JT Spunk | Photography

Tips for Photoshoot and cheap lighting equipment?

Hi, my friends and I are planning a photoshoot next week mainly for fun but also for furthering my photographic skills. It’s my first time to do a planned photoshoot, most of my shots are spontaneous, street and experimental. So I think I’m really going to be conscious of thinking beautiful poses, angles, concepts for a photograph. I use a Canon A700, a point-and-shoot digital camera, not that I’m bettling my camera (I love my camera) but it does have its limitations like not having the capability of adjusting DOF (unlike dslrs) which is very essential in portrait photography…

When I first got semi-serious about photography, I had a digital p&s also. I made a lot of my own lighting , and lighting acessories. I wasnt sure what I needed, and was tight on a budget at the time.

First thing I did, was develope some refectors for outdoor shooting. Mostly they were used for fill lighting. I got a couple pieces of 2′x4′ foam board, and used ductape as a hinge to connect them. I used spray adhesive, and several pieces of mylar from a craftstore I bonded the mylar to the foamboard. Silver on one side, gold on the other. They work great to fill in shadow (silver for light skin, gold for darker). It helps to have an assistant, but you can use 3′ gardening steaks to attach the board to if necessary.

I made diffusers of different material, to cover my on camera flash. I used coffee filter, rice paper, transparent gift wrap (red, blue, green, yellow), to give me different looks.

I purchased a quantaray ms1 ($20), optical slave flash. It has some limits, but works indoors well. Your camera flash sets the ms1 flash off, letting you place it whereever you want, for whatever purpose. IF your camera uses pre-flash for setting levels, there is a qms1 ($40). I bought 2 ms1′s. It has been a great, and tiny investment. I still use them a bit.

For the ms1′s, I built snoots, barndoors, and other things to allow me to adapt light the way I wanted. Try here, http://strobist.blogspot.com/ for more tips on DIY lighting.

I used, basically, left over material from other projects, so they were all rather inexpensive.

I eventually purchased several 12″ round silver worklights from walmart ($8), and used 150-200wt bulbs for lighting. You can build snoots, doors, and “gel” holders, to add color to your sets.

Occasionally, on sale, you can find 4′ flourescent fixtures ($4-$6) to use for lighting. You can get “natural light” tubes, so it doesnt mess with your whitebalance. Eventually you can get three, set them up as a triangle, shoot thru the middle, and it will give well lighted shots of your subjects. Or set them up on end to the sides of the subject, there are many setups you can use.

I still use my reflectors, for indoor use, to bounce my light sources off of. They arent perfect, but for less than a hundred bucks, you get a lot of stuff to play with, learn a lot, and figure out what higher end “toys” you want to spend $$’s on.

Enjoy.

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