I'm a photographer from Holland which is soon going to start his photography career. I had some payed gigs though amd not really pro yet. Hopefully this will change
Since a while I have my own studio, though it's a dance studio. I want to use it also for studio shoots. Specially to enlarge my portfolio and do alot of portraites and fashion shoots.
I really have no clue about what lighting system to start with!! So would really appreciate your help!
Lets say my budget for lighting + accesoires + background = 3500 to 4500.
With your budget I think you are probably looking at the likes of Elinchrom, possibly Hensel. Profoto/Bron is out of reach, possibly with Profoto D1. A lot of it depends on your attitude to kit and you also need to decide between mono lights and pack+ head systems. While it is true that the differences have narrowed with the digital remotes of elichrom and profoto, there are still fundamental differences between the two. If you are thinking of ring flashes and striplights in future then that would suggest a pack + head system. I would recommend you start off small with 2 lights, and a few modifiers, then add another 2 lights and more modifiers once you have an understanding of what you want/need.
Fill is needed because the contrast from a single source exceeds the range of the camera sensor. In other words, if we expose for highlight detail with a main or "key" light the detail in the shadows will be lost and the mid-tones like faces will look darker than normal. The role of fill is to lift everything the camera sees to the point it can record detail in the darkest areas. The ideal place for the fill in the technical sense is so it comes from the direction of the camera and fills everything the camera sees with as few shadows as possible. Fill shadows = dark voids.
When dark backgrounds are used it may be necessary to add a separate light to allow the foreground to contrast. Here I used a reflector with a grid to create a vignetted spot light effect. If the background is light enough for the foreground subject to contrast then this light may not be necessary.
The "key" light is what defines the shape on the front of a subject. Natural light comes from overhead most of the time and because of this portrait lighting looks more natural when the key light is placed over the head. Lighting a face is basically an exercise in getting light past the brow and nose into the eyes and that more than anything dictates the placement of the key light. The key light actually overlaps the fill. That is how the lighting is able to match the scene to the sensor range exactly.
All photography is illusion, tricking the brain into thinking a pattern of contrast on a screen or sheet of paper is a real 3D object. The greatest illusion of 3D is actually created when the dominant source is behind the object and the camera shoots into the shadow side. But for people photos we also have the need to put light in the eyes and front of the face to facilitate "eye contact". So often in a portrait lighting we will see two lights used to create highlights: one in front of the face, the other behind to define the overall shape of the body. Many different terms are used to describe the back-light: accent, kicker, rim-light, hair-light, back-light, etc.
So that's the basic recipe. Not all four are needed, but having all four increase the options for creating realistic 3D modeling.
For action like dance a simple strategy is to center a light over the camera and head of the dancer, then put one or two "rim" lights behind..
For portraits the goals become making the face look slim and symmetrical. In a full face pose that's also done very effectively with a centered lighting strategy which casts the nose shadow downward. Short lighting oblique poses tricks the brain into thinking a wide face is slim and symmetrical by highlighting just the front of the face so it tunes out the shaded side. Portraits can be done with just one light and a reflector for fill, two lights working as key and fill, two lights working as backlight and frontal key light/fill, three lights for key/fill/rim or key/fill/background, or four lights as demonstrated above.
I would take a look at Utube videos and many will show a light setup used. You would be amazed at what can be done with one light and a reflector + a good soft box or other modifier on the light. To start look at this site. He post in the peeple forum a lot under JAF Doorhof (sp) and has several video clips up. Sure he has a link. He is also in the Netherlands. I know he does workshops from info on his site. http://www.frankdoorhof.com/
I mention him because of his location and I think his work is really impressive.
Seeing lights in use will give you a lot more ideas of what you may want to purchase. That is what really made my buying decision clear when I first started.
And just for interest check out their pro8 video http://www.profoto.com/pro-8a-video
OK, shooting with 10 8as is out of most of our league but interesting video all the same.
