Off camera flash? What's my next step?

[jdgower]

I currently have a Canon T1i, 430 ex ii, and recently made myself a backdrop stand and bought a black felt material (which works great, at least for my purposes). Anyhow, I find myself wanting to get more material for backdrops and have concerns with lighting. At the moment I'm just using the 430 on camera pointed at the ceiling or a wall (if it looks good).

What should be my next step? Photos of my daughter lost in space (black) have already gotten boring for me. I am on a (VERY) limited budget, but could possibly talk my wife into some kind of smaller purchase, or i'll save, whatever...I just would like to know the next logical step for me.

Some specific questions:

Are flashes absolutely necessary? What would just having extra lights (like shop-type lights) do for my photos if anything?

Is there any way to get the seamless white look without having to purchase more flashes? (specifically, i was wanting photos of my daughter eating cake for her 1 year pictures on a total white background)

Will any type of fabric background work (in terms of shadows, etc.) if I continue with only the one flash on camera?

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Thanks for any insight you can provide! I'm lost in this new world of photography!

-Jeremy

[jdgower]

Also, all photos are being taken in my living room - which isn't very big...the width works for basically my backdrop stand (72" fabric, could also be enough room for a light stand on either side) and I have about 8 feet to move backward.

[mjs1973]

Hey Jeremy,

I'm no lighting expert, but shop lights would work fine, as long as you set your white balance to match. Lots of DIY photographers buy clamp lights and then put daylight balanced bulbs in them. You can clamp them to just about anything so you can put them anywhere. Another low budget option is to make some reflectors. A simple piece of white foam core board works great to bounce light back onto your subject.

[OldClicker]

I would also say that shop lights work fine as long as there is no reason you cannot use slow (very slow) shutter speeds. - TF

[jdgower]

hmmm, well slow shutter speeds is a concern when taking photos of an active 1 year old...I always stay at 1/60 + when photographing her and still occasionally will see some blur.

[jdgower]

I have been looking at flash setups on ebay and only have a question about w/s...what i would really like is 2 umbrellas and another flash for the background...what i am seeing in my price range on ebay and amazon would be about 45 w/s but i have no idea what i need for what i want to do...can anyone provide insight about what w/s I would want to stay above?

Thank you and sorry for all of the questions! You all are very helpful!

[jdgower]

I think i have decided to go ahead and get a kit (would like something like http://www.cowboystudio.com/product/c07/p0702-23.php).

However, I would like to be able to control the flashes wirelessly and I would also want to go ahead and get a $30 kit to mount my 430 ex ii so that i can have 3 off camera flashes if i wanted...

Any ideas on what i need to make this setup work wirelessly with my T1i? Sorry for my noobness.

Also, would this be a good setup? Keep in mind that I have about 2-3 feet on both sides of my backdrop to work with. Would i be able to use this outdoors and see any kind of result?

Lots of questions so I'll stop there.

Thanks so much in advance!

[Grandpaw]

I would like to suggest looking at the tabs near the top of the page and click on the one marked learning. Then click on the one marked photo lessons and check out the information by clicking on each of the thumbnails that cover different aspects of lighting. You are always welcome to ask questions because they benefit everyone that reads them, Jeff