Light Suggestions Please

[ardentphotog]

My husband volunteered me to take the school photos for our sons school. Can anyone recommend flash and light kits - starter sets?

[bhursey]

Originally Posted by ardentphotog

My husband volunteered me to take the school photos for our sons school. Can anyone recommend flash and light kits - starter sets?

Wait.. he volunteered you without having any studio school lighting experience? Or do you have some? I was volentered also but I had 2+ years of lighting experince and the equipment to do it allready. To do it right you need a backdrop with at least a strobe on the backdrop and 2 strobes on the subject. I would say if its the whole school you would need all studio strobes. Because speed lights would eat bateries. The one with the soft-box is a Alien Bee AB400. Its 160ws. I would recommended baby 2x AB800's as the 2 front lights and maybe a AB400 as backdrop.. My setup was right was AB400 as key, left Canon 580EXII as fill. and LP160 as backdrop to fill in shadows.

Paul C. Buff - AlienBees

So I would say strobes, stands modifiers, radio triggers, and backdrop your talking 1500-2000$ Dont fall for those ebay kits they are junk and in the long run you will end up buy what I listed above.

Did I scare you im sorry I just want to let you know what you are getting into, and what you would need to truly be successful. I only did kinergarden graduation pictures as a fund raser for the school and with around 150 kids my speed lights got low on bateries and I had to replace them which took allot of time. Although I started with speed light setups and am slowly moving to studio strobes. I could not imagin doing this for a whole school. In my town Life Touch has the market here.

Here was my school portrait setup.


School Pictures Setup by Brian Hursey, on Flickr


School Pictures Setup by Brian Hursey, on Flickr