The *Official Photography Thread*

You mean that lighting class I just went to doesn't qualify?

 

if it is a photography class then it counts

 

lolz. It was.

BTW, there's a company that sells student software from a bunch of different vendors. I wish I could remember their name because they almost never ask where or who. You just checked the box

 

The reason I was asking was cause Im seriously considering this right here.

What do you guys think? Would be a nice little setup. Or would it be easier/cheaper to do what Ian was saying? (Home Depot and flood lights)

 

I'd say go with the Home Depot route, because some of the reviews that I read said made it seem kinda hit or miss

 

You know I hadn't even read the reviews, but you're right kinda hit or miss from what I read. Um...so if I try this myself:

2 Flood Lights
2 White Umbrellas
2 Decently Wattage Bulbs
2 Light stands of some sort (what would be a good solution for a light stand like so??)

Am I missing anything?

 

dude check out this website

http://www.diyphotography.net/

they have tons of DIY projects, just search on there and more than likely someone has a write up of what you want

 

this might also be helpful

http://www.diyphotography.net/how-to-build-24-diy-softboxes

 

For a hundred bucks, you get a lot.

Home Depot lights are gonna cost you maybe $20 bucks each. Lamp plus a bulb. These use a clamp so you can put them on just about anything. For the sake of discussion, the HD lights are functionally equiv to the Smith Victor lights in the B&H kit--there are reasons the SV lights are better--like being larger and the white interior. Forgot to add that the SV lights are also 600W each.

Then you get a couple of light stands and umbrellas with the B&H kit.

I admire the efforts of all the DIY'ers out there but you kinda have to weigh the cost of both in time and money against the cost of just buying what you need. And in this case and for $110 you get a fair bit of value for not a lot of money.

 

I see what you're saying. I mean it sounds like it would be a simple solution to just do it myself...where you might save a couple bucks. Or you can just suck it up pay for it and it's all there for you.

I am confused though...are you saying the lights in that B&H package are better lights than the Home Depot. (sorry a bit confused by your wording )

Ok here's the thing...ever since last week when I played with the lights they have been on my mind...well my original plan was to buy the wireless flash sync thingy...you know put it on the on camera hot shoe and have 2 other receivers for flash and then I can just place them on the tripods I already have. And then I have a decent light source.

Well low and behold after I was thinking of going this route a nice big B&H magazine shows up at the house and so I started looking through there and saw that nice kit and thought well maybe go that route. I dunno which would be better.

Opinions?

 

have you thought about cheaper flashes like vivitar 285hv or the lumopro snobord posted the other day? i use a 285hv with a cheap trigger from Amazon and i think it works great atleast for what i use it for. On amazon the also have some lightstands with umbrella attachments if you wanted to get those i think those are cheap too.

for the price of one speedlight you can get like 3 285hv's with trigger or 2 of those lumopro's.

i know speedlights are a little different but i feel like they are more versatile since with a studio kit you need a power source or even for the home depot lights. but with speedlights you just need batteries! just throwing this out there haha

 

Good point. I hadn't thought about that. I've got a wedding booked in May to do for a friend and was wondering how easy it would be to get the umbrellas and lights in to use them. She is a close friend and her dad is the pastor of the church and I would have access to plugs and whatever I needed. But you are right a speedlight would be much more versatile.

 

yeah man, i mean if i had a studio i would get some nice lighting but i dont haha

maybe just rent some lights or borrow some for the wedding and then decide what you want to do

 

Well my school has some...they are alright...better than what I got, which is nothing. But I don't feel confident with them to use them.

 

They're roughly equivalent. Maybe a slight nod to the B&H ones but you can see the biggest difference is the wattage of the bulb. So if you wanna get the same light, look for bigger bulbs. Just a warning tho, the Home Depot ones are rated for 60-100W, not 600W--if you plunk a 600W lamp into the socket, the socket and lamp cord will get hot and possibly catch fire.

So the thing about lighting and flash in particular is that for the most part, it's just a big punch of light. A studio flash makes a huge flash--an Alien Bee, for example, can make something up to 1600ws at full power whereas a small flash unit might give you 50-60ws at full power.

Someone mentioned those LumoPro flashes. I read a bit about the LP160 the other day. I'm impressed both with performance and cost. $160 is a very fair price. You can use a 1/4" jack, hot shoe, PC cord or the optical port to trigger the flash. It's all manual but once you learn how to use flash, that won't be a barrier--I still don't believe you can get four LP160's for a little more than the price of one 580EXII and the performance characteristics are almost the same! You can visit their website and check them out here.

 

Quick question Wesley. What do you want to shoot with the lights? That'd be helpful when suggesting something for you.

 

Awesome info...I'll check it out.

 

Neither do I. Well, maybe once and a while but it's too unreliable.

 

Well just some shooting of some friends...ie portraits and such. I like to take some of my girlfriend and just some proper lighting would be nice. Im looking into getting a king size white sheet and using as a back drop. Also do some weddings and I do a lot of...as you know...sports photography. Basketball and such.

 

Based on your answer, I'd forget about the studio stuff and get a couple of those LumoPro lights. Those will work better for you in the long run. Whether you plop one in a corner to light a room at a wedding or use small softbox to light your subjects directly, it's a better choice. Basketball is gonna be a different story. Typically, one or two medium/large studio strobes would be used at the ends of the court to provide bounce light from the ceiling--you wouldn't flash the players directly.

If you remember that shot of the bike and rider I posted a while back, it was shot using a bare studio strobe shot through the crappiest Wal-Mart sheet. The overhead beauty dish was a strobe as was the light behind the motorcycle. Could have used a couple of strobes instead of the studio strobe but since we wanted diffuse light and it was daytime, more power was better. Sheets are pretty useful things