Any budding photographer knows the importance of lighting when it comes to taking photos; it is basically why we can capture images on film or in a digital sensor. Light is our means of communicating and translating what we see from our view finder to our images or photos. It directly affects the subject and the image. Without it, you'll have to raise your ISO to 1600, 3200, or even 12800, use a tripod, slow down the shutter speed, and open your aperture all the way to a decent exposure.
Written by Amber Richards (Wichita Falls Texas)
Lighting will give you flexibility and control in whichever area of studio photography you would like to explore. Unlike natural light, which varies depending on the time of day or weather, it changes, even during the same shoot, forcing the photographer to continually adapt to the shifts in light. Studio lighting will allow you to place the light where you want it, where you want the light to fall, and how much light you want. That is why when you are setting up your very own home studio you have to make important decisions when it comes to lighting, so that it is done correctly. It also allows for a greater degree of creative lighting in many situations.
When you have the right lighting equipment you will be able to try and experiment on a lot of different photographic techniques and experiments. This is especially good for the creative photographer that gets bored easily; the possibilities are endless
The choice of what equipment to start buying for your home photography studio will be like mapping out your journey before you take the trip. Before laying out the path, we have to find out what we need, to travel in order to get from point A to point B.
A few things that will cross your mind will be whether it would be advisable to splurge or be thrifty with your investment for lighting equipment for your studio. It's all going to depend on the budget that you are working with, what type of photography you plan to shoot, and what your future plan with the equipment is.
If you look around the internet, you might read a lot suggesting investing more on expensive equipment. This may set you back and have you thinking twice about setting up your own photography studio at home. But you must consider in the long run whether you'd be benefiting from the better performing equipment. Sometimes the saying, "you get what you pay for" is very true in photography lighting equipment.
It may be wise and advisable to invest in more expensive lighting and photography equipment if you can, but it is not necessarily required. Now if you don't have the budget at the moment, to purchase expensive lighting equipment, you should not lose hope and give up on setting up your own home photography studio. It is still possible to have your own studio, even while working on a tight budget. You can purchase less expensive starter equipment to begin with and upgrade as soon as you can. Sometimes you can also find good quality lighting that is used, from a photographer who is upgrading their equipment.
You have to remember that whether you will be purchasing expensive equipment or looking at cheaper models, it is important that you do the necessary research in order to ensure that you buy equipment that is stable enough, and made of good quality to meet your basic photographic needs. If it doesn't, no price is a good one, and it will hurt your work. If clients aren't happy with the work, your studio won't grow.
Now going back to working on a budget for your home photography studio, you can start with a one light set up at first. There is no need to go crazy and buy a whole photography store if you are working on a tight budget. Even if you are purchasing photography lighting equipment one piece at a time, you can still get the most out of it by mastering all possible photography & lighting techniques, exploring the possibilities, and studying the limitations with your one light set up.
After you have mastered your one light set up you can then move on to purchasing your next piece of photography and lighting equipment, which might be a two light set up. From there, acquire the same mastery before moving on to your next lighting purchase.