|
Forums >
Photography Talk >
Inexpensive studio lighting tricks?
I'm a real idiot at lighting (and a newb at photography in general), so I'm looking to invest in some good studio lights, but everything's so expensive...does anyone have any little tricks for inexpensive indoor lighting that I can use until I can afford an actual lighting system? Mar 07 08 12:52 pm Link What is your budget? Mar 07 08 12:53 pm Link get one light and fifty mirrors! Mar 07 08 12:54 pm Link A slice of oblivion wrote: On the low side...probably $150 dollars at a time, tops. Right now, I'm going to school and working part-time, so anything that I can do to pinch pennies is appreciated. Mar 07 08 12:55 pm Link Aside from budgets... Work lamps and other continuous light sources can be had from Home Depot, Lowe's, etc., for the $20-$50 range, depending on wattage. Alien Bees makes decent monolight kits for studio flash. You'll need to invest in a flashmeter as well. Mar 07 08 12:56 pm Link Mina Cardell wrote: You should be able to get a pair of used hotshoe flashes on a $150 budget. Mar 07 08 12:57 pm Link John Horwitz wrote: Over Kill forty mirrors will work fine.... Mar 07 08 12:57 pm Link  One modeling light on the right and the rest lit with a small flashlight (head wrapped with black cinefoil to prevent light leaking all over). Mar 07 08 12:58 pm Link Mina Cardell wrote: Then go here and start reading Mar 07 08 12:58 pm Link photoflex stuff is good.. and invest in a couple scott kelby books for digital photography.. you can find those at borders. Mar 07 08 12:58 pm Link Here's something that might work for you: http://www.mpex.com/page.htm?PG=Strobist%20Kits Strobist.com style lighting kits at near budget pricing. Hope that helps  Mar 07 08 12:59 pm Link B Ballard Photography wrote: There goes the budget...on just the meter...essential, though. Mar 07 08 01:00 pm Link Mina Cardell wrote:
Mar 07 08 01:01 pm Link BlindMike wrote: My vote. Mar 07 08 01:04 pm Link MMDesign wrote: This is an excellent example of minimalistic style...great mood. Mar 07 08 01:06 pm Link Toohey Brown Photograph wrote: Nah...really? Mar 07 08 01:10 pm Link One of the easiest and least expensive is to get yourself a radio transmitter and receiver so that your on-camera flash can be set up to one side. Get an inexpensive light stand and an adapter so you can mount your flash. Then go to an office supply place - Office Max or Office Depot - and buy a package of velum paper (it's in the architect section). Various sizes are available - get the largest they have. Then build yourself a frame out of foamcore, attach the velum to it and place it in front of your flash. You'll have to experiment a bit with mounting the frame, but you can get an inexpensive solution at Home Depot or Lowes or something like that - it's a gooseneck with clamps on both ends. Clamp one end to the stand and one end to the frame. Once you've done that you have a nice soft light source for your main. Next thing is to get an inexpensive white reflector to use as your fill source. That will reflect about 85% of the light that hits it from your flash and give you nice soft shadows. They're inexpensive and you can get those in any photography supply store (or on ebay). Mounting that would be similar to the flash frame. A third light source could be a mirror positioned to highlight the model's head from above and behind - nice separation. All this should cost less than $100 if you're a careful shopper. And you'll have to experiment (which you should do, anyway) to get the light exactly the way you want it. Hope this helps. Best of success! Mar 07 08 01:12 pm Link One light and a ton of reflectors. Or a dedicated flash. Work lamps can be useful. Or hot lights. Get innovative...you'd be amazed at what you can do. Mar 07 08 01:14 pm Link You can make your own westcott light for about $100 compaired to 600. Take a look at them and go to home depot and get light fixtures Drill them into wood and make sure to use florescent lights to keep the heat down. you can get an equivalent 1500 watt light. Use some common sense and some innovation and always be safe... but you can make them for cheap. Mar 07 08 01:16 pm Link Thanks to everybody for all of their input, ideas and advice - I'm definitely going to do some hunting and experimenting! This has helped so much! :'D Mar 07 08 01:20 pm Link ABSOLUTELY get a folding reflector either 36" round photoflex or 30X60 photoflex folding frame I did lots of things when starting out, with nothing but a reflector...with windowlight or exterior fashion, as fill I rarely shoot anyone without some reflector as fill... for windowlight, or as fill for one light fashion Mar 07 08 01:29 pm Link