A common question among new photographers is which photography lighting equipment to get. Depending on what type of photography you’re doing you will need different types of lighting. You need to consider if you need something portable, whether you have somewhere to plug in the lighting or even if you need just a little lighting and not something more powerful. So let’s go ahead and determine what the best lighting solution for you is.
Portable Photography Lighting Equipment
For the photographer on the go portable solutions are where it’s at. You can’t really be carting a huge lamp down to a cliffside to take a shot of someone climbing a mountain and even if you could, unless it runs on batteries you’re not going to be using it once you do get there. photography lighting equipment for the mobile photographer is generally flash lighting. Generally a flash that mounts onto your camera will not need a battery pack unless you’re getting some really high end stuff. It will be powered by the camera’s battery if you’re using a digital camera or have some kind of built-in rechargeable battery if you’re using a film camera. However if you’re using a flash you may want to get a flash defuser or soft box to lessen the harshness of the flash light. Strobes are also an option for a portable form of lighting, you can get battery powered strobes if you tend to move your studio around a lot. You could even use the battery powered ones in a studio if you really wanted.
Studio Photography Lighting Equipment
For the photographer who has a studio set up, like what you would have if you ran a shop that took family photo’s. Strobes are generally the way to go. There are many many strobes to choose from but they all do basically the same thing, illuminate the target area with sufficient light. Most studio’s would have 2 or more strobes so you can get good light from 2 or more angles and reduce the shadowing in the photo’s. Equipment for studio’s is fairly simple. the only trick is finding a brand you can trust and getting yourself a set of strobes. Places to buy them vary, a lot of people just go to ebay these days and get it from a powerseller or registered ebay store for their photography lighting equipment solutions.
