fotocapito

photography and photographs understood • Updated : April 29, 2010 - 09:22:36 AM • 499 hits past day

Home Studio Starter Kit

by Russell J.T. Dyer

This is the third article in a series in which I explain what equipment a new photography student will need to take good photographs and to learn more about photography. In the first article of this series I presented a batch of items that the student will need: a camera and a few minor accessories. In the second article I recommended buying a small tripod, a reflector disc, and a gray-card as a slight expansion of the first level. In this third article, you will move up to another level of photography, to the level of studio photography to include portraits. This will require purchasing an external flash, as well as related equipment and accessories. However, the cost is not prohibitive.

Standing Taller

In the previous article in this series, I had you buy a small table top tripod to carry in your camera bag and for specific uses indoors. For this second level, I now recommend that you buy a large tripod. To enter the level of portraits and other studio photography, you’re going to need it. When doing studio photography, you’ll find yourself fine tuning your camera and other elements. To be effective, not only is it good for the camera to remain steady, but you also need its position to be constant. You will set up your camera and lights and your model (that’s what we call the person who sits still for you while you take their picture, so get used to that term) and many other things. When you’re ready you will then take your first shot. It will be terrible. You’ll immediately spot something wrong like there’s something behind the model that shouldn’t be there. You remove it and take the shot again and see other problems. This will go on for over a hundred shots—make sure your model is prepared for this tedium. The model will naturally squirm and shift on you, but as many things that you can lock down the better. In the end you will be making the most minute changes to your camera settings and the positioning of the model before you finally get the shot you want. Then you’ll move the model and all of the lights and so forth into a different configuration to the next shot that you want. For better pictures and for your sanity, get a large tripod.

Starter Studio Kit

Here are the additional components I recommend to get started learning about studio photography. You will need an external flash (e.g., Canon Speedlite 430EX II Flash or Nikon SB-600 Speedlight Flash), a tripod for you camera (e.g., Manfrotto 190XWNB Aluminum Wilderness Tripod); and a light stand (Manfrotto 5001B light stand), and if your tripod didn’t come with a carrying case, then you will need to get one separately for when you take photos outside. It should be spacious enough to hold both the tripod and the light stand.

On the table top there are two other items: The spiral cable is an off-camera shoe cord (Canon OC-E3) for connecting the external flash separately from the camera. The odd looking pile of plastic items is a flash diffuser ( (Lumiquest Promax System) with multiple colored inserts (i.e., white, silver, gold). This will help you to soften the light coming from your external flash, as well as alter its color.

At the bottom of this small table, on the shelf you can see two other items: In the black flat bag is a large reflector disc folded up in the black bag (ProMaster SystemPro 32-inch Reflector Disc). The brown cloth bag is a weighted bag for keeping my light stand from being knocked over. My girlfriend made this one for me, but you can buy them. To save money and the trouble of making one, you can also use a pillow case: put two one-pound bags of sugar in it, give it a twist in the center and sling it over the bottom shaft of the light stand and its legs.

As I keep saying about all photography equipment, buy a good one that will last and that you won’t outgrow. Since your compact camera is small, it would be silly to buy a heavy duty tripod at this stage. However, you don’t want to make the mistake I made and waste money on a tripod that has drawbacks that will cause you to stop using it. I recommend you get a tripod like the Manfrotto 190XWNB Aluminum Wilderness Tripod. It has spiked feet for when you set up on a shag carpet (but not so spiked that it will tear the carpet) or outside on the grass or a dirt surface. It also comes with rubber protectors to put over the spiked feet so you won’t damage your floors when using indoors and to stop it from sliding. It weighs only five pounds and folds up to only about two feet long. So even when you’ve moved up to DSLR cameras and get yourself a heavy duty tripod for serious studio work, this tripod can be your preferred tripod when you’re traveling.

External Flash

Although your digital compact camera probably has a built-in flash, it’s not going to be as good as having a more powerful external flash. First of all, with the flash in line and close to the lens, you run the risk of people who are directly in front of the camera and looking into the lens having red eyes in your photographs. Second, with an external flash you can point the flash at the side of the face while still having the model face the camera directly. This makes for a better result. Third, with an external flash you can modify the light in many ways: bounce the flash off of a wall or ceiling; cover the flash head with a diffuser make for softer tones; or at some other attachment to change the coloring of the light (e.g., gold).

