Lighting Recomendations for Portraits

[storm180]

I have been shooting outdoors for quite a while and doing very well at it. However I have had some clients who have requested that they want some indoor shoots done like at their homes or in my home studio. I already have back drop and stand that I have used for some outdoor photography using natural light. I have a Canon Rebel XTi. My clients want full body poses with their kids and animals. So I won't be doing any headshots. So I will need ample enough light for that.

I have been looking at lights for a few weeks and I get different answes from different people. So I was hoping someone can shed some light on the subject. I am not looking to drop a ton of money on a light kit but I do know for portraits I need at least 3 lights. My price range is at the $600.00 area or less. Since portraits is not my primary business.

I was looking at this Flourescent kit which claims its made for digital camera, says I don't have to mess shutter speed and aperature as with other lighting sources.
http://www.lincoinc168.com/smbustkit.html

This other one is a strobe kit, now my XTI does not have the PC adapter thing so I would have to get a special hot shoe for it to make it work. I have read of people having difficulties getting the strobe to work properly but most experts go with a strobe setup. Not sure on the learning curve of working with strobes or getting everything to fire properly and since I never used a lighting kit before.
http://a763.g.akamai.net/7/763/1644/...767218/extra/1

I have also looked at these two. One is fan cooled and the other is air cooled. These are continous light and it is adjustable brightness. One of these were my originals I was going to go with until I researched the other types.

http://store02.prostores.com/servlet...SOFTBOX/Detail -Fan cooled

http://store02.prostores.com/servlet...IN-LAMP/Detail - Air cooled

[GB1]

Not sure exactly what is best. I looked at the Flourescent kit and its claim that "you can be free of controlling the aperture and shutter speed during the photo shoot" but am not sure what they mean. It may mean that it's on all the time, like in modeling mode, and you don't have to worry about it burning out (??). The other kit (strobe) looks great for that cost, if you can get it to work with your camera. Note that it's wattage isn't real high but should be OK if you're close to your model and your ISO isn't too low. The other lights look OK too. Note that you will probably also need an incident light meter and those can cost also. Things add up. But the cost of the systems seem reasonable, as I paid about $700 for just one umbrella light about 5 years ago (it is 1000 watt).

G

[JTcooper]

Storm, do you have any external flash I'm sure you have at least one right. if you do use that with a shoot through umbrella and maybe two one main other for fill, these setup is good up to three or four in a groups shot distance subject to lite about six feet 1/2 power you can get an fstop 5.6 with no problem and it quick to set up take down too.