Camera Lighting Equipment

What is the best lighting for a indoor photo shoot?

My wife is just starting out with her photography business and is concerned about the lighting at her next photo shoot. She has shot most of her pics outside and is wondering what kind of lighting she will need indoors. (boom, soft box, barn door, or umbrella) also should she have relfectors? She uses a Sony A100 SLR Camera.

Public Comments

1. The best lighting would be some studio strobes with the various diffusers, umbrellas, soft boxes etc. These are expensive and take a good bit of practice to learn how to properly use them. The cheapest and easiest would be continuous lights with an umbrella and reflector. I say they are easy because when you set them up you can see what the shots will look like before you take them. Where as with strobes you will never be sure how the lighting will look until you take the picture. Check out the links below for some ideas. Strobe (monolight kits) http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/shop/2251/Monolight_Units_Monolight_Kits.html Continuous (tungsten) http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/248530-REG/Lowel_TLKQ_Tota_Light_Two_Light_Kit.html
2. Optimally, three strobes (primary, secondary, and back-fill). You can get away with just one strobe and a reflector. Continuous lights -- aka, hot lights -- are cheaper and do provide you with a view of what you're doing right away, but they're just that: hot. Get them too close to your diffusers and you'll be buying new diffusers. Get them too close to your subject and they'll be sweating. I've become quite fond of the continuous lights using daylight-balanced compact fluourescent bulbs. Not as much heat, so you can still use softboxes on them. (Example linked below.) Lighting can be tricky, so play around with it and learn what you're doing before going live with it. A good light meter will help, too, since you'll have to work in full manual mode to get the right exposure. Depending on the look you're going for, take a reading on the primary-lit side of the face and then on the other side of the face, looking for a full stop lower there.