Starting out!

L

Little Fish

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I'm in need of some help..... Please!
I have the Cannon 400D, not the best Camera I know, but sadly all my money could buy at the time of purchase!

I am now starting to take "studio" type portraits and I'm looking to buy my first set of lights.
Honestly I don't know where to start looking, there are so many on the market.
I want to buy some thing that is both good quality and value for money and won't have to be replaced in the near future, like my Cannon 400D.
I would like professional lights.

What wattage should I go for? 150/300/500/600/1000?
do all "flash lights" also run on constant light?
I would like lights that do both.

Most importantly I can't find a "port" on my Cannon 400D to connect a sync lead, what can I do about this? will I still be able to use "studio" lights with my camera?

:help:
 
flash lights have lower wattage modelling lights so you can see the effects of shadows, but these are low wattage compared to continuous.

400D doesn't have a sync socket, you either buy a radio trigger or a hotshoe adaptor to take a socket.

Radio trigger is much better - no leads to get tangled up in!
 
What Andrew said.

Don't worry about 'only' having a 400D. It will be fine. What you would get, if you spent more, would be a camera that could do more, or do it easier (e.g. better image quality at high ISO, more shots per second, weather protection, various extra features too that are about as useful as the extra features that we all have on our mobile phones) which make no difference whatever in the studio.

Back to your question. Please take a look at this quick guide on how to choose your studio lights. You'll see that I advise something like 300 Joules, 150 is too low for people who want to be creative and anything above 600 creates its own problems in a small space. Note that 'watts' applies to continuous lighting, not flash. Flash is measured in Joules or Watt seconds (same thing) and refers to the amount of energy stored in the capacitors. watts is the amount of energy used in one second
 
Don't knock the camera that you have- it will reward you well!!!

In one of the photomags this month[ Practical photography????] there is a review of lighting kits with prices attached. I found it a very interesting read!

Good luck & have fun
 
Many Thanks to you all for your help!
It is priceless to me as I really didn't have a clue where to start.
You have all given me good leads to follow, so I'm off to check them out!!
Thanks again (y)
 
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