Wed Sep 15, 2004 3:50 pm
Yep the Rebel will work in a studio situation. Some others are a little better there but it will work fine.
What to get depends on how serious you are and your budget.
All the below are for simple 2 light setups. As you get better you can improve to 3 and more light sources but to start out 2 is more than you will want to handle. All prices I'm quoting are USD.
A two light setup is two sources, two diffusers (umbrellas and/or soft boxes) and two stands.
Low budget is "Home Depot" continuous lights with very high wattage bulbs. (about $40). Use a hunk of paper or cloth over the front to diffuse it.
Next up is continous lighting with commercial lights. About $100.
Next would be to use something like TTL compatable strobes on stands. About $200-$300. This is portable but is missing modeling lights.
Finally the ultimate is strobes ranging from JTL-160 type (about $250) inexpensive heads to higher end strobes like Alien Bees (recommended about $400). Finally the next one up is a system with an external pack. ($700+).
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With flash setups you will want to get a flash meter ($25 -$400). With continous lights you can use the internal metering of the camera. You can get into almost religious wars on flash meters but for me a simple JTL at $125 was more than adequate. The simple Weins at <$50 are fine for home studio use.
For the Canon reb you will need either a hotshoe to PC adapter or a wireless transmitter (radio is best $50, or IR about $25). It is not usually possible to shoot a rebel with external strobes from on camera flash. It does preflashing and other evils that will confuse the external flashes.
Note the Canon hotshoes have a reputation for being a little weak so if you are going to hook to unknown strobes (like a friends, or at a studio) then you should get a "safe sync" to control the voltage down below 6V.
Most modern studio strobes (Alien Bees, JTL, Britek, etc) are low voltage but always verify.
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Backgrounds...
1) Simple and cheap .. A piece of heavy PVC or metal pipe with continuous roll paper. (About $10 for the pipe, $20-$50 for paper).
2) Cloth backgrounds. You can pick up cloth at Walmart or other sewing stores for $2-$3 a yard get about 4-6 yards and be creative. Attach to the pipe with shower curtain hooks, or sew a pocket in the top of the cloth.
3) Professional backgrounds (painted) run $75-$150 (ebay).
4) A portable stand runs about $100 for a sturdy one.
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Room needed ...
About 10x12 or bigger is optimal but you can do things in smaller areas. I have shot in my bathroom with clamped on flashes and gotten reasonable results. Usually you want the model away from the background so you can control DOF and put the background in or out of focus. and you want the lights far enough back so they diffuse evenly.
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Advise (take it for what it is worth). Get one of the adapters for flash I mentioned above. Then look up a local pro photographer and talk to him and ask him to rent out his studio for you and give you a few simple lessons. It is amazing how much you can get out of a few hours and it won't cost you that much.