Basic Light kit

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Hi All

I am a student in Photography and right now studying the lighting. I want to study the basic lighting techniques by experimenting in both still life and portraits. Some one please suggest me a reasonable light kit. I am confused wheather to go for tungsten lighting or normal flash set ups? Tungsten works out to be cheeper but bulky. But the other one is costly and portable. I also do not know that wheather the flash units will have enough power to handle 3 light situations in a large area.

Please note that I do not want to go for fancy studio equipments like monolight,softboxes etc... (I still dont know wheather I mentioned it correctly or not). I am just looking for an economic kit which can help me in studying lighting.

Please reply!

Regards

-- Sharath (sharathblr2000@yahoo.com), March 18, 2002

Answers

Tungsten lighting will let you see what you are doing better, so you will probably learn more/faster with them. The problem is your subjects will likely get hot fairly soon.

If you go with constant lights instead of flash, you have quite a few options. Some photo flood lighting can become expensive, but you can also make your own or use cheaper tungsten lighting found in hardware stores. Using them with an umbrella is fairly easy but a softbox has to be designed for hot lights or they can burn quickly.

-- Jim Strutz (j.strutz@gci.net), March 19, 2002.


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