Need lighting suggestions?

[scrappyethel]

I have focused primarily since the beginning on outdoor photography but have requests for me to start doing inside photos with portable studio baby, infant and maternity pics so wondered if anyone has any advise on this set of lights in particular from Adorama :

Flashpoint Budget Studio Monolight Flash basic kit running right now for $199.96

Does it matter what you get or shall I say are these particular to your camera? I use Sony A200 DLSR. Thanks for any advise

[SusanH1970]

I'm a huge fan of Alien Bees. Great lights, reasonably priced, and fantastic customer service.

Don't know about the light you posted about, not familiar with them at all.

I just use external flash units. Harder to use than standard studio lighting (no modeling light), but way more versatile and portable. Not as powerful though.

Main things to look for are:

1. Manual power adjustment - From full to 1/16 power or so...don't get anything that doesn't allow you to change the flash power.
2. Fast Recycle time - Usually 1-2 seconds is pretty good.
3. 300 W/S or higher for your main light...could probably get by with 150 W/S for your secondary. I had a 600 W/S flash, and it was a little too bright, even at 1/16 power.

Check your local craigslist ads. I see a set of lights pop up every couple weeks, and they're usually pretty inexpensive.

[mandyatm]

I have a couple of these strobes. I got them in addition to my Photogenic 320. The Photogenic is my main light and I have a Adorama 160 watt as my fill, and a 100 watt on my background. I can tell the difference in the Photogenic and the Adorama ones. When I was just using the Photogenic with a reflector, I got great results but I needed more fill. So I got one of the Adorama strobes for fill and one for the background. For some reason the color temperature varies from shot to shot and they don't recycle as quickly.

The 160 watt at least beeps when it is ready, which is nice. You can't really use the modeling lights for long because they get HOT HOT! The 160 watt is adjustable from 1/16 power to full power, but the 100 watt can only do half OR full power, and takes longer to recycle. I would at least get the 160 watt ones, and not as your main light. You can always get them to try and then stick them as background lights if you end up needing more. I plan to replace my fill light with another Photogenic or Alien Bees and use both Adorama ones on my background.

Hope that helps!