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When starting portraiture, concentrate on artistic issues, not technology and certainly not brands. So, you want to distinguish types of portraits (candid, formal, environmental, group), and decide which one to explore initially. Before artificial light or photography, there was sunlight and paint, so creative concepts like mood and intent were already well developed in Western thought.
Indoors, the free and ready source of light is the window, which can be "north facing" for naturally diffused light, or "south facing" for naturally hard sunlight (undiffused). Sunlight can also be diffused by many means (e.g. curtains) to soften the light to taste. The essential qualities of this light is directional and off-camera which together give you many creative options.
Outdoors, you have to find where light and subject converge at the same place, oftentimes fleetingly. I find this task annoying and time-consuming. A simplification is finding where the light is good (e.g. big wall of white or of glass), and then waiting for your subjects to pass through the zone. If your subject is an active participant, like a model or client, the setup is easier.
In all these cases, you start with natural daylight with the intention of learning about portraiture that interests you, and observing how purchases of gear for artificial light will improve the shooting situation, if at all. Many pros (think SI swimsuit edition) use no flash gear at all, but have passive reflectors to bring light onto the subject.
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