studio lighting

[Manfred M]

Mark - I suspect that Remco is referring to the fact that you are mixing flashes that are daylight balanced and "hot lights"' they will have different colour temperatures and will give you real and unsolvable mixed light issues. Secondly, the light output will be so low, that you will find that they don't add any value to your shots.

That being said, based on your purchase plans, it is fairly clear to me that you don't quite get studio lighting concepts. Like camera lenses, each light in a lighting setup has a specific purpose and you should learn what a single light source wll do before you start blasting away with multiple light sources. You should also understand what an umbrella or softbox do and cannot do for you before you run out an try to set up a multiple light setup. You need to understand lighting ratios and what they do for an image, etc.

You need to understand some of the classical lighting setups an how you will use them. By the way, in their basic form, need a single light source and a light modifier, not a hodge podge of different light sources blasting light through your garage in an uncontrolled manner.

At a minimum, you will need a key or main light. That will light up your subject. You will also need a fill light to manage the shadows in your subject's face, especially for the eyes. You don't actually need an active light for that, but rather a plain while piece of foamcore or coreplast plastic, but you could go for one of the fancier commercial reflectors, they are pretty inexpensive too. A lightstand and clamp work well to hold it, but an assistant is easier to use.

After this two-point lighting, you could introduce either a hair light (to help separate the subject's hair from the background). None of the equipment on your purchase list will work for this as you need something like a grid spot to give you a focused light. A kicker or back light can be used to separate the body from the background in a similar fashion to what a hair light does, but this light always comes from the back. This is three-point lighting. Add another grid spot to illuminate your background, and you have four-point lighting, as you have introduced another element to separate your subect from the background.

If you are truly looking at a studio, I would suggest the monolight route. It will give you a lot more flexibility than what you can accomplish with a couple of battery powered off-camera flashes. The light output and control are far better with studio lights, and you can get many more types of light modifiers for them.

[darknight]

ok, the hot lights are balanced leds, more natural, the shoot through will be used as a side, to rear fill/softner, as will the boxes on sides if needed, they are also to be used on a macro that used before.
main lighting as i hadnt asked as this is nearly complete but i use my stage lights and/ or gels, these are (well soon) on a boom up high and can be altered, soft boxes on the will soften any harsh lights, these are older type genesis lamps, flash will be used if need but not in a direct way, i also use this outside at night to quite nicely illuminate trees, hence using shoot though, when i was years ago using slr i had good results from them.

[Manfred M]

One thing to think about when shooting "hot" lights for portraits. People's irises stop down in response to the intensity of the lights, and generally this is viewed as unattractive. Most people find a more balanced look more attractive, where the pupil and iris size is not too extreme. A nice catchlight in the pupil always makes for a more attractive look in a portraits.

[darknight]

thanks for your help manfred, i also will be using a grey card to set white balance on custom, my comment on k value is i believe correct, as all lights including the flash are rated at 5500k hence setting a custom white balance.
oh off topic, that looks like a rebreather you have on? like it? gonna have to try one one day!!

[Manfred M]

thanks for your help manfred, i also will be using a grey card to set white balance on custom, my comment on k value is i believe correct, as all lights including the flash are rated at 5500k hence setting a custom white balance.
oh off topic, that looks like a rebreather you have on? like it? gonna have to try one one day!!

No, just a regular tank and bc, but a freeze resistant regulator. The rest of the gear is an ice-diving harness.