Basement studio

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VickiNorth

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vicki
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Hello,
I mainly shoot dogs outdoors using natural light. I've recently moved to a house with a small basement and I want to utilise this space for studio portraits. In the past I've used continuous lighting in addition to natural light. As the basement does not contain any natural light whatsoever I'd like to know the best way to combine flash and continous so I can actually see what I'm doing.
Any tips would be greatly appreciated!!
With regard the the basement space it's only 7 foot hight and the walls and ceiling are white with black tiled floor, it's approx 12 x 14 foot. I will only be shooting dogs, mainly head shots due to lack of space.
X
 
Look at led video light panels, these can be got with a variable colour options so you can with a bit of playing match the light to the flash. Look for ones with a high CRI (that means they are close to natural daylight) these are also failry chep.
 
As a side note, if you are having members of public down in your basement, it would be very wise to check your insured and ok to do it check your fire regulations etc, last thing you want is the stress of something going wrong !
 
Why do you feel that you need continuous lighting as well as flash?
Studio flash heads have modelling lamps that give an indication of the lighting effect and which allow you to see where the black lab is on the black floor:) If more is needed, normal domestic overhead lighting will do the job. And as @Studio488commercial says, the flash will completely overwhelm any continuous lighting anyway.
 
Flash is the way. A couple of entry-level studio flash heads with bright modelling lamps should do nicely, from around £100 each, plus stands and triggers and umbrellas or softboxes. From about £300-500 with stands, trigger etc etc.

That may be all you need, or it would be a great platform to build on. What's your budget?
 
@HoppyUK
When you say powerful modeling light. What sought of power ?
I don't own studio lights. Normally use speedlights. I have bought the ad200 so have used that more recently it's the older version. I have never used anything with a modeling light but maybe in the future I may purchase one. I have managed ok without one so I sort of swing between wether it's worthwhile or not.

Gaz
 
cargo said:
@HoppyUK
When you say powerful modeling light. What sought of power ?
I don't own studio lights. Normally use speedlights. I have bought the ad200 so have used that more recently it's the older version. I have never used anything with a modeling light but maybe in the future I may purchase one. I have managed ok without one so I sort of swing between wether it's worthwhile or not.

Gaz
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Modelling lights vary of course, especially now that battery-powered heads are popular. They need LEDs to produce decent light without massive battery drain so comparisons are less easy, but the most popular modelling light bulb for mains-powered heads is the sausage-shaped 150watt halogen which is a bit brighter than a 150w tungsten domestic light bulb would be.

They are more than bright enough to see what you're doing, and in fact some people (including me) have used them alone without flash to shoot at low f/numbers when the flash head itself won't turn down low enough. That's actually more common than not having enough power, particularly with older studio flash heads that might only turn down to 1/16th.

I wouldn't buy a studio flash unit without a good modeling lamp. If you're a newcomer to studio working I'd say they're essential for learning and will certainly save a lot of time setting up, but even the most experienced users find them extremely useful for precise positioning of say a snoot or a gridded highlighter, or for portraits of people wearing glasses, or for getting just the right specular reflections in product photography. And of course, for focusing without the room lights on.

You'll be aware of the Godox AD-B2 twin-head adapter for your AD200 flash, with twin modelling LEDs. With just one LED working (wattage undisclosed AFAIK but maybe 10w?) it's barely adequate but just about useable. With both LEDs going it's much better but still puts out less light than than a more conventional mains-powered head. Another issue is the AD200 has a modest battery and may not last long with the modelling LEDs on full. Sorry if that's a bit vague but I only got my Godox kit very recently and haven't done any accurate comparisons yet.
 
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Not vague. A great reply full of info that's taken years of experience to learn. I were toying with the idea of an ad600 that was for sale second hand. I'll have to look at the modeling light power on that version when home later.

Thanks for the reply.
Gaz
 
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cargo said:
Not vague. A great reply full of info that's taken years of experience to learn. I were toying with the idea of an ad600 that was for sale second hand. I'll have to look at the modeling light power on that version when home later.

Thanks for the reply.
Gaz
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Cheers Gaz :)

When comparing modelling lights, they usually appear blindingly bright when you just look at them bare, but inside a decent size double-diffuser softbox at a couple of metres for a group shot and they're much less impressive. Then again, move it closer for a head shot or smaller product pic and effective brightness jumps up of course. Also, if you're working maybe at home with daylight coming in, that will dilute the modelling light. So set things up properly if you can, and put a meter on it.

FWIW I found the 10w modelling LED of the original AD600 marginal at best. Even so, I was going to buy a couple before a house move intervened and I'm glad it did as then the AD600Pro came out with its excellent 38w modelling LED, followed by the AD400Pro with 30w. I've got two of those now and 30w is fine for my use.

ps Another thing I really like about a good modelling light for portraits is they can be bright enough to close the subject's iris/pupils and show the colour of the eyes better :cool:
 
Evening.
HoppyUK said:
AD600Pro came out with its excellent 38w modelling LED, followed by the AD400Pro with 30w. I've got two of those now and 30w is fine for my use.
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Is there any special reason you went with the lower powered 400 watts ?

Gaz
 
cargo said:
Evening.

Is there any special reason you went with the lower powered 400 watts ?

Gaz
Click to expand...

Yes, weight mainly, bearing in mind I'll be much more mobile/outdoors than studio. The cost saving was a nice bonus but not really a deciding factor. I wanted four lights (though I'll mostly only use two) and four AD600Pros would be great, but I need to carry them around and I figured I could work around the half-stop reduction in power. So with a bit more rationalisation I ended up with two AD400Pros, one AD200Pro and a V1 speedlight.

How it all pans out remains to be seen. It's a work very much in progress and I'm in no rush. I may swap the AD200 for a third AD400 as in practise the 200 isn't so small and light once you've put a Bowens adapter on it and having all lights the same makes life easier when swapping gels and grids etc. I'm also looking closely at more manageable stands and softboxes and have bought a few umbrella-boxes which are very light and easy, and cheap. They're also reverse-firing so they need less floor space and you can push them right up to the ceiling or into a corner. For a lot of things they're just as good as a softbox.
 
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