Need advise on children and family photography

[tirediron]

...I have a great open concept house with large bay windows that allow lots of light in, plus I have a speed light, a reflector, and 2 softboxes

That's a start, but you've a way to go before you reach 'good lighting'. The windows and ambient light in your house are really irrelevant, but I will assume based on that your intention is to shoot at least some sessions using your home as a studio. First and foremost, few houses, even really large ones have sufficient room and ceiling height for group studio work (FWIW, let's take "family to mean Mom, Dad, and two children). 10' ceilings are, IMO the absolute minimum and even in my studio, I have found the 14' ceilings to be limiting in some cases. You want LOTS of open space so that you can move around the clients and move lights around. For family work, I would want at a space at least 10x20 with at least 12' ceilings.

As for lighting, it's great to have lots of nice ambient light, but you can't rely on it. If you get a client that wants their session shot at 1.00pm on a completely overcast December day, you need to be able to accommodate. Three lights is, IMO, the absolute minimum, and five is a much better number. Look into Adorama's Flashpoint series of monolights as a starting point. Three of their 150 w/s units would be very inexpensive and an excellent starting point.

As far as lenses go, if you're going to stick with your current body, I would simply pick up a 55-200; you're going to be shooting groups using smaller apertures so that issue won't be a problem, and it's cheap like borscht.

 

[KmH]

Be sure and check local ordinances.
In the town where I live a local ordinance prohibits residents from conduct a retail business in their home.

I agree with John that window light has some significant limitations, mostly due to lack of control over the light source - the sun.
The color temperature of the light will change throughout the day, and the sun's altitude as it moves through the sky changes through out the year.
Weather causes lots of problems when too if window light is your main source of light .

Your profile has no location information so it's hard to assess the quality and direction your window light is likely to have.

The best window light comes from north facing windows.
East and west window light is problematic at different times of the day.
East window light is harsh in the morning and west window light is harsh in the afternoon/evening.
Here in central Iowa the sun doesn't rise higher than about 45° above the horizon in the winter but goes almost straight up and overhead in the summer.

The optimum control of light comes from using a room with no window light at all and using the 3 to 5 studio lights John mentions.
For group shots you need larger light modifiers (reflectors and softboxes) and more lights than you would want to use for a child.

Light modifier size determines how harsh or soft the light used is on your subjects and on how much area the light can be effectively used.

Doing photography as a business is nothing like doing photography as a hobby.
About 70 percent of a retail photographers time and effort winds up needing to be devoted to doing business tasks in order to keep the business going and profitable.
So successfully doing photography as a business is mostly about having really good business skills.
Many mediocre photographers make a good living doing retail photography because they are better at running a business than they are at doing photography.

Effective communication, both spoken and written, is a business skill that helps run a business.
Good luck with your business venture.

FWIW - Advise is a verb. Advice is a noun.

 

[Designer]

I'm asking on advise to give me the right tools to get there.

Don't overlook salesmanship as a tool. You might have that covered, but just a reminder.

I agree, windows are not much use, really, because of the direction of the light entering. About the best shoot using window light would be something like a toddler playing on the floor about three or four feet from the window wall. Then you get nice soft light coming from higher up. Anything else is dealing with sideways light, which can be effective in certain poses, etc., but usually only for those certain effects.

 

[abee]

Thanks for your time and comments, everyone.

I'm near Vancouver, BC, I have 10 ft ceilings and the windows face south.

I do not have any timeline for my venture. Could be this year. Could be 5 years from now. Might be never. Who knows. I don't even know if I'll be good enough to charge money for my photos. My inquiry was into what equipment I should be looking into in preparation for that time. i want to have the right tools and I'm willing to invest some money now.

 

[tirediron]

Lighting. LOTS of lighting gear.

 

[beagle100]

Lighting. LOTS of lighting gear.

This children and family photographer uses only natural light
www.flickr.com/photos/desertrose76

 

[Designer]

Could be this year. Could be 5 years from now. Might be never.

You need to push this out of your mind right now. You need a timeline in which positive steps are made at or very near the timeline, otherwise you'll never achieve your goal.

Start making that timeline and saving up for your first purchase. It doesn't need to be a huge investment of a large expensive thing, but every year or every month you need to get something done.

Start doing research on lights and modifiers. Come back on here to ask questions. Ready, set, go!

 

[KmH]

This children and family photographer uses only natural light
www.flickr.com/photos/desertrose76

And it shows - with many shots of the people and babies having 'raccoon eyes' or dark eye sockets.
A lot of the photos also have little or no 'pop' and the photographer has had to resort to some heavy handed post process image editing in an attempt to create the kind of pop that can be gotten using supplemental light.

 

[beagle100]

This children and family photographer uses only natural light
www.flickr.com/photos/desertrose76

And it shows - with many shots of the people and babies having 'raccoon eyes' or dark eye sockets.
A lot of the photos also have little or no 'pop' and the photographer has had to resort to some heavy handed post process image editing in an attempt to create the kind of pop that can be gotten using supplemental light.

LOL !

the photographer is actually quite famous with her natural light "pop"

How To Shoot Dreamy Backlit Portraits With Natural Light

 

[KmH]

Which shows how low the bar has gotten in the retail photography industry.

 

[beagle100]

Which shows how low the bar has gotten in the retail photography industry.

we pity the poor photographers !
Lisa Holloway

 

[abee]

Ok I'm back for more advise. I've made the decision to upgrade to full frame. I went to my local camera store and they let me put my memory card into a few bodies and take some pictures.

1st option:
Nikon D610 kit with 50mm 1.4D
2nd option:
Nikon D610 body and purchase a 85mm 1.8
3rd option:
Nikon D750 kit with 24-120mm f4/G ED VR

Of the shots I took,the 3rd option came out the most sharp. I think I'm hung up on the fact its f4, and not wider. If I go with option #3 I can still use my 50mm 1.8 so that may solve my issue. But how does this lens hold up indoors? It looked fantastic outside on a sunny day.

 

[astroNikon]

With indoor you still have to deal with Depth of Field. So f/1.8 allows more light in, but if you are up close and trying to take a photo with more DOF for a couple ppl shot you still need f/4-5.6 or more. The FF sensor will compensate for this very well. The addition you have the 50mm f/1.8.
I think moving to FF allows more flexibility especially for indoor and even outdoor when the light gets lower during the evening. I'd still go with the d750 due to the zoom. FYI, I use a D600 and use mostly f/2.8 glass but have some general zooms too which are fine in lower light due to the low light sensitivity of the FF sensor.