Studio Equipment...Please Help

Hey all~
I am in need of a little advice. I am looking to purchase some basic studio equipment (lights, background stand, backgrounds, etc) and am desperately seeking assistance. I need something fairly portable, as I work as a musician for national tour of musicals. Basically, something sturdy, effective, yet something I can fold down and throw under the bus, and then set up in hotels and such along the way.

Does anyone have recommendations? Umbrellas vs. Barn Doors? Seamless paper vs. Muslin? Trustworthy brands? Any help is truly appreciated. You can respond here or at kevinbwinebold@gmail.com. Thanks so much!!!!!!!

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Permalink Reply by Kevin on July 8, 2009 at 10:59pm: For the money, I don't think you can beat Paul Buff's AlienBee line of lights.

As far as stands, it seems you would need some serious heavy duty ones for all the setting up you'll be doing. I'd probably look into the heavy duty Bogens.

Barn doors will only control where your lighting will go, umbrella's and softboxes will diffuse your light giving you a lot softer light.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ben jones on July 9, 2009 at 5:34am

Agreed with the Paul Buff stuff. Umbrellas are quick and easy to set up/tear down, and muslins take up virtually no room whem compared to seamless paper. I NEVER stuff muslins into a bag like you will hear others proclaim so often. If you fold them neatly you will have about four straight lines in the background to clone out. If you stuff them into a bag you will have several thousand wrinkles running randomly throughout the background that will detract from the image and will be a sure fire give away you are not a professional photographer. Some will respond with "use a large aperture and throw the background out of focus and you won't have any wrinkles" which only shows their ignorance of the use of powerful flash units and close distances to the background like you will be facing. The image below is a 10 x 20 muslin that I had carefully folded the last time I used it, then after I rehung it I cloned out two straight lines, one in the middle and one about 1/3rd of the way down from the top. She was about four feet out from the background.

Ben

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Katie1.jpg, 130 KB

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Permalink Reply by Jessica Bjorn on August 13, 2009 at 2:18pm: Alien Bee and Zues of Paul Buffs lights are awesome, and the light modifiers, ect are all great as well. I would recomend Soft boxes and shoot through umbrellas.

I stuff my muslins, but I only have a black and , white (im not a backdrop fan). But I just have my clients sit a good three feet in front of the background and shoot with a wide apature, and then i can smooth/burn/dodge out any distracting wrinkles in photoshop. I much prefer to work with paper. Because it rolls up, allways smooth, and you just rip off and throw away marks. No laundramat visit and endless hours of ironing!!! But from what you are saying your are doing, I think paper care will be a lot less painful then muslins.

I have a really cheap backdrop stand... and I hate it. but it is light weight and sets up fairly quickly. Cowboy studios is the brand...; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Michelle on August 18, 2009 at 6:09pm: Denny MFG puts out a line of wrinkle free muslins that are fantastic.
In the Paul C. Buff line has anyone bought the cybersync setup yet? I am thinking about it!; ▶ Reply to This