HELP with buying lights for inhome studio

I soon plan on puchasing a lighting set up for a room I am making into a studio in my house. The room is 11x13' so not too big (and has 8 foot ceilings).

I mostly take my twins pictures - they are 4 yr old girls (and some of their friends). I have both the rebel xt and 20D and a number of lenses (like the 24-70mm 2.8) and 50mm and 85mm primes.

What lighting set up would you recommend for someone who is an ameteur/hobbiest who wants to LEARN lighting- strobes or cool lights. Hot lights are not an option because of having kids that could get hurt on them...

Does anyone know anything about cool lights? It seems like it may be better for a beginner like me - and better priced too - but can anyone help? I could be totally wrong. I am just intimidated but want to have better photos...

Either way - based on my room size and what I am doing, what would you recommend - how many lights, what wattage, what types, and what accessories - like reflectors, umbrellas, softboxes, meters, etc. What brands would you recommend and what items. I can spend between $500-$1,000 at this time. But do not want to waste money either. I already have muslins and such - so now I need to light them...

Any help anyone can provide would be great!

Thanks so much.
Jodi

When it comes to making equipment purchases, it seems harder than shopping for a new car. I can't count the money I have wasted over the years by getting equipment that didn't fully serve the purpose, or wasn't otherwise quite right. Tripods and heads come to mind! So, rather than buy stuff again and again and again, I try to get something I can grow into, will last, and is well designed and made, and comes with good customer service from the manufacturer.

With that introduction out of the way, I would get monolights (cool lights) and I recommend "Alien Bees", a line from Paul Buff, the same guy who makes the White Lightning line. His products are well designed and made, are relatively inexpensive, and are just a great all around value. Customer service is fantastic!! You get a lot for your money. I would consider these lights as a minimum to start. I would not get anything much cheaper, you might regret it. Some lights may have bad color rendition, some may not deliver a consistent amount of light each time at the same setting, and so on. There's a lot of junk out there, some of it not to inexpensive either. European brands are great, but expensive!

As a good step up from the Alien Bees, you might consider Photogenic (very, very good, and they've been around a long time, also American made), or Hensel, harder to find, european, well made, and a good value. Or, just the Paul Buff White Lightinings, also very good.

I would also recommend getting light modifyers from the same maker, because different materials produce differing color renditions. A good white balance will nullify that effect, but you can't balance two at the same time, if two modifyers are producing slightly different color light.

Avoid regular umbrellas. They're just about the worst for almost any purpose. I think you may soon grow frustrated with them. A soft box is best, but expensive, so I go sort of half way between the two, and I got a Westcott Halo, which can fit over a monolights. It's like shooting THROUGH an umbrella, sort of like a softbox, and quick and easy to set up. It's like getting the best of both worlds, but without the expense of softboxes, and the light quality is very good, but still not as good as a softbox. A Halo also makes a good fill light. It's large enough, and aiming it precesely isn't too critical.

Back to the light lights, it also helps to have a set that are almost infinitely variable (something like a 6 stop range in 1/10 stop increments), and something that can show a true ration with modeling lights, so you can see the true, real effect before you snap the shutter. Especially for digital, you want something that can be adjusted down to a 1/10 of a stop, because even this much is noticable with digital. Hope this helps for starters. Final word, don't go too cheap. Save a few pennies first if you have to. No need to get the very best, but go for value.

i am by no means an expert so take what you read with a grain of salt. i would start with a single AB400 and a soft box. get a good light meter (sekonic L-358) and large sheet of white foam board to use as a reflector. once you learn how to control one light you can then move on to adding more lights to your setup. i have seen many many pics where someone goes out and buys 3, 4 or 5 lights and then they wonder why there pics do not come out so good. the reason is they got in way over there head to start. a single light w/reflector can and does produce some wonderful results, while at the same time keeping things simple. here are two links you may find useful:

http://www.ephotozine.com/techniques/viewtechnique.cfm?recid=232

http://www.eddiebonfigli.com/L358.html
--
George F

Thank you - I will check out those links - so monolinks means strobe or cool lights - I got confused because you said mono but it sounded like you were talking strobes.

Thanks -Jodi

Jodi-

Strobe lights and cool lights are not the same. Cool lights are a type of continously-on light(same as hotlights) that use a low heat bulb for use in food and cosmetics lighting.

Strobe lights come in two types-monolights and pack lights. Pack lights, such as the main Profoto system have a central pack to connect AC and control power that each of the 2-4 lights plugged into the pack. Monolights, such as AlienBees, are monolights were each light has its own AC and power control.

Still, the recomendation to use AlienBee AB800s is very good. As a basic starter pack, I recomend 1 AB800 with a large Photoflex softbox and a 42" AB round silver/gold reflector. It is much better to lean lighting with simple equipment. You will also need a hotshoe to PC cord adaptor and long synch cord to trigger the strobe from your camera.

Good Luck-
Scott

momoftwins said:

Thank you - I will check out those links - so monolinks means
strobe or cool lights - I got confused because you said mono but it
sounded like you were talking strobes.

Thanks -Jodi

Click to expand...

I'm one of those people who has always believed in following the path less travelled. The problem with taking the path less travelled is that if you suffer a breakdown, it could be a long time before someone comes along to help you out.

