-base, screw-in slave flash units of low watt-second ratings is actually a very good one. Both Smith-Victor and The Morris Company make a number of small,lightweight, and very affordable flash units that are designed to thread into regular household lamp sockets, which allows you to use them in table lamps, as well as in clamp-on or hanging "shop work/engine work" type lamp units. The simple clamp-on lights that have a steel or aluminum reflector, and a wire clamp on the bottom are easy to position.

The most critical thing in a small,confined home studio is the ability to CONTROL THE LIGHT, both in its intensity, as well as in its CHARACTER, and also its SPREAD. In a small, basement studio, the Alien Bees lights are, in word, overpowered. I would much rather have five 100- or 150-watt-second monolights, with grids, and diffusers, and modifiers, than two or three more of less 400 watt-second lights that are designed basically to be used with umbrellas.

You need to have FIVE light sources. Period. And you need tools to help you modify their intensity, character, and beam spread.