Starter studio flash setup?

[MiahStan]

Sounds like I can get started with the built in stuff then upgrade to radio as the budget permits. Really looking for the minimum to get started (without being an exercise in frustration.) Can always add/upgrade down the road.

Steve Kaeser Lighting on-line sells some pretty good umbrella boxes. These use a drawstring closure, and are pretty useful. The lighting quality of these is decent. They are priced very affordably. Convertible-style umbrellas from Photflex and Westcott are also pretty nice to have.

In smaller spaces, I like the enclosed umbrella boxes because they keep stray spill light to a minimum. Other brands of this type of light include the Lastolite Umbrella Box, which I also have a pair of; they have great light quality; the interior is a very dull,dull, thick matte white, almost rubberized feeling type of fabric, and the diffusion screen is tighter and less-translucent than the Kaeser ones, and the light's output is softer and more diffused, but the actual quality of the sewing on both these is, pretty shoddy for the price. Photek makes the Softlighter II, which is probably the top dog in this product category.

For indoor use, I would look at 40 to 43 inch umbrellas for use with those flash units. If you want a BIG, soft light source, I would build a Tinker Tubes type PVC frame and fit it with a 42 x 78 inch white rip-stop nylon fabric diffuser, or make a 60 x 60 square panel.

I'd also add to be careful using square light sources (like a square softbox) in the front of a person you're photographing. It drives me nuts when I'm driving down the road, look up at a billboard and see a person on it that is lit nicely but with huge squares of light in the middle of their very round eyes. I think using a round light source (octabox, shoot-through umbrella or beauty dish etc.) for the front of a person really helps with the catchlight matching the composition of the eyes. Everything is nice and round.

When you're photographing products, I don't think it matters as much, but portraits is a different story.

 

[tirediron]

I'd also add to be careful using square light sources (like a square softbox) in the front of a person you're photographing. It drives me nuts when I'm driving down the road, look up at a billboard and see a person on it that is lit nicely but with huge squares of light in the middle of their very round eyes. I think using a round light source (octabox, shoot-through umbrella or beauty dish etc.) for the front of a person really helps with the catchlight matching the composition of the eyes. Everything is nice and round.

When you're photographing products, I don't think it matters as much, but portraits is a different story.

Interesting observation! I agree... to a point. If the setting is out-doors, then yes, round catchlights would be appropriate and realistic, BUT... if the person is being photographed inside, then I think that square/rectangular catchlights are perfectly realistic, and attractive since they are very similar to that produced by a window.

 

[Derrel]

Yeah...square or rectangular catchlights in the eyes of portraiture subjects look like those awful windows that let light into buildings and stuff. So other-worldly.

Speaking of starter flash items, since looking at a couple items in this thread, my e-mail is now getting spammed with an Amazon product that includes a screw-in lightbulb type flash unit, a "slave flash" unit, of the type that the Morris Company has made for decades. Currently on Amazon, marked down (allegedly) to $28. Comes with an electric cord and an umbrella shaft receptacle with locking thumbscrew to hold the umbrella in place, and a simple swivel to tilt the umbrella, and a 5/8 inch standard light stand female receptacle...

Looks "okay" as a source of moderate-power electronic flash, with the umbrella swivel mount and the lightbulb base. For those who have not seen these, look around. These can be screwed into ANY regular "household base" type light socket, in a desk lamp, ceiling fixture, bathroom mirror fixtures, whatever. These are shaped a lot like a lightbulb. These have been made for literally, decades now.

 

[epatsellis]

Westcott Apollo's have been my goto location box for decades, a three light setup, with a couple of lumedynes and 3 heads fit well in a bag and are easy to carry and setup.

For my infrequent studio portraits, I prefer a huge (8') octabox for a "wrap around" light, incredibly soft, and really easy to shoot with. I've used striplights at times (the Elinchrom that is currently mounted on my rolling stand is OK, just...) as well as large silks flown over a set with a half dozen heads firing into them. In the past, my favorite light modifiers were a Broncolor Hazylight and a Cumulite, both incredibly huge light sources. (fortunately, I no longer have a formal studio space, so no room for monster modifiers)

Square catch lights, so Flemish....(as in Vermeer, et al...)

... You.Don't.Need.Remote.Triggers.

What he said. they're nice, but so's my Mercedes ML320. Point being if cost is an issue, then by all means leave the remotes for last. I have a whole drawer full, from Cowboy Studios cheapies to Quantum Radio and Pocket Wizards. 99.9% of the time they stay in the drawer. It's only when I'm shooting on location, and there's a lot of activity around the set (not by me...) then I use a remote, as well as lots of gaffer tape to reduce any possibility of tripping.

 

[Braineack]

For studio flash, I think it makes more sense to buy studio flash units than to modify and adapt speedlights into roles they really are not ideally suited for.

this.

buy two cheap studio lights, not speedlights.

 

[Braineack]

I'd also add to be careful using square light sources (like a square softbox) in the front of a person you're photographing. It drives me nuts when I'm driving down the road, look up at a billboard and see a person on it that is lit nicely but with huge squares of light in the middle of their very round eyes. I think using a round light source (octabox, shoot-through umbrella or beauty dish etc.) for the front of a person really helps with the catchlight matching the composition of the eyes. Everything is nice and round.

When you're photographing products, I don't think it matters as much, but portraits is a different story.

show me a portrait, in natural light, of a perfectly round catch-light.

 

[MiahStan]

[QUOTE="show me a portrait, in natural light, of a perfectly round catch-light.[/QUOTE]

We're not talking about natural light here @Braineack. Matt was asking about the best way to set up an indoor studio. My advice to him is to watch out for square modifiers because of the catchlight it produces.

Round pupil, round iris, round(ish) eyeball, socket, face, head and then a big square catchlight right in the middle. This is a compositional nono and has just never made much sense to me as to why photographers do it.

 

[Braineack]

because it looks most natural?

 

[matt_m]

I haven't done anything about this yet. One thing I realized is I'm really not terribly interested in setting up up to shoot portraits. Originally I was thinking buy something that would allow me to do that but that's overkill. And if I did want to shoot some portraits I could always do them outdoor which seems to be the "in" thing around here anyway based on the family portraits friends and acquaintances are posting on Facebook lately.

What I'm more interested in is setting up to do still life, and that would probably likely be smaller items--think table top. How does that change the advise offered here?

 

[astroNikon]

[QUOTE="matt_m, post: 3532860, member: 209030"What I'm more interested in is setting up to do still life, and that would probably likely be smaller items--think table top. How does that change the advise offered here?[/QUOTE]

Such as Product Photography?

Yup, totally different but the same in a way.

 

[astroNikon]

search "product photography" and you'll get a ton of results

here are a few
=> Help with light box set up please | Photography Forum

=> Advice of studio/product photography lighting | Photography Forum

==> White background on flat items | Photography Forum

==> Shooting issues with reflecting items | Photography Forum

 

[matt_m]

Not commercial product photography but more in the creative sense. Years ago for example I did a photo of an old fashioned milk bottle which still hangs in our kitchen.

 

[astroNikon]

Not commercial product photography but more in the creative sense. Years ago for example I did a photo of an old fashioned milk bottle which still hangs in our kitchen.

use the same creativity that you did in the past ?
Creativity is just that. creative with lighting, background, post processing, etc.

 

[matt_m]

I could. What I did years ago what with some cobbled together hot lights and reflectors.

 

[matt_m]

I've been doing some reading on the Strobist site and am really thinking of giving his method a try. I can buy one more flash, and inexpensive remote kit, and a couple brackets for < $100. If it doesn't work out and I want more I'm not out too much.