Studio for LF work

[John Cook]

Richard, let me reply by touching on just a few random pieces of advice:

God does an excellent job of lighting the outdoors with just one light. And so can you. I have had excellent results with Speedotron and White Lightning. About 1200ws. There are other good ones as well, but you may find that some foreign brands are rather expensive for what you get. Like a car, they will need service, so check out available repair facilities before you buy. A 30" to 40" softbox will complete the electronic outfit. You will also require lots of white and foil reflectors and mirrors in many sizes. They can be home-made. Lighting is ninety percent of photography. Once the subject is properly lit, any fool can take a gorgeous snapshot of it. If you want to make a living at this one day, concentrate on learning lighting.

I don’t mean to spoil your fun, but it’s important as soon as possible to get focused on one subject matter which interests you, for which you have talent and for which there is a commercial market with a reasonable level of competition. You cannot survive commercially trying to photograph anything anywhere anytime. Specialize in something you know. Very few New Yorkers can make good horse pictures.

Shooting a few scenes with a model is certainly legitimate. Especially for a young, red-blooded male. We all, at one time, have had adolescent dreams of working for Playboy or Victoria’s Secret.. But I have personally seen “pretty girl photography” turn into a very expensive, time-wasting, career-destroying, obsessive hobby for a very great number of young men. Try to find something at which you can actually make a living and fiercely guard against getting hormonally sidetracked.

[Ed Eubanks]

All of this is great advice to which I can add little. My only thoughts are regarding equipment.
I have used a lot of different brands over the years, and lately I've been using InterFit monolights. I bought a kit that came with two modest 250-w/s units, stands, umbrellas, cables for about $300. I have added to that another 250-w/s unit, a 500-w/s unit, and a 1000-w/s unit, for a great and complete kit that almost always meets my needs. These lights are very affordable and are quite well-made. They have easy controls which give a surprising amount of flexibility to their function, such as the "power wheel" which allows you to stop down the light anywhere from full to 1/4-stop on a potentiometer, so there is no fixed "increment" of decrease.
They are made in England, and imported by Patterson (I'm pretty sure), who I've come to trust over the years as marketing good stuff. And, by the way, I don't have any personal stake in their sale.
Just thought I would make a recommendation. Anyone else using InterFit gear?

[Rory_3532]

Have you thought of talking to artists instead of photographers? Perhaps the USM Faculty of Fine Arts will let you use some space. There may be students in the faculty who want to share the cost of a studio rental. There may also be local artists who want to share.

[Richard M. Anderson]

Thanks again for your superb input. I've got a lot of new options to consider. All of you have been a great help.

John, this is merely a hobby for me. I'm finishing up a network engineer degree. And the shoots with the models contain no nudity nor are sexual in any way. I'm also not paying any "model" to sit for me, they are simply friends who are kind enough to get dressed up and waste several hours of their time helping me learn to use the view camra. One such scene I'd planned on shooting was that of a blonde angel sitting on a cloud while a young man is reaching up towards her and a brunette is clawing at his legs. Sort of harkening back to film noir ideas about the dark haired woman being the cause of the man's downfall and the blonde being his redeemer.