Studio Lighting Help...Please

[bobbyrettew]

I am currently investigating a start-up studio lighting kit for personal and side business use. I have extensive knowledge of lighting for Broadcast Television but unfamilar with proper studio lighting equipment to meet my needs - for digital photography. I have a Canon D20 and would like a start-up versatile kit to do some studio portraits and something for outside (The indoor studio is main priority). My experience is with continuous lighting for television - what is the end result difference between strobe lighting and continuous for in-studio portraits? Should I buy a start-up kit using contiuous or strobe for an in-door studio???? Which ever you suggest...any good start-up kits that everyone likes??? Is the same true for exterior lighting? Use 56K white light continuous or strobe??? Any thoughts...I am humble and open for suggestions!!!

[Asylum Steve]

Welcome to the site, bobby. Your question is tough to answer because there is no single correct solution. Besides electronic flash and traditional "hot lights", there is a whole new generation of cool fluorecsent lights perfectly suited for still photography.

You may be interested to know that some are the exact same units used for tv studio lighting...

A good friend of mine designs tv newsroom lighting, an he's turned me on to the brightline system (http://www.brightlines.com/), fixtures I'd imagine you might be familiar with.

I'm also looking at the Westcott Spiderlight fixtures, which are a bit more specifically suited to still work (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...=15&Submit.y=9).

To thoroughly compare the advantages/disadvantages of flash versus continuous systems would take an extremely long post. That subject, as well as good starter kits, has been explored at length in this forum before, so you're best bet would be to sift through the archives.

Any more specific questions about particular units or equipment, feel free to ask away...

[bobbyrettew]

Asylum Steve,

Thanks so much for your thoughts! I have been trying to decide whether to invest into a technology that I am unfamiliar (Strobe). I think I might go with what I have used for television for so many years. I will probably buy some softboxes and then branch out from there. I took your advise and read some more of the posts in the archive!

My only concern was using the same lighting techniques for still photography that I used for television!???

Thanks for your thoughts!
Bobby

[MJS]

I can speak to that since I've been in broadcasting since 1979 and a still shooter before that. Try to separate your previous news set lighting from portrait work. In most old school news sets, you went for an even lighting on all talent areas so there would be no pronounced shadowing, so as not to draw too much attention to the talent instead of the news. Your more creative lighting of individuals usually was used in documentary interviews and feature stories, using your light to create shadow and depth, helping to bring out the character of your person being interviewed. This is the lighting you use for portrait work, use the light or lack of it to help bring out the real personality of your sitters Strobes aren't really all that scary if you are shooting digital, if your don't like it, dump the shot, readjust and reshoot..

[Skyman]

MJS you beat me to it, i have to get out of the DV threads more often......
anyway. my only thought on using continuous lighting is that if you are in a confined space shooting a portrait the subject will get pretty hot. not to mention the extra power you would be using. still if you are on a budget they will work nicely and can be used for both stills and video if need be.