Studio lighting recommendations and experiences?

I'm in the process of trying to put together a budget for buying studio lighting gear. Not for a studio of my own, I'm a renter still, and I'm not patient enough and good enough at portraiture to make a go of that kind of work. I'm looking for lighting that will let me shoot stock images with models - yes, I do know how tough stock is, but I made it through the first couple barriers now and have an opening for some permanent ongoing work.

I'll be renting studios, or going on location, to shoot. The range of images will be from full body "scenes" to closeups of just fingertips and a raspberry. I've been looking at monolights versus wired lighting. Seems to me that monolights would be wonderful for mobility and flexibility on site, but they seem to be "slow" in flash duration - most wired systems like Alien Bees are near 1/2000 of a second. I also worry if monolights will make it through a 6-8 hour shooting day. Any opinions or experience?

My second issue is how many lights and power levels. I studied lighting design for theater decades ago, and to me, lighting a scene involves 30 or 40 lights, four or five different gels, and other insane levels of technology that only make sense in a theater. How many is enough?

Power levels also are a problem for me - huge numbers of lights at 300ws, but that's about the same as my SB80Dx. Doesn't seem enough, at ISO 100 and distances of 8-15 feet. Few, and very expensive, lights at 600-750ws and above. But I have a rule, buy once only and the right stuff only even if it means waiting to accumulate enough $$, don't buy and trade and trade and trade. What's a sensible solution here?

I already know that I'll be shooting mostly with softboxes, honeycombed backlighting, ring lights, and beauty disks. That seems to be the easiest set of decisions, no choice of gear closes those doors.

Any and all experiences and advice welcome. I'm kind of a sponge when it comes to making decisions like this.

Thanks.

 

Whoa, you gave me a better answer than you may think

I"ve been looking at the Calumet lights. I've been thinking the 750ws units were good, and the three light packages they offer are pretty well priced. Nice to know they are Bowens, lots of experience behind that name.

What's the flash speed? I see those eye-popping shots of the woman who shoots dancers, and she's doing 1/1000 or faster. Seems I can't find monolights that are fast flash speed - lots of times they don't even tell you what the flash speed is. Gotta think this through.

Can you run your monolights off mains power, if you've got a really long heavy duty session? Is the flash duration different if it's plugged in?

I hear you about the powerpacks being all or nothing, that's exactly what I've worried about. Murphy, of the famous Murphy's Law, lives in my camera bag.

The digital thing is something I've thought a lot about. I suspected the high watt second lights were all about ISO 50 films, but I still do shoot film - ISO 100 films generally.

I know I'm over-engineering lighting. My "guru" Jay Maisel says "God does pretty amazing thins with one light, why would I want to screw around with that?" I thought I might be able to do what I want with three lights; you've given me a bit of comfort about that.

Thanks, Robin.

 

man, this nikoncafe place is good

Got it. Good info. The calumet version of the 750 runs about $400 here, on sale and inspecial packages.

Robin, you've done a great job of tweaking my brain. THanks.

 

I ended up getting Elinchroms

Dan, I ended up getting Elinchroms, two 600ws and one 1200ws. I am working a couple of dance companies to try to get a project going, and I knew I'd need the fast flash duration, which you really can only get with Elinchrom. Have been shooting with them for a bit over a month. In one studio situation, I found I had the 1200 turned way down even with a really soft softbox (the Photek octabox), and the 600 I was using behind the white muslin was also turned down even to blow out a backdrop.

Then, the studio I shot in two weeks ago, was much larger, and not a completely white box, but instead, a black box, which gave me 100% control of the light. It also meant zero spill, and I was using every ws of light to get the depth of field I wanted. I was also shooting groups of four at full length sometimes, which needs the light. The dancer project, if I can get everyone on board, I'll have to evenly light a big area, since I'll be asking them to jump or fly, and can't count on precision all the time, so I'll end up diffusing the daylights out of the light.

 

Ah, I'm a high-key guy

Even when the models are clothed in black, I'm a high key guy. Gotta say, you can always turn the lights down.

I'm working hard to try to get the dancer thing tied down, otherwise I shouldn't have gotten the Elinchrom... We'll see.