Need help in selecting ligthing for in-home studio

[photobugd80]

Hi, I am new to this forum as I just found it in hopes of finding something like this to answer my questions.

My name is Donna and I have been shooting with a Nikon D80 for over a year now. I have done nothing but portfolio building over the past year. I do not charge for my photo shoots at this time because I do not feel the time is right yet. Up till now, I have only shot outdoors/on location which is great. I do like this but I am trying to expand on that and over studio type shots too. There are times when outdoors/on location is just not possible and would like to have this as a second option. I have over time collected a few things like backdrops, backdrop stand along with other odd and end pieces knowing that I would eventually go for lighting. Well that time has come and I am now shopping in hopes to purchase a set within the next month or two. But for now I am just trying to figure out what I have to have to start that I can build on later but will be enough of a kit that I can do studio shoots. I have things in mind that I want but am not sure if I am getting the right things. I would hate to spend the money and get it all and find out after the fact that I bought the wrong things.

So this is why I have come here for advice/input.

My normal photo shoots consist of: Maternity, birth/newborn in the hospital, infants, toddlers, small children, small groups no larger than 3 people, seniors, and engagement photos.

I am not really looking for a lighting kit that I can take with me, I am trying to setup an in-home studio that my clients can come to my home. I do want to be able to build on this in time but currently I do not have the space to handle the B1600 lighting. I think at this point my master lighting will be the B800 with B400 as a fill. Over time I would like to expand on my space and switch my master lighting from B800 to B1600 as I would incorporate that B800 along with my fill lighting.

Now do realize that I am new to studio lighting but have been trying to research and figure out what I need based on what I want to do.

I have questions about how what I want to get will work with my Nikon D80. What substitutions will I need or special adapters? I have the Nikon SB600 but I am thinking that I don't "have to" use that. At least I was hoping that I did not have to. I would prefer to keep that along with my Gary Fong light sphere for on location shoots as needed.

Here is my equipment that I have:

Nikon D80
Nikon 35mm f/2, main lens - LOVE this lens.
Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8, used mostly for infants and toddlers.
Nikon 105mm f/2 VR Macro, used for macro photography and for portraits - mostly head shots.
Nikon 70-300mm VR, casual lens
GF Lights Sphere Clear, used as needed for on location shoots.
Expodisc Digital White Balance (Neutral), used for my terrible in-home lighting.
Backdrop stand, 5 backgrounds: 1 9x10 blue stonewashed muslin, 1 small white, 1 small black, 1 9x10 black muslin, 1 10x12 white muslin.
Tripod (bogen name brand)

Current Studio working space: 12 x 13 feet.
Target price range: $600 - $1700

Here is the equipment that I want to buy:

AlienBees B800-Deep Space Black
10-foot General Purpose Stand
Large Softbox (with LGSR)
CyberSync™ Trigger Transmitter (wireless - if do able)
CyberSync™ Trigger Receiver (wireless - if do able)
Hot Shoe Adapter - (I am pretty sure I will need this for the Nikon D80)
5-in-1 Reflector Kit
Reflector Kit Mounting Arm

What is the better shape of softbox? rectangular or octabox. I tend to want the rectangular but I was just curious as to how the octabox differed. Should I consider it?

Here are some other items that I want but not so sure I will need now or later:

AlienBees B400-Deep Space Black
Medium Softbox (with LGSR)

So there is my story, as you have read I am just starting out with an in-home studio and do want to leave room to expand over time. I am also not looking for an over kill as to what to start with but do want something that will give me the results that I am looking for based on the type of photo shoots that I do.

So any advice and support would be greatly appreciated at this point. Thank you in advance for you time and opinions.

[gahspidy]

Welcome Donna,
I am by no means someone who could give you much advice on lightng for a studio and hopefully one of our masters here such as Mike and Steve might be able to pick up on this.
I have been putting together a lighting system using wireless Canon speedlites as I am looking more for portability at this time. however, I think if and when I were to be putting together a home studio, the list of equipment you have is pretty much what I might have as well. A B800 and B400 would be good and allow you to expand upon it later as you planned out. If you were to get an optical slave hotshoe for the SB600 you could use that as a hair light or so.
I'm not familiar with the CyberSync transmitters but I know the Pocketwizards are the popular item as far as that goes.
One other thing, your current studio space is not very large. I would suggest getting a black velvet background for the shots that you want complete black in the bg. You can have the subject fairly close to it and still have total black, unlike muslin where the subject needs to be alot further away from it.
The velvet is a big help in a small room.

[photobugd80]

Thank you so much for your response. I had not thought of using my SB600 as a hair light which I think is great because I was actually going to add a third light later just for that purpose. I will see if anyone can explain to me how to do this or how this will work with the wireless setup I am trying to setup. I currently use my SB600 off camera wireless with my D80 so it may be similar. Not sure.

I agree with the size of the room, I do have a velvet backdrop but I think I will actually get a few more larger ones and just hang from ceiling to floor around my backdrop area to help out when need be. I am a huge fan of black and white pictures. I also plan to get some seamless paper backdrops for my little subjects which I will want to have properly light. I am not sure how the paper backdrop reacts to lighting or spacing from subject to background but I guess I could choose some primary colors that I really want and look for velvet in those colors as well. That may be the best way for me to go. I will definitely look into this.

I will be dealing with mostly babies/toddlers to start. They will be my primary subjects for the first year so that is why I was not worried about my space for now. I just needed an area so I can practice and learn my lights.

Thanks again for your suggestions.

[OmahaAdam]

If you already use your SB600 wirelessly then you won't have anything to worry about. The Alienbees have a photoslave built in, so as soon as you fire your SB600 the ABs will fire as well. No added equipment necessary.

[MJS]

Hey Donna, welcome to the group. I use an SB 800 on a boom with a Photoflex small softbox as a hairlight for single shots, it works pretty well. I like the look of your current set up. Are you going for one or two B800's? I have a pair of the 1600's and will be adding 2 of the 800's shortly. The 5 in one reflector comes in very handy when I don't want to set up two strobes.

I would suggest maybe bumping up to the 13 foot heavy duty stands, you'll be happier with them in the long run.

Good luck.

[photobugd80]

If you already use your SB600 wirelessly then you won't have anything to worry about. The Alienbees have a photoslave built in, so as soon as you fire your SB600 the ABs will fire as well. No added equipment necessary.

Well I should have been more clear here... I fire my SB600 with my popup flash. So obviously that is "NOT" the road I will want to choose. I will need the wireless transmitter/reciever to correct for this.

That was just my sad attempt to be creative with my lighting for now.. LOL

NOTE.. had to edit to fix my now to NOT... oops!! darn typo!

[OmahaAdam]

Ditto on what MJS said about the light stands. It is definitely worth it to upgrade light stands.

I can't stress enough that it's a bad idea to trigger with your pop up flash. The ABs will come with a sync cord you should use so you aren't messing with your exposure w/the pop-up.

[photobugd80]

Ditto on what MJS said about the light stands. It is definitely worth it to upgrade light stands.

I can't stress enough that it's a bad idea to trigger with your pop up flash. The ABs will come with a sync cord you should use so you aren't messing with your exposure w/the pop-up.

Upgrading light stands noted!! Thanks!

And sorry for the confusion, I had a typo in my last post and it should have said that I do NOT want to use my popup flash to trigger. Sorry!