I just started on the room.. its about 12x12, going to finish the drywall tomorrow and paint over the weekend. My lights just came in today so I had to toss them up.. havent got the chance to use them yet though. I just got home from taking my mother to the hospital for a minor surgery and need sleep.. but that didnt stop me from pluging them in and going "ooooooo"
Its small, but it has a 6x7 "closet" (more like small room) attached.. I'll use that for makeup/changing. It will have to due until I get more space. This is just a spare room in the basement I'm playing with. I've never used studio lighting before.. so this will be fun. It was the incentive to finish the room I guess.
luckily I have some hot friends who know makeup that I can position around and utilize.
edit: monday the seamless paper stand should arrive with a few sheets of different colors. I got grey, lime green, and teal blue. Any suggestions for vitals? Black and White?
Hey Drew, I hope everythig goes well with your mother and her sugery. Dont take to long, to post pics from those Stellars. I am interested to see and hear what you think. Mine are on the way. Happy Shooting. What did you go with for your remote trigger? I went for the Micro-Sync. Size was a selling factor for me.
Great thread... Have been reading for past couple of weeks..
I am an amatuer and a hobbyist, used to do film sometimes before. Am planning to setup a home studio myself, but before that, I would love an oppurtunity to assist someone in one of the shoots as pictured here. Anyone within a driving radius of NYC, if he needs help for a shoot, or even otherwise would be kind enough to let me be there during one of the shoots, I would appreciate it a lot. A shoot on a weekend would be great, although I can try and attend a weekday shoot too. Please PM me or email me at [email protected]
Any of you use the Aikiphoto studio flashes? After realizing that my options pretty much were very limited (also because I need 220V), it was more or less these or nothing, I decided to go for 2 of them for now. I got one 600WS one and one 200WS. I already have one that I would guess is around 100WS, got it much for the accessories that came with it, at $30 on eBay. I have to use that one with a power converter though, since it is a 110V one.
Anyway, these are what I will have to play with, and it will be very exciting starting to learn. I will have to get more accessories little by little over the next few months. E.g. I need better light stands with booms, softboxes etc. There isn't too much info about these on the net, but I have found some positive comments. The only clearly negative I have found, is that the optical slave sensor on the 200WS unit seems to not be too good. For that reason I'll be using radio slaves. These are the brand/co. that won a contest in China to equip studios all over the country in 2004, studios which are taking pictures for new photo ID cards for 1.3 Bill. Chinese. Supposedly the flashes has worked very well in the studio, even if they are put to really hard use, for hundreds of pictures daily. I guess that if they are good enough for that, they must be good enough for me as a hobbyist... Sure hope so!
I would appreciate it a lot if anybody here already using these could post about them. I'm sure that I'm not the only one with a really limited budget, and to me these really seems like a good value at a very low amount. I got one as an auction item, and bought the other one. They were around $230 for both. I'm really happy that there is such an affordable option!
When I get some experience using them, I'll of course share with you!
Well, I just managed to shoot a full length standing shot of a 5'10" girl in my house with a 8 foot celing. I would have loved to be able to get lower to shoot and I did have to do a bit of photoshop to extend the background a couple inches at the top but where there is a will there is a way. So don't let low celings get you down (hehe).
Bump... John E are you still around? I'm looking for distances in studio. Using seamless paper. What are your distance from subject to background, subject to camera, background lights to background etc. Thanks
Looks like this thread has run its course and what a good one it was. I only wish I could have seen all the early setups. By the time I got to it, many pics were unavailable.
artillusions wrote:
Bump... John E are you still around? I'm looking for distances in studio. Using seamless paper. What are your distance from subject to background, subject to camera, background lights to background etc. Thanks
Bummers, sorry I'm 3 days late seeing your post. :-(
Model from the background: I typically keep the model at least 6 ft from the background (unless I want her shadow on the backdrop, in which I move her closer or the background is black and I want to keep it black, which in that case, I may move the model 10 ft or more from the background.)
Camera to model: typically about 6ft when using a 24-70mm lens. If I want the model to look long and leggy, then I'll use my 70-200 and I'll position myself lying on the floor and about 15' from the model.
Background lights to the background: If I'm shooting high-key or I'm trying to flood the entire seamless background with light, I'll use white umbrellas and place the lights about 6' from the background. Otherwise I'm typically trying to put a spot/halo on the backdrop and I'll use a 10, 20, 30 or 40 degree grid on the 7" reflector on the lights and then vary the distance of the light to the backdrop to get the desired effect.
Hope this helps to answer what you were looking for.
Thanks John that helps alot. On the background lights, you keep the lights 6 ft from the back of the paper and on the edge of the paper (at the sides) and aim the lights 45deg.at the opposite corner? Is that right?
Does this put your model almost even with the background lights? Thanks
artillusions wrote:
Thanks John that helps alot. On the background lights, you keep the lights 6 ft from the back of the paper and on the edge of the paper (at the sides) and aim the lights 45deg.at the opposite corner? Is that right?
Does this put your model almost even with the background lights? Thanks
You are correct...
However, when using the umbrellas it typically keeps light off the model and I also use black-side curtains to block stray light from the back and sides.
If you're still on the list, could you repost these shots? Nearly all the images posted from last year no longer show up (or at least I don't see them).
Sure hope so! 
