P#22 Q3A: The "Must-Have" Equipment for Proper Lighting in Digital Photography

Keep it Simple

John Siskin: What I suggest is buying one powerful strobe in order to start taking portraits. If you go out and buy a kit (and there are many three-light kits on the market) the kit is going to have stuff that you shouldn't start with.

Let's say, for example, that you get a three light kit and you set up all three lights and use them to shoot the portrait. You now have three sets of variables that happen because all three of those lights interact with each other. It's very hard to understand what one light is doing and which light is causing a problem, or which light is doing something that you want. It's much easier and smarter to start with just one light.

I recommend that people get a 500 watt second light. There are a lot of manufacturers out there who have them. Also get a 60 degree reflector to make sure that the light is all heading in the same direction more or less, and a 45-inch umbrella. Just make sure it has a black back or removable black back.

Too often umbrellas get used as a shoot-through rather than a bounce-off. I don't know if that makes sense, but it means you light the entire room and the light becomes really flat when you shoot through it.

You can also make a couple of light panels. I've put directions in various places about that but what you're making is a 4x6 foot panel that is made out of PVC and white cotton. It's simple and easy to build. Get a light stand and maybe a background stand.

It sounds like a lot of stuff but it really gives you a lot of options and a lot of ways to work with light without costing you an arm and a leg.

Audri Lanford: How much would all of this would cost somebody?

John Siskin: It largely depends on whose strobe you buy, but you could probably do all of this for $550. Somewhere in that ballpark. If you went with quartz lights, you could do it for significantly less, but you'd have problems with heat and you wouldn't be able to diffuse the light as much.

If you choose to buy light panels it would cost you about $200, but you can make them yourself for about $20. I think light panels are really valuable tools and I think people should make their own equipment for lighting in digital photography. I think it gives people control over the images they make. They understand them better if they make their own gear. I've made a lot of cameras too. Some really, really interesting cameras. They're on my website too.

Audri Lanford: I noticed that on your website actually. So what you're suggesting is that people start out simple?

John Siskin: Yes. I think that you're much better off starting with one strobe than you are starting with three. That way, if you discover that portraits are okay but what you really want to do is shoot cars, you haven't invested everything in the world into shooting cars only to discover that you didn't like it. You have some idea of how lighting works for shooting cars.

Or let's say you decide that you want to shoot architecture. What you invest in one light takes you closer to being able to make intelligent decisions about what you need for your next light and for the light after that. I think that's much better than for somebody to go out and buy a kit only to discover that it's not well suited to the way he or she actually works.

I have suggestions on what a portrait photographer might want to get for a second light but a car photographer or an architectural photographer might want something very, very different. Different rules apply for different types of lighting in digital photography.

To Conclude

When you're getting started in photography, the cost of equipment might break your budget. That's why John Siskin advises buying only what you need as well as making what equipment you can yourself. Doing so can save you hundreds of dollars in equipment purchases for your lighting in digital photography.