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I am in the very fortunate position to have been offered the oportunity to use a space above a shop in town to set up a studio. i am already in business as a photographer, but despite the fact i have used studios i have never investigated equipment required.
i have a vague budget at the moment as im not sure how much the room is going to cost to renovate to a reasonable condition.
i am estimating around £2K for all the lighting and related parafanalia
this needs to include lighting, stands, accesories, backdrops ... everything
the room is aprox 5mx5mx2.5m
its to be used for portraits
what are my options?
Hamish - having had a quick shufty at your website, I suggest that you change the photo on the home page. To say you specialise in weddings.......then show a picture of an elephant.........well.....go figure!
ok... ignoring my website for now (the front page photo is not really suposed to indicate any specialisation ... as i dont currently specialise.. the elephant is just suposed to be eye catching.. everyone has opinion on my site, some good, some bad if i changed it everytime someone commented i would have no time to do my job)
i am also not after any critique on my work ...
anyone got any pointers on my question
I would advise talking to Danny James a member on the site who owns elemental studios. I speak with experience when I say his lighting kits are superb and very much within your budget. You need to focus on the kind of photography you think will work in your studio and match your kit to maximise customer satisfaction notice I said satisfaction and not profit as dollar chasing will ultimately result in falure.
You are a lucky man Hamish your own space to create in is a goal most never acheive I hope you do well mate.
Stu
Hi Hamish.
I have been researching studio lighting/setups for the past three months whilst getting the money together.
I've read many reviews and posted on endless forums to gain a good overall opinion from as many people as I could. As per monkeygrip's comment on Elemental, they came very highly recommended so I contacted them.
Danny has been extremely helpful and with no hard sell (which I liked). I went up to the studio for one of his monthly meets and was blown away by the quality of their kit. It was great to able to have the chance of using the gear prior to buying.
Im going back up on Thursday for this months meet and to buy my kit at the same time..... very excited to finally get my hands on my own studio kit :O)
For your intended use they have their own branded M Series Pro and the new Visico Digital range. If your going to be mounting lights high on stands, eg boom, the Visico range come with a remote control so you can adjust from the handset without having to climb or lower the stand.
If you do a search on this forum for Elemental you will find endless amounts of satisfied customers and great reviews/opinions on their lighting kits. Me personally, I was blown away by the amount of quality kit that you get for your money.
For a first class service, excellent kit and superb value for money, save yourself endless hours of research and go straight for Elemental, you wont regret it. (studio-flash.com)
Good luck with the business...
Jason
jason, stu, cheers for the advice! i have been a member of this place for years, but have rarely posted in the forum. after the first responce i thought i wasnt going to get much help...
turns out i was wrong, so thank you, i shall concentrate my investigation firstly on elemental
where are they based?
(jason - good avatar.. like it)
that m series pro studio 1200 seems like an atractive option!!
Hi Hamish.
They are based just outside Bedford (Stagsden).
The M Pro Studio 1200 is one of the sets on my shortlist. It's either that or the new Visico Digital units (3x 500)... Both setups are high quality and superb value for money.
I'll let you know on Friday as Im going up there Thursday evening and will be returning with a car full of kit :O)
Good luck with the studio and the lighting...
Jason
I have the pro studio 1200 kit with additional large octo softboxes I did a recent shoot in a large hotel function room and the lights performed very well shooting for 8 hours. Its not just the quality of the lights its the amount of kit Danny packs with them you are up and running straight out of the box.
The studio meet is great if you can get there the usual crew are a great bunch and you pick up some great ideas and tips I have missed a few recently due to starting my own photography business but cant wait to become a regular again.
Hope to see some of your shots posted soon.
Stu
Quote: Ok... ignoring my website for now (the front page photo is not really suposed to indicate any specialisation ... as i dont currently specialise.. the elephant is just suposed to be eye catching.. everyone has opinion on my site, some good, some bad if i changed it everytime someone commented i would have no time to do my job)
i am also not after any critique on my work ...
anyone got any pointers on my question
Just to the right of your elephant picture on the home page you state that you mainly specialise in weddings. To dismiss marketing advice is a mistake, IMHO.
Anyway, back to the question. I have a three head Lastolite Lumen8 kit which was very reasonable, from Anthony at Spaphoto. I got a 3 head for the price of 2 deal and I believe this is still going. This came with 1 Ezybox and 2 brollies, stands, travel bag, all cabling and synch cords for about £650. This will leave you with a good amount for backgrounds, some modifiers (they are Bowens S fit so cheaper than elinchrom fit) and a lick of paint for the studio though a Mac/PC and sufficient RAID storage won't fit within budget. However, I'm asuming that you already have this kind of set up as you are already operating a photographic business.
I wish you the best of luck in your venture. My initital post was intended as a light-hearted, but relevant, comment. Sorry it put your back up.
Hi Jane..
Out of curiosity, all of the 3x Head Lastolite kits that I have seen advertised are the 200w heads? Is that the case with your setup?
I have an online photo buddy who uses the 3x 200w heads with a Hilite in a slightly smaller space than what Hamish will be using and he is struggling for power. He wishes that he had bought the 400w Lumen 8's.
If Hamish makes a success of his studio and moves on to a bigger premises he would then need to revamp his whole lighting?
Obviously my above comments are purely based on 200w heads?
Jane - are you using the train with the HilLite? If so are you trying to light the floor area or Photoshopping out the join line and colour difference. I'll be ordering a HiLite next week.
Jason
I have the 400W heads. The extra power has come in handy for location work, though I have them on fairly low power in my home studio. I don't have a Hilite but wish I did for my small studio/living room! I do have the 6' x 7' 'normal' Lastolite background (B/W) with train and though that's a pain to get uber smooth it doesn't create a line to copybrush out.
A friend has a pair of Elinchrom D-Lites and they just didn't kick enough power out on the first shoot, so we switched to mine for the second.
Another vote for Danny @Elemental here - top man who will sort you out.
Quote: the room is aprox 5mx5mx2.5m
That`s not really a great deal of space to run a business from, have you got separate office or storage space included as well.
Sit down and plan your studio space out on paper first, before deciding on which strobes etc.
Quote: I have a three head Lastolite Lumen8 kit which was very reasonable
They may not be the cheapest kits going but I just love the Lumen`s and there compact soft boxes, they would be ace in a small studio.
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