eBay: It's Photography That Sells
- by Peter Lerman (copyright 2010)
LIGHTS! (continued)
What goes into the Soft Box? A Light!
You can pick one of the two basic kinds of lights used by studio photographers for decades: strobe (flash) or continuous light (light bulbs). There are some new kinds of continuous lights I have seen on the market that employ LED's. They may be fine but I have no first-hand experience with them so we'll leave them out of the conversation for now.
Strobe is my light source of choice. It doesn't heat up your studio and can give action-stopping 1/1000 second exposures at small f/stops. If you never shoot people in the studio, just still life, you probably don't care about this and would be better off saving money and using continuous light. Get a nice, bright light that won't burn down your house and remember to TURN IT OFF when not in use.
There are some sellers on eBay offering a soft box with light stand and lights (compact fluorescent) for about $70. If you find such a kit from a reputable seller, grab it. It is a great way to get started.
NOTE: If you are using a point-and-shoot camera that does not have a 'hot shoe' on top you will have to use continuous light. There will be no way to synchronize the firing of your shutter with the firing of an off-camera flash.
Good strobes are more expensive and more complicated to use than continuous light. Without a special light meter to measure strobe output your exposures will be trial-and-error. You will have to learn to 'see' the light before you take an exposure and with strobes this is more challenging.
Still, if it's the way you want to go be sure to get something with a "modeling light". That's the name for a continuous light that's part of your strobe to let you preview what the strobe light will look like in the photo. Pop-up, on-camera flash does not every offer a modeling light.
Put your light in your soft box. Place the softbox, with flash or light bulb, about 2' to 3' away from your subject, off to one side and raised about 1' to 2' above the shooting surface pointing straight at your subject. Now we can get started fine-tuning things.
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