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DPChallenge Forums >> Tips, Tricks, and Q&A >> studio/portrait equipment ???
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 01/06/2006 04:09:52 PM · #1
i'm sick of using desk lamps for studio and portrait photography,
because the ligthing is so hard and also too dark (2 60 W light bulbs), but don't have the money to buy "professional" light and background equipment. so my question is, do you have any tips, what background and ligthing (what light bulbs?, what power?, reflection visors? ans so on...) i could use to get a satisfying result (especially with portraits)without spending too much money?
thx
 01/06/2006 04:15:06 PM · #2
I think the answer to this partial depends on what is "too much money" to you.

You can several worklights from a hardware store for around $100.

Or you can get some Alien Bees for <$400

it just depends on how low budget you'd like to go and how far away you want to get from the "desk lamp" set up.
 01/06/2006 04:20:40 PM · #3
Originally posted by Megatherian:
I think the answer to this partial depends on what is "too much money" to you.

You can several worklights from a hardware store for around $100.

Or you can get some Alien Bees for <$400

it just depends on how low budget you'd like to go and how far away you want to get from the "desk lamp" set up.


yeah i would spend around 100$ i mean every change from the desk lamp setup is a big change ;P
...and what are alien bees?
 01/06/2006 04:26:50 PM · #4
well for around $100 I would highly recomend some halogen work lights from Home Depot, Lowes or some such store. They are usually yellow and come with adjustable stands. Normally around 500 watts a peice. You can then use sheet to diffuse or aluminum foil / poster board as a reflector.

Alien Bees are "affordable" lights that many people use, especially when starting out with "real" lighting systems
//www.alienbees.com/

Edit: you might also want to do a search on the forums, this has been discussed a few times and there are numerous pictures people have put up with their home made budget studio set ups.

Message edited by author 2006-01-06 16:28:21.
 01/06/2006 05:10:21 PM · #5
I think you can really do quite well with a few household items, although I'd be perfectly happy for some studio lighting to fall into my lap :) I'm not a complete expert in this stuff, but I've 'been around' and have now set up our own home studio without spending money. Yep it could always be better but it seems to fit our needs at the moment. I guess we're lucky to have a 7m x 3m spare room to use.

Lighting
- Incandescent (Desk) lamps are fine, we have a number of different bulbs and interchanged them 60, 75 100 & 150W. Digital is so easy to adapt to different light sources because you can adjust white balance. Back in the film days, if there was any flourescents around, they turned your image green so you had to use a pink filter. If you were using incandescent, you used a blue filter etc etc

- Intensity: it can be useful to understand that there is a complicated formula for light intensity and then there's the simple one. If you move a light away a quarter of the distance again, you will have half the light on the subject.

Studio
- Cycloramas (cyc): (Not to be confused with dioramas) A Cyc is just a curved corner photographic space. Big studios always have 2 wall cycs with the wall-to-floor and wall-to-wall corners curved and painted all the same colour. The effect is a seamless infinity for almost 180 degrees. Which is how a 100x100ft cyc studio can look like 1930's NYC. Ok, ok that's not what we have at home! We have a work table up against the wall which has a 1mm thick MDF sheeting top which then runs in a nice smooth curve up the wall. This is covered in black velvet or blue taffeta or white card. Onto that you can play a back light or have it disappear out of focus.

Reflectors
- You know all of those old polystyrene fillers out of stuff you buy? Well keep anything that has a decent flat surface on it, they're the best affordable 'soft box' you can get. Even bouncing sunlight off them will diffuse and soften it (they use it in the movies, so it's fine at home).

- Any time you see a cheap white umbrella, buy it. Our photo shop sells them for $69.95. At Target they're $12. At the second hand shop they're $2. Point a 100w lamp at them and you get a very nice diffused soft light back. Although you will probably have it just on the edge of frame to get it to work over your subject in a portrait.

- Old Sheets and pvc pipe: Half or three quarter inch PVC pipe is the home studio builders best friend. It's cheap, you can get fittings to make any angle under the sun, you can set up and take down easily because its all push-fit and it bends and holds shapes. You can make a 6ft dia circle and stretch a white sheet over it for just a few bucks. We saw one in the photo wholesalers yesterday for $350

So that's about it, our room is big enough to do full sized portraits but with our current setup, we just do smaller stuff up to a head and shoulders portrait.

