StoryInPictures

When you buy classes they give you a referral code for $15 off. I'll send it to you in a pm.

"Decent light source for portraits" is, indeed, the question. The answer is, that depends on what descent light means to you. It depends on what exposure settings you hope to achieve.  f8 and ISO ...

Knowledge and experience matter more than gear. And, for tabletop, you don't need tons of photo gear. In fact, I think one flash is enough to do good tabletop work. What you will want is scrims, ...

Is bringing a stand an option? Setting it on a stand would make it easier to get a good angle and perhaps bounce the light off of a wall or ceiling. Some stands are made to set up and put down ...

I think the basic conversation here is about image quality at base ISO. The more expensive cameras clearly have huge capability advantages in many areas, which explains much of the difference in price.

Hi Ellis, I respect you and have respected your posts from when you showed up on photo.net years ago.  I'm not sure why you think I missed your point.  My first declarations were that good points ...

Good points above. You will, of course, be much better off hiring a skilled photographer. The items you showed have the advantage of being simple withought highly reflective surfaces, transparent ...

You seem to have missed the significant differences I mentioned in my post above With all the years in the business, Quantum has not added Fuji X support. They have not added Sony support. They ...

The 150 Indirect is a great piece of gear--a personal favorite Do you know a place to rent Elinchrom gear in the US?

The 360 alone is a significant step forward. Bare tube bulb, TTL support not merely for Canikon but also for m4/3, Sony and Fuji, dual head support or gang both ports or even two batteries for ...

Um...I think travelites are Calumet's house brand name on Bowen's products. I'm pretty sure my ancient travelites even have fine print on the units themselves which indicate as much. My old Bowens ...

Many good points above. I prefer the 7' Silver with the white cover, because the combination is significantly more versatile for me. If it costs you too much light, that might rule against it. The ...

Good points made above Reflective (shiney) eyes are, indeed, a benefit, since they show specular highlights well. Shiney skin is not good.  Painted on catchlights are the worst. I got a complete ...

Paul Buff units have much to recommend them for US consumers, but I think importing them is a bad idea. Their service is very good in the US but their reliability leaves something to be desired. ...

I recommend working with only one strobe, even if you have more. It has been my observation that working with one strobe gets you better images faster and makes learning faster. Get a big reflector ...

Your reasons for preferring the Mamiya sound right and you understand the trade offs The XT2  Fuji can be used tethered, as can the quite serviceable XT1, which is substantially less expensive. ...

Brief but good review of Roadrags by Micheal Clark in his newsletter: http://files.michaelclarkphoto.com/fall_2016.pdf

This is news to me  I know they added the litemotiv line, but I didn't realize they were moving "beyond" eight ribs. Are you saying they will be updating the Rotalux line to more ribs?  Or do you ...

Camera advice...you will get more suggestions than you can use. Film is significantly harder to work with and the cost of processing film will add up. If that's ok with you, go ahead with your ...

The Bowens mount is also referred to as "Universal" and, as mentioned above, there are plenty of other brands. In fact, over the last several years, I think it's safe to say that far more ...