Lighting Help

[ken1953]

Hello all...
Although this is a lighting and studio question, it is also a pentax question. My wife and I have 2 Pentax *ist DL's and I want to get her some studio lighting since she is interested in portrait photography. Can someone suggest a very inexpensive lighting kit w/ a slave system that will match our system. I can't afford over $200 at this time but would like to get it for her for christmas, so she can start learning how to use a lighting system. Any ideas or suggestions will be greatly appreciated. We are very new to this so I may not be asking the right question, but I am looking at like a 3 light system.
Thanks in advance.

[mjs1973]

Hey Ken,

Good to see you and Kim are still at this whole photography thing. I know nothing about lighting systems, but have you looked at hot lights at all? I'm pretty sure they are much cheaper than strobes, and you wouldn't have to worry about slaves or anything like that since the lights are on all the time.

B&H has a number of 3 head tungsten kits for less than $200.

I hope Kim doesn't read this thread. ;)

[cyberlord]

Ken, you can do wonders with manual flash units and umbrellas/soft boxes. Do you have a 360 or 540 flash unit? If so you have what you need already. Now just get light stands and a flash/umbrella bracket and an umbrella or 2. You could even pick up a cheap manual flash with a slave for a background light or hair light and still be way under budget. That's of course if you already own a couple of pentax flashes.

Take a stroll around strobist.com and pick up some ideas.

If you are truly set on studio strobes then you should fork out the money. Good ones will cost you some cash and the cheap ones will just rip you off.

Tungsten lights are hot and I would not want to sit under one for an extended photo shoot. But if you want to try them, you might already have some 500W or 1000W halogen work lights. If not you can get some at your local home improvement store. They are way cheaper than $200 and then you get to see just how hot they can be without spending your entire budget. If you don't like them, take them back.

(edit)
I found this link; http://www.studiolighting.net/digita...ic-principles/

[ken1953]

Thanks guys for the suggestions. I'll definitely have to check out the use of the flash units. We already have a couple of umbrellas that we got from NYIP. Both of you have offered me something to really think about.
Thanx,

[Photo-John]

Ken-
Consider a couple of hot lights. As long as no one is going to be moving fast, they're the best bang for the buck. Plus, what you see is what you get. With strobes there's always a bit of a disconnect between the strobe light and the modeling lights. I've got a Photoflex "First Studio" portrait kit here that I'm about to test. If you check the Photo Lessons page here, I think you can learn more about it. That would be a good, inexpensive way to get started.