cheap alternate studio lighting.

33L

33L

33L

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25 Sep 2006
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Windy Sheffield
Hi guys - i like taking protariats and with some of the results i have had i have been asked to do some more.

i need to find a cheap solution to my lighting problem. I was advised by a friend that site lights are good source but from looknig further into them - they get too hot, cast a nasty colour and not as powerful as they seem.

I am looking for something that i can pack away so on a tripod - inexpensive - light(ish) and doesnt cast a nasty colour. and works on 240V. I have come across fluorescent lights on a tripod and by my calculations are 200w compared to a tungsten filament. would 2 of these be suitable for lighting a single person and not casting too many harsh shadows. They have covers on them which i hoping will act as some kind of diffuser.
showimageiq7.jpg

Does any one think these will be okay till i can afford some decent lighting. I am only lighting my attick so not a massive space. enough for 1-3 people portrait shots.

33L
 
yeah i saw that i while back but went down to b&Q and no plug in modules are avaialbe and besides i dont have any stands. By the time i get some stands i might as well pay for the above.
 
MrSix said:
When you look at these, would you think they were shot in a studio?

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2125/1588622745_869ffad081.jpg?v=0

[IMG]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2203/1591569648_f1addcb8ce.jpg?v=0[/QUOTE]

it looks like a small flashgun close to the camera was used. nice though :D
Click to expand...
 
so what were they done with. distance away from subject etc?
 
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what you want is some really cheap flashes with manual adjustment from ebay, some wireless flash transmitters, agian from ebay, and some umbrellas/softboxes....again from ebay....makes for very effective lighting:

crumpler1.jpg


studiobag.jpg
(although the flash on the right side of the bag as we look at the front of it was off in the above picture)

002.jpg


lightingsetup_1.jpg




the flash on the right cost me £4 including postage, the umbrella was about £15 and the wireless transmitters i bought used, 5 recievers and 1 transmitter for £35....

Tom.
 
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Certainly is food for thought Tom. Great use of bargain kit. Edit; Although it looks like your using a Carbon Fibre Gitzo tripod to hold the flash up? Lol, there goes the bargain bit out the window. :D
 
rG-tom said:
what you want is some really cheap flashes with manual adjustment from ebay, some wireless flash transmitters, agian from ebay, and some umbrellas/softboxes....again from ebay....makes for very effective lighting:


the flash on the right cost me £4 including postage, the umbrella was about £15 and the wireless transmitters i bought used, 5 recievers and 1 transmitter for £35....

Tom.
Click to expand...

When you say flash with manual adjustment, since im not clued up on flash guns. is this so it can fire manually without being camera mounted as per your pics.

what flash specs are they? how much will some cheap lighting stands be? did you get your soft box off the bay as well?
 
Messiah Khan said:
Certainly is food for thought Tom. Great use of bargain kit. Edit; Although it looks like your using a Carbon Fibre Gitzo tripod to hold the flash up? Lol, there goes the bargain bit out the window. :D
Click to expand...

:p yes i am indeed using aprox ~£750 worth of tripod kit to hold the flashes up :D (Gitzo G1228 Self leveling tripod, uniloc 60 rotating ball head, manfrotto 190Xprob and a manfrotto modo)

tripods1.jpg


It's cheaper than buying a dedicated light stands though (in that the lighting stands are quite cheap, but i already had the tripods :p)
 
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the flashes used in the above pics were the canon 430ex (not cheap) metz ct45 (not cheap and infact not ideal ,you cant adjust the output) but the cheap flash is a hanimax cz4200 which is a metz style hammer head with 2 flashes on it...this cost me less than £4 on ebay including delivery! It's fantastic, manually controllable flash outputs, plenty powerful, only downside is it doesnt recharge as quick as the other 2.....i could happily use 3 of these though rather than the 2 more expensive flashes i already have.

The umbrella and softbox are both made by portaflash....I'm the manager of a well known, blue badged high street camera store, so i got these at a discount equivelant to buying them from the internet...about £11 for the umbrella and £25 for the soft box iirc.

the wireless slaves i bought from MrSix when he upgraded to pocket wizards, they are branded "Cactus" and are supposedly the best of the cheap ones :)

Tom.

EDIT nearly forgot, if you do go down this route dont forget to buy an umbrella holder! :p

430exumbrella.jpg


Goes between the transmitter and the tripod and holds the end of the umbrella in place
 
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I would love a lighting setup like that but I really don't think I would have a clue how to use it.

Currently I have a 430EX and a faily cheap (about Velbron Ultra Luxi F) tripod.

So all I would need is the umbrella, umbrella holder, soft box, another tripod, another cheap flash and a wireless transmitter (what is this actually for, to trigger the flashes?)

I have found a cheap HANIMAX TZ325, would this would with my canon 400D
 
great - time to hit ebay and source some stuff! Thanks for your help guys.

so my checklist is.

1 softbox
1 umbrella
2 cheap flash guns
2 receivers
1 transmitter
2 light stands/tripods
1 umbrella and shoe clamp

how do you mount the softbox.
 
33L said:
great - time to hit ebay and source some stuff! Thanks for your help guys.

so my checklist is.

1 softbox
1 umbrella
2 cheap flash guns
2 receivers
1 transmitter
2 light stands/tripods
1 umbrella and shoe clamp

how do you mount the softbox.
Click to expand...

We'll probably end up bidding against each other on various items :p
 
ScarySquirrel said:
So all I would need is the umbrella, umbrella holder, soft box, another tripod, another cheap flash and a wireless transmitter (what is this actually for, to trigger the flashes?)

I have found a cheap HANIMAX TZ325, would this would with my canon 400D
Click to expand...


basically, they come in two parts....a sender and a receiver. The sender sits on the hotshoe and sends a radio signal, telling the receivers which attach either to the hotshot of the flashes or via the sync port to fire. This negates the need for the flashes to be of any particular fit as long as they have a simple hot shoe or a sync port :)

Tom.
 
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