What should I get for my $1k budget? Product Photography

[Zechariah]

Hello people,

To start I've been shooting product photos for ebay auctions for over 10 years now. I'm about to start doing product photography professionally and I need some more gear.

So... I have about $1000. to spend, my questions are:

Do I go with flashes or studio strobes?
I'm looking at also doing real estate photography and with my product shots I'd like to be able to shoot anything from a diamond ring to a semi truck, so I'm leaning more towards flashes but I'm not sure yet.

With flashes is there a cheap alternative to the "Pocket Wizards"? that works and won't crap out after 10 shots?

The lighting gear I have now: An old novatron 400v (i think that's the model) 3 strobe kit (one of the strobes is burnt out ) so it's now 2 strobe kit. An old generic on hot shoe flash (don't even know the brand) and 4 clamp on lights with 425 lumen 4100K led flood lights from Walmart. I have used those super hot work lights you can get from Home Depot But I HATE working with hot lights ... so yeah that's about it.

I shoot with a Canon 5d MKII and have a 70-300mm canon lens, sigma 50mm macro, and a canon 35 to (70? not sure it's an el cheapo lens).

Here's a shot I did with the 4 led light setup.



And a video to go with it:



The led lights seem to work pretty good for small macro type stuff.

Let me know what you guys think.

~Zechariah

[dalmorloson]

If you are taking shots outside the studio then why not go with speedlites? At least that gives you the option in or out of studio. As far as triggers, I just got some Cactus V5s...not sure of the longevity as I am a newbie, but they are worth a look ($60 a pair)

[inkista]

You can do the stills with speedlights (obviously, not video ). See Ming Thein's Flickr gallery. He's using three Nikon speedlights and CLS.

You could do the same thing with a Canon 580EX and 430EXs.

But if that's too expensive, yes, there are budget radio triggers that can work for you. Right now, the flavor of the season are the Cactus V5s. For manual speedlights, the LumoPro LP160, or (if you have less money and don't mind going with cheap manufacture and possible bad copies from Hong Kong), the Yongnuos.

Flash for Canon - cheap alternatives and Canon flash models | Speedlights.net

is a pretty good list of possible candidates, with some good reviews on how useful a speedlight is for off-camera use.

I'd also recommend taking a look at the Strobist blog to see what you can do with speedlights. Even light house interiors.

[Zechariah]

Okay, I decided to go with 3 Canon 430EX II and two Cactus V5 duo sets if they ever come back in-stock.

Can anyone recommend some light stands in the 9-10' range?

I'm thinking of making my own soft boxes out of white ripstop nylon, what do you think?

Thanks,
Zechariah

P.S. Yeah I've seen the Strobists blog before it's a cool site that I check once in awhile.