Studio setup

Flash In The Pan said:
Ahh...I only got a 5% one, but 5% off a 17-55 was better than a poke in they eye withw sharp stick :LOL:
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I have a feedback of about 350 but I haven't used ebay for a few months that might be why I got 20%. Possibly it is some kind of formula. I spent £2700 with Digital Rev last year in one transaction but didn't have any vouchers which is a shame.

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Its great innit !!
 
Bowens do a studio in a box for about that much-cant get much better than bowens.
 
I really like this setup as did mortm.

The test of a good suppler is how good they are after they have had your dosh and Stable Imaging have certainly done well there. Yes there was a faulty sync lead but nobody can check every tiny little thing that goes out in a kit. Bulbs, leads etc are just expected to work. The kit arrived in 48 hours and when I told him of the problem Neil @ Stable Imaging sent another lead out registered post the same day so I got it today without me even having to bother sending the knackered one back.

All in all a decent kit and well worth the money: 3 light stands; 3 lights; sync cable; 1 set barn doors; 2 x soft boxes; snood; honeycomb and coloured filters all in a big bag.

Having spoken to them they are doing some giant reflector panels soon and other studio bits. I will be getting a couple of backdrops and stands from them soon too. Not sure which ones yet, maybe blue and white!
 
Grey... this years black. With grey you can overexpose it to white or underexpose it to black if you have enough distance.

Glad you like the kit and I love the cow.
 
Flash In The Pan said:
move it further away from the subject.........
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Don't. The correct distance is the distance that produces the lighting effect you want. Moving it further away makes the light harsher, and makes the difference in exposure between foreground and background elements of the shot less.

If you have your ISO and your lights on the minimum then just fit a neutral density gel over the lights.
 
Bowens in a box same price, where?

The Esprit Gemini 200 is over twice the price for a two head kit without bag, softbox, barndoors and all the other toys.
 
You may want change your aperture from f/4.5 when the lights are that close ;)
 
mortm said:
You may want change your aperture from f/4.5 when the lights are that close ;)
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Yes, I've just been told that by Neil @ Stable imaging :) I'm just setting the lights up now as per his instructions.....
 
Looking good cowaski, It might be me or maybe because of the background but it looks a bit cool (As in temp not Fonzie), you may need to set your white balance to warm it up a bit. But this is the best bit, having a play. (y)
 
Yes, you're right. White balance was just set to AUTO. I will get one of those grey cards and make sure its set perfectly although someone somewhere told me how to set it perfectly with photoshop. Will have a look in a moment.... Just found a bug in the Photoshop script and fixed it so just uploading a new one.
 
If you shoot in RAW then you can change the WB in ACR when you open it in photoshop.
 
mortm said:
If you shoot in RAW then you can change the WB in ACR when you open it in photoshop.
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Oh yes, I know but I wasn't even thinking about WB at the time I was just thinking about the lighting. Its that that you really can't fix later :)

I am really liking this studio setup.

What I am having difficulty with though is working out what setting I need without just using trial and error. I have just been given a set of values to use for a specific setup and will have to just go from there.
 
It takes a bit of time and I did end up getting a light meter. But I would say I'm glad I didn't straight away as I learnt a lot via trial and error and I am now learning more with the light meter. Once you get the distance, power to aperture ratio sorted as a basic guide things get easier. I actually learnt a lot after reading a thread like this which caused me to experiment more. Take a look at Garry's tutorials they explain a lot and you can bug him loads on here then with tons of questions.... just pretend you have an expensive light kit like Bowens or he wont take you seriously :D
 
mortm said:
Take a look at Garry's tutorials they explain a lot and you can bug him loads on here then with tons of questions.... just pretend you have an expensive light kit like Bowens or he wont take you seriously :D
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It doesn't matter to me whether you have a really expensive light kit (Bron) or Portaflash or anything in between - better quality kits make life easier and expand the range of work you can do but you'll NEVER find me knocking kits just because they happen to be cheap:)

Proof of my impartiality here
 
I notice you have changed the ratios of the lighting from the picture of the lad to the pictures of the girls. In the lads pic the darker shadow is to the left of the lad with some modelling on the left side of his face, in the lower girls picture the darker shadow is to her right with modelling on the right side of her face.

The middle pic is best as the model is further from the backgound and you have lost the distracting twin shadows, not keen of the twin catchlights in any of the pics, but that can easily be remedied in PP. Still practise makes perfect.

If you can put up with the Geordie accent this series may be worth watching, some very good points raised if you can make it through.
 
EdBray said:
I notice you have changed the ratios of the lighting from the picture of the lad to the pictures of the girls. In the lads pic the darker shadow is to the left of the lad with some modelling on the left side of his face, in the lower girls picture the darker shadow is to her right with modelling on the right side of her face.

The middle pic is best as the model is further from the backgound and you have lost the distracting twin shadows, not keen of the twin catchlights in any of the pics, but that can easily be remedied in PP. Still practise makes perfect.

If you can put up with the Geordie accent this series may be worth watching, some very good points raised if you can make it through.
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Thanks, I hadn't noticed the extra shadow. The 1st photograph was taking whilst I was still experimenting with doing it using the rudimentary information I already had. I had two lights, one next to the camera and then one at 45 degrees (but half power). I was then told how to set them up properly which resulted in the pictures of the 2 girls but obviously this setup would have worked better with more space behind to avoid the shadows.

I am totally new to this so any advice is very useful. I haven't taken any studio shots prior to getting the lights.

I am thinking of getting a light meter with the L508 & L558 looking promising at about £90 and £140 but will try a little while longer without them first!
 
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