AlienBees are not the cheapest lights you can possibly buy. They aren't the best lights you can possibly buy. But they do represent the best combination of features and reliability for the price. More importantly, between the volumes of information on the website (vastly more than any other manufacturer except Balcar), the friendly customer service, and the forum support from other users, you are less likely to make a bad purchase decision going with AlienBees.

They're good enough and cheap enough that even if you later decide to go with some other brand, you can still use them for backup or ancillary purposes.

--
RDKirk
'TANSTAAFL: The only unbreakable rule in photography.'

If I got one light - do I need a light meter? Can I do high key white backdrops this way? Or would I need a second light? If so - what kind would I need?

although this is not really a high key shot it does show what one single light and a white background can produce.



--
George F

Great picture! Ok - can you explain with one light how you achieved such a white background and such a great floor reflection - and white floor?

What type of light and where was it positioned?

Thanks - Jodi

momoftwins said:

Either way - based on my room size and what I am doing, what would
you recommend - how many lights, what wattage, what types, and what
accessories - like reflectors, umbrellas, softboxes, meters, etc.
What brands would you recommend and what items. I can spend
between $500-$1,000 at this time. But do not want to waste money
either. I already have muslins and such - so now I need to light
them...

Click to expand...

My first purchase was the Alien Bees B400, 35" Octabox and a 5-in-1 reflector. I wasn't happy with the white background shots though, couldn't get pure white like I wanted. Eg:





So, I bought an Alien Bees B800 to replace the main, and use the B400 as a background light. Now white background is easy.





In addition, I bought a couple grids, so I can do hair light, or spot on the background:





So, $225 + $275 (bees) + $100 (octabox) + $60 ($30 each for the grids) = $660. Nothing is wasted because I could sell it all in a heartbeat for pretty close to full price.

• Phil

http://maland.smugmug.com/

...to get pure white.
--
RDKirk
'TANSTAAFL: The only unbreakable rule in photography.'

Do you folks find that when using the AB800 in a small room such as mentioned here (11x13) that you need filters to cut the light down even more? I guess my question is "is it better to have the power on an AB800 turned down than an AB400 turned up"?

I use B800s in living room settings all the time, normally in softboxes (main light, accent lights) or bounced from walls or umbrellas (fill) and sometimes direct.

I never, ever have to filter it to reduce intensity, and I'm normally at half to full power. I'm shooting ISO 800 with apertures for the main light from f5.6 to f11.

I've got a couple of B400s that sometimes get use as accent lights--at full power.

--
RDKirk
'TANSTAAFL: The only unbreakable rule in photography.'

Sounds like for the extra $50 or so, its probably worth getting the 800 instead of the 400. Thanks for the info.

can you tell me more about your set up with the two lights - where are you placing the background light - to the side - from above or behind the subjects?

And the main - to get the white background? Are you using muslin or canvas? Why did you get an octogon softbox versus square or umbrellas? Did you use a reflector?

Your pictures are great!

Thanks for your help?

MichaelW56 said:

Sounds like for the extra $50 or so, its probably worth getting the
800 instead of the 400. Thanks for the info.

Click to expand...

I would say, with the 35" octabox, 90% of the time I have the AB800 set to less than 1/4 power. I try to keep the light close for soft shadows, but that means keeping power down.

I mainly bought it with the plan of buying a larger softbox (on order now), or for the times where the AB400 was just not enough, say for a large group.

I did a 16 person family portrait and had both lights at max power, so I'm glad I got it. And having the AB400 saved me $50 and is plenty for a hair light or background light, so it'll always be usable.

• Phil

momoftwins said:

can you tell me more about your set up with the two lights - where
are you placing the background light - to the side - from above or
behind the subjects?

Click to expand...

The background light is usually to my right. If I'm going for pure white, I'll put it between the kid and the background, and have a shoot-through umbrella attached to help get the background and the floor.

momoftwins said:

And the main - to get the white background? Are you using muslin
or canvas? Why did you get an octogon softbox versus square or
umbrellas? Did you use a reflector?

Click to expand...

For the white background, I bought a 9' wide, 12 yard long roll of Savage super white paper locally for $47 + tax. As for the octabox, I guess I just liked the round catchlights. Joe Marques had some pictures of his daughter that I really liked, although he had the larger octabox. Umbrellas don't give you as much control, so I use mine for the background light. And I bought a cheap 42" 5-in-1 oval reflector off ebay.

momoftwins said:

Your pictures are great!

Click to expand...

Thanks! It's nice to hear. I bought my first strobe exactly a year ago.

• Phil

how do you hide the background light and umbrella from the pictures - won't you see it if it is behind them? I have 4 yr olds and I know they would not be able to cover a light - lol

momoftwins said:

how do you hide the background light and umbrella from the pictures

• won't you see it if it is behind them? I have 4 yr olds and I

know they would not be able to cover a light - lol

Click to expand...

For example, this picture. She's probably about 6-7 feet in front of the background. Both strobes are on my left. The B800 w/ octabox is the main and the B400 is about 3-4 feet from the background. I think the strobe is aimed away from the background and into the umbrella. You can see the extra shadow due to the spread from the umbrella.



Here's the same setup, but with the xmas props:



Send me an email and I'll grab a wide-angle of the setup for you.

• Phil

PHil, thanks for the advice. I wrestle with this AB400 vs 800 thing over and over. Maybe one of each aint such a bad idea.