FAQ> Technical FAQ > What equipment should I order.

First, though, you have to decide what lighting equipment you'll need, and to that end, please see this discussion (just below)

Next, you'll have to decide whether to go with digital (continuous) lighting equipment, or with strobes, by reviewing this discussion:

Then, IF you want to use strobes with a digital camera, you'll have to determine whether or not your digital camera will work with strobes, by reading this:

Next, review some of the packages on my web site, and my eBay auctions, here. If nothing fits your needs, e-mail me and we'll put together a custom package just for you.
Back to top

The answer to that question - as in ALL questions relating to photography or videography is: It depends.

It depends upon three things:

1) What kind(s) of camera(s) will you be using?
2) What will your subjects be (people? Products? High-rise buildings?)?
3) What is your budget range?

Since the most popular kinds of photography in the world today are people pictures (portraiture) and pictures of things (product photography), I'll start out with some examples relating to these two subjects. First, let's understand that the lighting equipment for portraiture as well as for product photography will most likely be the same (unless your products are very large, or extremely small),

So let's start with Portraiture/Product photography. Before I go into the equipment that we would want to have in order to make professional-level images, realize that you don't have to acquire everything at once. The first thing to realize is that even ONE pro strobe or continuous light will phenomenally improve your images! Why? Because it can be MOVED; it can be placed wherever you like. This capability (choice of placement) is far more important than power or size or cost. Why is placement so darn important? For the answer to that, just look any pictures or videos made with flash units or continuous lights built-into, or attached to your camera or camcorder. For the most part, we end up with red eyes, squinting subjects, "flat" faces, and ugly shadows behind the subjects. But when we have the ability to place our light source where it will do the most good, our images will improve amazingly. And the better able we are to place lights where they'll make our subjects look best, the better our pictures or videos will look.

Three Lights:
Understanding this, for portraiture and/or product photography, the IDEAL minimum lighting setup will consist of at least three lights. Why? In order to get professional-level images (or videos), we need to light our subjects from at least two opposing directions, with the light on one side less intense than the light on the other side (in order to achieve an interplay of light and shadow giving depth and texture to our subjects) That requires at least two lights.

The third light will serve as our backlight (the backlight is a light we place behind (and/or below) our subject, hidden from the camera's view, pointing backwards, to light our background). Why? First, to blow away all those horrible, ugly shadows that plague our amateur pictures (remember, wherever the light comes from, shadows will be cast in the opposite direction), and second, to provide separation between the subject and background, adding character to our subjects and images, and third to allow the background to receive enough light to properly expose in our shots (underexposed backgrounds look dull and washed out).

Softboxes
Next (and it's the same for either strobes or continuous lights), we should have umbrellas or softboxes to soften the light when we need to do so.

A soft, mellow light serves to quite effectively hide or reduce the lines, sags, and wrinkles on the faces of our older portraiture subjects (making them look younger and more vital), and for product photography helps bring out the delicate details of the products, allows us to work with soft, mellow, and almost shadowless light, and minimizes "hot spots" and reflections which occur when we photograph shiny or reflective objects or items such as eyeglasses or oil paintings. 2) If your budget doesn't allow for softboxes, then umbrellas are almost as good, and much less expensive than softboxes or SoftCases.

Back to top

Next, add to this basic 3 light setup, if we can comfortably afford it - without stealing the baby's food money - a fourth or fifth inexpensive little mini-light to use as a hairlight or accent light (what's a hairlight? You know that beautiful, healthy-looking "shine" you see on the models' hair in the pros' pictures? How do you think that lovely-looking shine got there? The hairlight is the secret! And an accent light opens up little shadows that sometimes detract from our images).

But remember what I said earlier - even ONE pro light is far, far better than none, so don't worry if you can't afford the larger kits; get what you can when you can. Every step increases your creative ability.

Additional:
And, of course, we'll need light stands to mount our lights on, accessories to control and direct the light (light modifiers: snoots, barndoors, reflectors, etc.), and if we intend to go on location shoots (or just to safely store our professional lighting equipment when we're not using it), carrying cases. And some portrait work would require backgrounds,

Light Meter:
Now let's consider one of the most helpful and virtually necessary photographic tools ever made: The Handheld Flash/Ambient exposure meter. I don't sell them, but please review my discussions about meters; I make some suggestions, and explain how and why they're so important to us:

Shooting Film or Digital  or Video
The next question is whether you're going to use a standard film camera (35mm, medium format, large format, etc.) or a digital camera, or a video camera/camcorder, or all the above.

Read this discussion; and then read this discussion to determine whether or not your digital camera(s) will work with strobes, by reading this.

Budget:
Meanwhile, you might want to consider these entry-level packages (I've made these suggestions based upon a minimum budget range - if you can afford more lights, and/or more powerful lights.

Entry-Level Packages:
Strobes:
Two & Three Light Strobe Kits
Continuous/Digital Lighting:
Three Lamp Continuous Light Package
Two Lamp Continuous Light Package:

Mid-Level Strobe Packages:
4 Strobe Package
4 Strobe & Backdrop Package
 7 Strobe & Backdrop Package

Mid-Level Continuous Light Packages:
3 Lamp 3,000 Watt Package
5 Lamp 5,000 Watt Package

NB: The best advice is to acquire the most powerful lights (whether strobes or continuous lights) that will comfortably fit into your budget, and be appropriate for your needs. Consider what we will be photographing in the near future, and acquire lights capable of fitting our needs, and have a little extra power left over for us to grow into.

You'll find strobes from 20ws to 1,000ws and continuous lights from 100 watts to 1,000 watts on my web site; without straining your budget, consider the most powerful lights that will work for your needs, and remember that you can always order more whenever the need arises.

If you're still uncertain about what to order, get back to me and let me know what you're goal is:  I'll be glad to make some specific suggestions for you.