Re: [photography_beginners] Advice on setting up a small home portrait studio...

The first thing is you will need a decent amount of space. Not huge warehouse size but at least big enough that the subject can be at least like 3 to 5 feet from the background (5 is better) and give room on sides and front for lights and for you. Ideal would be a space at least 20 by 20. You will also need some space off to the side for storing stuff like props and unused lights and such.  

Second, you want some good backgrounds. With that said, you don't need to spend a ton of money. For solid color backgrounds just look at flat sheets. They work really well, and are cheap.  I get king size.  You will want to sew a loop on one side that you can slide a rod through to hang them.  Then you will need some sort of hanger type thing hanging from the ceiling to look the rods on. Then staple the backdrop on the rods so it is easier to roll them up.  If you are a bit of a carpenter you can create a little rack that can hold the rods one behind the other... add a pully on one side.... and then they store right up in the ceiling.  They need to be long enough to hang down to the floor.  

For the mottled background, you can either buy them (often expensive), or you can make them. I have a video on YouTube, just look up Atomic Supergeek, or it might be on my website too at http://www.atomicsupergeek.com/ if you want to try that. You simply go to the fabric store, get some white muslin, then some RIT dye, a large tub of warm water, crumple up the fabric in a ball and immerse for like 20 minutes without stirring. Then you rinse well.  It works.  Then put a loop at top and put on a rod.  

If you want to pull the background out and replace it then you will want to shoot against either a green screen or a blue screen. The green is a garish green. Look for the colors on line and then try to duplicate them as close as possible.  The colors they use are picked because they are not in undertones in the skin.  

Third, you will need some good lights. If you want to be able to use the lights portable then you will want to go with strobes. If you will always leave them in the studio then you can use AC monolight kits. There are some inexpensive AC kits from both Adorama and B&H.  http://www.adorama.com/LTBSBK12.html is a nice little two light kit from Adorama.  You will pay roughly $150 to $300 for a two light or three light kit from either of them for these.  There are some nice two light setups you can do, but three light is ideal. With two light you can also do a bounce board to help reduce shadows on the dark side. http://www.portraitlighting.net/examples.htm has some great examples of different light setups.  

If you want to be portable (which is what I am doing) you will want strobes. You have two main choices here. You can go with the fancy Canon strobes. I am more familiar with the Nikon Speedlight system. Nikon is famous for their speedlights. But they are pricy.  Or you can go with inexpensive manual lights. If you go to the Strobist blog you will be able to read on these a lot.  There is a strobe that is available from Midwest http://www.mpex.com/browse.cfm/4,14648.html that was designed specifically to the specs by the Strobist. It is $159 and is a rock solid very nice strobe.  He also did a review of a strobe by a Chinese company called Yongnuo, the YN-560. You can get their equipment from eBay direct from them.  The YN-560 is about $90.  I got the older less expensive YN-460 for $43 and expect it to get here in about another week.  Solid strobes with good review and not costing much money.    All of these strobes will optically trigger, just put your camera flash at really low power. The reason I went with strobes is I can use them indoors and outdoors. I am impressed with the stands. A lot of people like their portraits outside now. And even in sunlight a strobe is great to help balance things out.  

Oh, side note.... Yongnuo also has radio remote triggers really really inexpensive that I have read good reviews on.  I think a set of three receivers is like $80 or something like that. That is one of my next purchases. 

Then you will need light stands and umbrellas. I went to B&H and got an Impact brand stand and umbrella holder (that also holds the strobe) and umbrella. The stand and holder were each under $20 and the umbrella was under $10. I got two to go with the two strobes. They are very solid.  Outside if there is a high wind and I am using the umbrellas then I will probably need a sand bag to hold the stand down, but that is not really an issue of the stand itself, but simple physics with the umbrella and wind.  

I would not spend any money right away on a better tripod. Get the lights and backgrounds. Then after those I would find some things for props.  You can use sections of fence, go to garage sales and goodwill to find things that will make good props.  You can go a lot farther if you have things to put in the shot. Actually I usually still handhold my camera so I can get many different angles.  

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