Strobe studio kit <$350 recomendations

[loren85022]

Instead of the white cloth, you might consider using something like a black or white 12x12" ceramic tile. You'll get a nice reflection for less than $5.00. I might have even returned a few tiles to Home Depot after such a shoot ($0.00).

I wholeheartedly concur that one light, and a large reflector ($40) is a great place to start. Moreover, it is actually what is used for many great photos. I would also concur that Paul C Buff's Alien Bee lights are affordable and again widely used by many well regarded photographers. They're a pretty sought after commodity on Craig's List. The very top echelon of photographers will use a better quality light, but you wont find many pro's saying the AB's arent acceptable. Buff's customer service is widely considered the absolute best in the industry.


I think it's also worth noting that 'studio lights' arent just for the studio. With a Buff battery pack, you can do some pretty fun projects outdoors. The shot below was taken with one Buff Einstein ($500) and one reflector last night. My girlfriend is holding the light, and her 9 yr old is holding the reflector. Add 20 mins of Photoshop and it's a descent shot. (BTW: no plants or rocks were damaged or unturned or damaged in this shot).

 

[sross]

Appreciate all the help and suggestions everyone. I'm going to continue to play with what I've got for the time being and stop posting until something dramatic happens.

 

[Michael Slade]

Don't knock the drop-shadow. It is my stock-and-trade.

You will find that you start looking at any flat surface as a potential 'background' and start to get a collection.

Also, let's tame that White Balance!!!!!

Oh, nice job. You are getting the hang of it quickly.

 

[AA1PR]

I did not read all of the posts

look into fllood lights, adorama plus B&H photo usually sell three piece starter kits for cheap

 

[sross]

Thanks Michael, I'm going to swing by Ritz tomorrow and get a gray card so I can work on the white balance. Unfortunately, my two light sources are not matched at all so the camera has a hard time figuring it out. School starts tomorrow too so I'm going to see if there are any lights I can borrow. I know they have a dark room so they might have some strobes laying around as well.

 

[Every Miles A Memory]

I'd agree with Michael that starting with some simple Shop Lights from any hardware store will really teach you about how to place the light.

Another option is to buy a piece of clear plexi-glass. Pretty inexpensive and it will add a nice glass like appearance and allow some of the light to be reflected up and back onto your subject

When the plexi-glass is placed on your white sheet, it will also take care of any wrinkles in the sheet

Cant you just adjust the white balance in Lightroom until you get the Gray Card? If you're shooting in RAW, which you should be, you can adjust the white balance in Post Processing to anything you want and get rid of that pink hue. But a Gray Card will be the best way to go to get rid of having to do it all in PP

 

[LR Max]

Gray card all the way. Easier to make it right in the camera first time rather than fix it in post.

Also you don't always need a gray "card". I've set while balance off of my gray shoes numerous times.

Another decent idea: possibly setup next to a window and use the window light. I know that usually provides amazing results.

Yes, Alien Bees bring the awesome. Makes my hotshoe flash fleet look like tinker toys.

 

[Michael Slade]

FWIW, you don't need a grey-card to determine white balance. In fact, a grey card is used more for determining exposure than white balance. There is a lot of color variation amongst grey-cards, so you might just want to find some neutral white cardstock or paper. The grey-card will get you very close, then you can tweak it in photoshop/lightroom/gimp/whatever...

If your school has a darkroom, odds are they might have some hotlights laying around. The most important thing with any of your lights is that the bulbs are of the same type, wattage and color. The color of bulbs changes with age, so if you change one bulb, change them all. You might want to make sure that the bulbs are even from the same batch.

Keep it up man!

In my studio lighting class I give an assignment where the students have to light the same scene/object with one, two and three lights. They turn in one print from each lighting setup. We talk about which ones are most successful. Most of the time...bordering on 75-80% of the time the most successful images are the ones that use only one light.

One light mimics the sun, and that is what we are used to seeing, so I strive to use only one light as much as I possibly can.

 

[Michael Slade]

Scott Kelby has a new lighting series available too... Light It, available for your iPad.

YouTube - Light It/Scott Kelby