About the postings (from Dave and Charles) regarding how to use studio
lighting equipment. What can be frustrating about studio photography
is that those who are working in the industry are often uninformed or
reluctant to impart any technical information about studio lighting
equipment to newcomers. This makes it difficult for anyone who would
like to start out as a studio photographer, as unless you have
contacts you have to do your own research. It is understandable
though- as once you know what you are doing there is a lot of money to
be made!
A good website to check out is
www.dragonimage.com.au
What's good about the site is that there is technical information
about how the all the studio lighting equipment works and also how
this relates to energy capacity, colour temperature, flash duration
and other technical concepts that can be initially daunting to
understand.
There was a lot of information about the technical side of studio
lighting, and it's true that to create an awesome photograph it is
necessary to understand how to set up the required lighting and how to
choose the right equipment suitable to photograph each kind of
subject. They've got cocoons and shooting tents for catalogues and
there is a buying guide that explains how to choose the energy
capacity of the flash heads you need, and how to create a colour
temperature equivalent to daylight (5600kelvin) or whether it's
necessary to pay more for a short recycling time on the flash
lighting.
I had a really small budget so I just started out with constant
lighting (tungsten lights), spring loaded stands, a white umbrella, a
soft box and a 42" 5 in 1 reflector (to adjust my f-stops and to
manipulate the lighting style to a greater extent) and it was mega
inexpensive too! There is 1 in Artarmon in Sydney and 1 in Collingwood
in Melbourne too.