A good flash like the one I recommended will have many features: it will have the ability to reduce the intensity of the flash, focus the beam depending on the focal length of the lens you’re using, angle the flash in different directions for the best effect. It will also include a simple defuser to difuse or disburse the light. This scatters the light, making it what is called, softer. It means that as a result of being scattered, the shadows around the subject being photographed won’t have as rigged an edge. Nevertheless, the simple defuser that is attached to a typical external flash isn’t as good as one that you can add to a flash when desired. It costs around $50 US, but the flash diffuser I use ( (Lumiquest Promax System) works nicely and folds up and fits in the back pocket of my camera bag without taking up much space. I recommend you buy it or something like it.

Portrait Photography

I took this photograph of myself. I’m not good at posing or smiling for the camera. However, considering I used a compact digital camera and one external flash, I think it came out rather well.

When deciding on an external flash, just because your camera is small, don’t buy the smallest and cheapest one. Buy a flash that will be effective and that you can use for many years, even when the time comes when you upgrade to a DSLR camera—this is why in the first article in this series I suggested you decide on the manufacturer you plan on staying with as you grow, so the accessories will be interchangeable. For my Canon camera, I have the Canon Speedlite 430EX II Flash. Similarly, for a Nikon camera there is the Nikon SB-600 Speedlight Flash. As I just said, be careful about by the smaller and cheaper mode. For example, Canon has a new flash out that’s made for their compact cameras. It’s the Canon Speedlite 270EX Flash. This model is more proportional to the Powershot G10 and costs about a hundred dollars less. However, it’s not as strong of a flash and it cannot be operated as a slave to other Canon flashes. Even if you don’t think so now, one day you may want to buy a second and more powerful flash to take even nicer portraits and other photographs. When that happens, you will want to trigger both flashes at the same instance. If you have an old flash that has the feature necessary to operate as a slave to another flash, you can do it. You can’t do it with a flash like the Speedlite 270EX. As you continue in your activities in photography, that flash will become useless to you. So, spend the extra hundred dollars and get a much better flash now and one that you can use for many years.

Small Studio Setup

To demonstrate how portable and easy it is to organize a portrait studio, I set up my equipment in my garage in the basement of my apartment building. I put my Canon Powershot G10 on a small Giotti tripod I’ve had for a few years now. I then put my Canon Speedlite on a Manfrotto 5001B light stand. To connect the two together, I used a Canon hot-synch cord. Using some woodworking clips, I attached a large ProMaster reflector disc—I used the gold side for coloring.

Taking a Stand

Once you have an external flash, the game of gear acquisition can continue smoothly as it’s the most expensive component in the level 2.0 kit. Your external flash can easily be attached to the top of your compact camera, but if you bought a decent one as I suggested, it will make the camera top heavy and it won’t allow you to be very creative with your lighting just sitting on top. Instead, I recommend you buy a lightweight stand. If you hadn’t already noticed from other articles of mine on this site, I like Manfrotto’s products. They make sturdy and strong products. They charge a bit more than some makers, but you won’t wish you had bought a better brand. Incidentally, they also distribute their products under the name of Bogen Imaging. A good stand of theirs is the Manfrotto 5001B 74-Inch Nano Stand. It folds up into a small size and it doesn’t weight much. Even when you become more advanced in photography, there will be times when you’ll appreciate the lighter stand for simple shoots so that you can lighten your load.

As with any additional piece of equipment, there’s going to be a need for minor accessories—which drive up your costs, unfortunately. If you’re going to separate the flash from the camera and put it on a stand, you will need a way to communicate with it. The simplest and cheapest method of dealing with this, as well as the accessory that allows you to keep control in the camera, is to use an off-camera hot-shoe cord (Canon OC-E3 for Canon, or Nikon SC 29 for Nikon cameras). You can see the spiral cord in the photograph. These cords aren’t usually very long, but they’re a long enough length for basic portrait photography. They’re also not cheap considering how little material you’re buy. They cost about $60 US. But, there isn’t any cheaper way around it if you want the camera to be able to control the flash settings based on the camera’s internal light meter readings.

Pulling it Together

Once you’ve purchased these few additions, you’ll be ready to set up a small and temporary studio. I like to use my living room. I purposely tried to have only small and lightweight furniture in my living room so that I can quickly clear the room. The only large item is my sofa, but it slides easily and can be moved to one end of the room, out of the way. Another possibility is a garage or basement if you have one. You'll have to be good about keep it clean and clear of mess. As an example for this article, I set up the studio equipment I’ve recommended in my garage (see photograph). Where you place your camera and flash will take time and studying on your part to know. Check out some of the books on studio lighting listed in the books section of this site. Get yourself a good book on subject and be prepared to spend many hours experimenting.