I don't know if that helps or not.

Brett
 01/06/2006 10:49:15 PM · #6
Go to sears and get one or two of these. Often on sale for $19.99. Taller stands than most work lights, 4 levels of illumination.

you can get shite and black sheets at walmart for $3 each. the white works as a back drop and also for diffusing and bouncing light.

To hang them screw some hooks into the ceiling and use PVC pluming pipe from home depot and clothes pins to hold the cloth on the pipe. under $10

01/06/2006 10:55:43 PM · #7
Seriously, and I'm not trying to write this to try and turn you away from chasing your goals or dreams, but in all honesty, it's all based on the same principals. Whether you're using two 60W light bulbs or you're using huge studio strobes, it's all the same game. If you don't have the patience to properly set up two easy to work with light bulbs, toss a reflector here or a home-made diffuser there for some nice lighting, then what makes you think that you're going to be able to do it just because you have more expensive equipment?

I realize you're not spending a huge amount of money (or what amounts to a huge amount of money, in my opinion), but what is it that you find the most lacking with your current setup that you hope to fix by getting different lights?

Heck, for no more than 20 dollars and the lights you already have laying around your house, you can make up some nice diffusers and get some posterboard for backgrounds. Experiment, shoot, and experiment some more until you're happy with what you have or feel you have mastered what you have.

edit: posterboard or bed sheets and so on.

Message edited by author 2006-01-06 23:28:09.
 01/06/2006 11:58:10 PM · #8
I would be very leary of using the high wattage worklights, as they run very very hot, and can be a fire hazard and cause injury, even to your eyes, if you look into them for too long. Plus, the heat they put out will make your subjects uncomfortable and sweat a lot... not very good looking.

If you haven't got the money for one 400W Alien Bee light (about $225 with stand, umbrella and carrying case, then I would consider ebaying a couple of cheap flash units to use in either manual or auto mode. You will probably need to invest in digital safe sync slave sensor (about $60) and maybe build a stand or two with clamps to hold them in place. White sheets on a cheapo frame, or white poster board can be used as reflectors.
 01/07/2006 12:29:44 AM · #9
Originally posted by Olyuzi:
I would be very leary of using the high wattage worklights, as they run very very hot, and can be a fire hazard and cause injury, even to your eyes, if you look into them for too long. Plus, the heat they put out will make your subjects uncomfortable and sweat a lot... not very good looking.

If you haven't got the money for one 400W Alien Bee light (about $225 with stand, umbrella and carrying case, then I would consider ebaying a couple of cheap flash units to use in either manual or auto mode. You will probably need to invest in digital safe sync slave sensor (about $60) and maybe build a stand or two with clamps to hold them in place. White sheets on a cheapo frame, or white poster board can be used as reflectors.


LOTS of people here use work lights with very good results. It all just depends on how you use them.
 01/07/2006 12:51:22 AM · #10
Originally posted by Megatherian:
LOTS of people here use work lights with very good results. It all just depends on how you use them.


Much better to go buy a couple of cheap strobes and a sheet or two of foam core. I've seen Vivitar hotshoe flash units going for less than $10 on ebay. One of those will put out like 1000 times as much light as your halogen work-light, the light will look more natural, and you don't risk baking your subject or burning the house down.
 01/07/2006 11:15:16 AM · #11
Originally posted by dpaull:
If you don't have the patience to properly set up two easy to work with light bulbs, toss a reflector here or a home-made diffuser there for some nice lighting...

Heck, for no more than 20 dollars and the lights you already have laying around your house, you can make up some nice diffusers and get some posterboard for backgrounds. Experiment, shoot, and experiment some more until you're happy with what you have or feel you have mastered what you have.


I read a lot about softboxes and diffusers and reflectors, and as dpaull mentions, if you don't know where to put them...

Does anyone have any advice, photos, references, etc. on how to set this stuff up. I have a couple of Sears 250w-1000w work lights. Do you recommend umbrellas? What color, where to place them, etc. Perhaps someone with experience could write and post a "Poorman's Studio Lighthing" tutorial (with photos!).

Message edited by author 2006-01-07 11:18:21.
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