The strobist blog has some very useful information. Christina Bentley  Shot with sb-30, sb-28 and sb-800, bought all used. I also used camera store closeout umbrellas, $10.00 ea. Background is used packing material. Mar 07 08 01:34 pm Link I think back in the stone age the Flintstones had a bird and a bunch of candles! Mar 07 08 01:37 pm Link MMDesign wrote: That's outstanding! Ok, you're my hero for the day. I'm seriously going to go try this basic setup, just for practice. Mar 07 08 01:44 pm Link Mina Cardell wrote: See if you can't find some of the instruction tapes by Dean Collins. He had several specifically on lighting with just a single ligh souce and still control main light, fill light, hair light and background illumination. Mastering his techniques would allow you to get one good flash and hopefully stay within your budget. Mar 07 08 01:46 pm Link A big softbox and a stand at a local 2nd hand photography shop around here was $125 last I checked. That may just be here though... Mar 07 08 01:52 pm Link ML PhotoGraphics wrote: Wow! Hero for the day!? Mar 07 08 01:55 pm Link go on ebay, buy a few light stands, get some old quartz halogen movie lights for about $5 to $10 each (search "movie light") make some reflectors, buy an inexpensive umbrella or build a softbox.  Mar 07 08 02:11 pm Link 500 watt lights with stands from ebay Mar 07 08 02:27 pm Link This was lit with two 500 watt work lights from the hardware store - $10 each - bounced off of two pieces of 4x8 fome-cor propped up in the corners of the room. The backdrop is a piece of scrim vinyl. I have since added 2 more lights so I can change ratios and have a backup. With the third light I can get 1/60 @ 5.6 at ISO 400. There is room for improvement but this is VERY inexpensive. You don't need the fome-cor if your walls are white. https://www.modelmayhem.com/pic.php?pic … id=5901017 Mar 07 08 06:39 pm Link MMDesign wrote: beautiful Mar 07 08 06:43 pm Link Mina Cardell wrote: This is pretty much the setup that I used to make the portrait below. The flash units cost all of about $70 + tax for all. The main light is a Sunpak DS20 ($30 from Ritz Camera), hair and rim lights are Quantaray MS-1 slave flashes ($20 each from Ritz). The "poverty wizard" flash trigger was acquired from from Gadget Infinity by way of eBay for about $30 IIRC. The light stands are the most costly components in this setup. Mar 07 08 11:42 pm Link Matte acetate stretched over a frame of foamcore (or cardboard or wood or...) makes a cheap diffuser. Half-inch foil-faced insulation makes a handy reflector, as does plain foamcore, silvered mat board or gold-faced mat board. Take a styrofoam ice chest, lose the lid and tape/glue/fasten matte acetate or nylon fabric across the opening, and you have a cheap DIY soft box. Drape a sheer shower curtain across a doorway, and you have a really large softbox. Take some black felt and fasten it to one side of a foamcore panel with glue or binder clips, and you have a gobo. Improvise, adapt, overcome... Surf on over to studiolighting.net and look up "studio lighting on the cheap". Keith R Mar 08 08 01:31 am Link Almost forgot this one... An empty gallon milk jug makes a _huge_ omni-bounce. Mask it off except for one side, and you have a handy soft box. Mar 08 08 05:14 pm Link Henri3 wrote: Theeeeee best answer in the thread.n First learn window light with a reflector. Then move to lights. Mar 08 08 05:24 pm Link Hold off buying stuff until you have more money and shoot with a reflector as suggested. If you want to buy stuff, buy an incident meter. Maybe a flashmeter, you can find an L308 for 150 easily I think. Mar 08 08 05:40 pm Link I like to use window light or direct sunlight. If you use reflectors and diffusers well, then you can manipulate the light to look like a studio. For the clean white look, make sure whatever is supposed to be white is about 2 stops brighter than the rest of it. You can do this shooting in direct sunlight. Light the background directly and diffuse the subject. You can reflect light onto your subject to your liking. Window lighting, especially from the north (Because the sun is to the south of us over the equator), is like a softbox. You can use reflectors and stuff to manipulate the light. I was actually gonna shoot some today like that. Mar 08 08 05:47 pm Link 40 WEST STUDIOS wrote: After a quick view of your port, I'd suggest you shoot a lot, read, shoot more, view. Get a photo editor! There's tons more to know before you get wrapped up in lights. Mar 08 08 05:50 pm Link Mina Cardell wrote: private message me ill give ya some tricks and pointers. My whole set up was less than $200 Mar 08 08 05:53 pm Link . Mar 08 08 08:29 pm Link |
