I have no experience with lighting, where to start?

[Derrel]

Here you go: Amazon.com: Flashpoint 320M Portrait Wedding Monolight Kit, with Two 320 Monolights,9.5' Stands,Umbrellas, Snoot and Carrying Case: Camera & Photo

 

[unpopular]

The 1220's are a LOT of power and if you have a huge space or something they are awesome.

ND gels are cheap. Get the most powerful lights you can afford.

 

[Mike_E]

The 1220's are a LOT of power and if you have a huge space or something they are awesome.

ND gels are cheap. Get the most powerful lights you can afford.

600 ws down to 1/32 power is about 19 ws. Add a modifier to that to loose another stop and you're at 9 ws or so.

I don't know how low you'd want to go but 9ws is pretty dim.

As Unpopular alluded to, it's a lot easier to loose the wattage than it is to add it.

You can also use a more powerful strobe in ways that make up for fewer heads. For instance you can use a diffusion panel for a main, have part of the beam off a reflector for the fill and use another part off a small reflector for a hair light. If you have a largish silver reflector you can even add a kicker to that.

With two 600ws lights you can use one for the main, the fill and the hair then the other as a kicker and a background light. With 150ws lights or even 300ws- not so much.

 

[MLeeK]

I like the kit Derrel linked to quite a bit and I have one of those lights. For more power I'd go with this one Flashpoint FP620MPWK Portrait Wedding Monolight Kit FP620MPWK within your budget by pennies, but it's the most you can get for what you want to spend!

 

[unpopular]

Yeah. Once you start diffusing those 150w/s, you're going to loose intensity at any one place very quickly. In a perfect world, the intensity per square unit you had from an 11" reflector is reduced to about 13% with a 30" diffusor, and that is assuming that the diffusor itself doesn't absorb any light - which they do, and do significantly.

 

[ewick]

I guess my budget is around $500, just to buy simple equipment to start off with.

For that budget you can buy alien bee's by paul buff. I got a pair and havent looked back. they also sell the mini vagabond which allows you to use them outdoors as well. Thats only for the lights though and when you start buying softboxes or umbrellas or reflectors or beauty dish ect. is were it gets expensive.

 

[unpopular]

I thought I'd also mention that w/s is not a measurement of how bright the lights are. Like I said, my 300 w/s lights measure brighter than the alienbee 320 w/s units, according to their own specification sheet. That doesn't mean that alienbees isn't outputting true 320 w/s, only that the design of the mettle is more efficient at converting electrical energy into light. It's kind of like how a 30 watt incandescent bulb puts out less light than a 30 watt mercury vapor bulb, regardless that both bulbs consume 30 watts of power.

My point is that you can kind of have an idea of what class of output a light will have by it's wattage - i'd say that my mettle C300's and teh Alienbee B800 are similar side by side as far as light output, but the exact amount of light mine puts out is slightly more. At the same time, the alienbees have a faster recycle rate and shorter flash duration.

On the other hand, less reputable manufacturers might be even less efficient or - and more likely and - a little creative in how they rate wattage.

Unlike watt second, Guide Number or Lumensecond actually measures the amount of light that is being generated.

 

[Village Idiot]

I guess my budget is around $500, just to buy simple equipment to start off with.

For that budget you can buy alien bee's by paul buff. I got a pair and havent looked back. they also sell the mini vagabond which allows you to use them outdoors as well. Thats only for the lights though and when you start buying softboxes or umbrellas or reflectors or beauty dish ect. is were it gets expensive.

Barley. Two 320w/s B800's would be over budget and that's without stands, triggers, modifiers, or anything else. They're not so special as to spend the extra money when you can get other lights that produce nearly the same type of light for cheaper. The only difference is that no one produces Buff Light like the Bees...at least that's what my brainwashing sessions have lead me to believe.

 

[2WheelPhoto]

i attended a studio lighting and a studio lighting advanced course.

Of course asking on the internet i reckon will serve you well too

 

[Derrel]

i attended a studio lighting and a studio lighting advanced course.

Of course asking on the internet i reckon will serve you well too

All that in-person edumacation serves to do is make a guy vastly better really fast. Bad, bad idea learning from real people...it can bring on TMI episodes and brain fatigue...very,very risky business....

 

[2WheelPhoto]

i attended a studio lighting and a studio lighting advanced course.

Of course asking on the internet i reckon will serve you well too

All that in-person edumacation serves to do is make a guy vastly better really fast. Bad, bad idea learning from real people...it can bring on TMI episodes and brain fatigue...very,very risky business....

You're right!

 

[topazsol]

haha thanks for all the links and recommendations

 

[pgriz]

Lights and strobes are good. But knowledge will help you put it together and know what you actually need. I recommend investing in some reading material first. KmH recommended this book to me, and LizardKing mentioned it as well: Amazon.com: Light Science and Magic, Fourth Edition: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting (9780240812250): Fil Hunter, Paul Fuqua, Steven Biver: Books

Excellent, example by example illustration of basic to advanced lighting techniques. If you know, understand, and can do reliably what's in this book, you're going to be very, very good at lighting.

 

[LizardKing]

Lights and strobes are good. But knowledge will help you put it together and know what you actually need. I recommend investing in some reading material first. KmH recommended this book to me, and LizardKing mentioned it as well: Amazon.com: Light Science and Magic, Fourth Edition: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting (9780240812250): Fil Hunter, Paul Fuqua, Steven Biver: Books

Excellent, example by example illustration of basic to advanced lighting techniques. If you know, understand, and can do reliably what's in this book, you're going to be very, very good at lighting.

Yeap, this is a great book. KmH recommended it to me, too. Haven't got the time nor equipment to do all the exercises yet, but it definitely changed the way I see light and think of photography.