Why Is a Raven Like a Cannon EOS T1i-55IS?

[PearlPauline]

Ha! Just wanted to have a creative title...sorry.

Ok, I'm not a professional, I'm a hobbiest. I love everything about photography. However, I have no ego, nor do I wish to provoke those out there that DO have an ego about their art (and we all know there's A LOT of them). I joined to learn, not to be torn apart by those with far, far more experience/expertise than myself. I hate getting into a photography forum and hearing some poor sap with a legitimate question get ripped to shreds by rude folks seeking to showcase their knowledge. I get it, you win, and for the record I'm a fairly slow learner.

I really don't mean to be rude, I just don't want to get my head bitten off, so I guess I issued the first "bite". Lol. Please forgive me.

So I've got questions about studio lighting. Again, I'm only a hobbiest that enjoys doing shoots of my family, and especially my 8 month old son. That's the extent of it. I don't have, nor do I intend to have, any kind of business. I just want to have proper studio lighting.

From the research I've done I've gleaned that I need a Main, Fill-In, Background I (optional), Background II (optional), and Hair Light (optional). I know where to place them, however I wonder if it would be the epitome of idiocy to pick up one of those $6 clamp light fixtures at Lowe's, stick a fluorescent Daylight bulb in it, and clamp it to the floor joists above my subject (my studio set up is in the basement) and call it a Hair Light.

Also, can all my lights be continuous or do I need to learn about all this strobe stuff. I wont be doing video at all, but I'd really like to steer clear of as much gadgetry as possible since there's a lot of humidity in my basement.

What do you guys think?

 

[Big Mike]

Welcome to the forum.

Firstly, you should decide on the type of lighting that you want to use. Two main types are continuous and flash/strobe. Continuous lighting is pretty straight forward, what you see is what you get. Flash has a steeper learning curve.

Either way, it's fairly important to keep all your lighting consistent. So don't mix an incandescent bulb with flash, or don't mix florescent lighting with tungsten. The reason is that different lights have different color (color temp) and while you can correct for one color, you can't correct for two (or more) different colors.

My suggestion would be to lean toward flash/strobe type lighting. The reason is that it's much easier to get sharp shots with flash, than it is with continuous lighting. Continuous lighting, like natural light, makes you rely on the aperture, ISO and shutter speed to get your exposure....and often, these lights don't give you enough light to get a fast shutter speed, which can cause blur from camera or subject movement. Flash, on the other hand, pretty much takes the shutter speed out of the exposure equation, and givings you sharp photos.

So for shooting people, flash is (IMO) a better choice.

So if you have decide to go with flash, you can look at hot-shoe 'flash' units (can still be used off-camera) or studio style lights. The flash units are smaller and much more portable because they run on AA batteries, but they may not have as much lighting power and are slower to recycle between shots. Studio lights are bigger and will likely have more power, but they do need to be plugged in. For a home studio, I'd prefer the studio style lights.

There are plenty of 'cheap' studio lighting kits. Some might be OK, but they usually look pretty sketchy to me. If you are going to buy studio lights, you may want to look at something decent.
Have a look at AlienBees and Flashpoint Strobes from Adorama.