Best lighting hardware for portrait photos

Hi,

First off I am a beginner in photography but have a particular fascination at the minute in taking good pictures of peoples portraits, but I find this very difficult. I have been given some good advice about how to take portrait pictures which I am practising regularly to crack it.

One of the things mentioned was getting the lighting right, so hence why I am here.

Can anyone offer up any advice as to what lighting hardware I could purchase (at a reasonably price) to help me take better photos?

Thanks in advance.

Have a look at these portraits: http://500px.com/KaiMuellerPhotography

The guy is using only available light. For the portraits shot inside he uses the light of a window...

Point is you don't need a light to learn to make good portraits. If you insist to buy something get one good small affortable flash head like a Elinchrome D-Lite-it-2 or D-Lite-it-4, a 1m Varistar Umbrella, a Varisar reflector, two lightstands and a flashmeter. Don't get a 2 head set. From my experiance you only need one flash head + a reflector board, or three heads, or more.
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Marc
http://marcschlueter.wordpress.com/

There is also a "Studio and Lighting Technique" forum here on dpreview.com. You might want to also over there too. Some very helpful and friendly folks over there!
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James

What is reasonable for me might be intolerable for you - or the other way round.

Check the strobist's blog. He has a 101 course on lighting which is both inspiring and informative. He uses speedlights and the modifiers include softboxe, reflective or shoot-through umbrellas and beautydishes (some DIY). Light stands and reflectors are necessary equipment too.

I bought three roller blinds from IKEA, a white, a grey and a black one, which I use for backgrounds. I then used an unreasonable amount of time to create a box I can hang from the background stands and mounted them inside that box. I use them all the time, so it was a good investment, but if you want other sorts of background, you can find your own way. Just make shure the background does not distract from the portrait.
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Less is more

I agreed with most commented here. At the same time if you do have an urge to buy something (which happens to me sometimes :/ ), buy a medium size reflector set. You don't even need to get the most expensive one. It is a very useful tool. You could use them to awe how light react at your subjects. You could even use them as background from headshots. .

For shooting family/small events a good flash and a reflector are the first additional tools I think you will find most helpful. I would stay with the same brand flash as your camera for your first purchase. I next added Cactus Trigger radio triggers (cheap) and a light stand and umbrella next. I've picked up additional flashes used. They come in handy for both people and still life photos. Both these shots were lit from the side with a reflector on the opposite side. It's fun to work with light!

Hi everyone,

Thanks for all the great responses and advice. You certainly all have gave me something to think about. Hopefully I will crack this portrait shooting.

Thanks again.