Portrait Lighting

Hi,

I am interested in experimenting with portait shots, mainly of my children and would like to use off camera lighting. At the present time I don't particularly want to invest in expensive lighting equipment. I have seen the Lastolite EzyBox Hot Shoe soft box and I am interested as to whether anyone has had experience of this. I would be looking to mount it on a lighting stand and use an old Vivitar 2800D flashgun.

I used to have a Latolite Apollo and the Ezybox looks to be a much improved version of that. You should get a reflector, arm and stand too

Personally, I would invest in a cheap PC cord system so you can mount the Vivitar on a tripod away from the camera.
You'll need a hotshoe-to-PC adapter, a long PC cable, and some way of connecting the PC cord to the Vivitar (some flashes have a PC lead, otherwise you'll need a hotshoe-to-PC adapter again). "Real" camera shops often have these kind of things in their bargain buckets
(7dayshop also do such things, IIRC).

Once you've done that, it's a good idea to get a diffuser for the flash. I have a £30 shoot-through brolley that's made by Hama and works a treat. (Think I bought it online from Castle Cameras... not sure)

And, as has been stated, a reflector and some means of holding it (arm + stand) is also very useful.

This is the kind of result you get with a single brolley, a simple cloth backdrop, and a reflector (to soften the shadows on the RHS):
http://www.ephotozine.com/u16488/gallery/613649


However, there's a lot to be said for natural lighting... and a reflector and simple cloth backdrop can be ideal (I even saw one excellent portrait that was lit by window light and reflectors made from kitchen foil and polystyrene sheets!)

Matt

Thanks for the reply guys.

Having found that the EzyBox is £90 just for the flash hotshoe mount and softbox, then a lighting stand on top of that is going to push the cost over £100, I figure that I might as well wait a while and go for one of the Interfit/Bowens twin head kits for around £200.

In the meantime, I intend to try what Matt has suggested. I think I have a hotshoe adapter lying around somewhere that was off an on Zenit camera. Just one question, as the 2800D supports TTL and has the various pins underneath, does the hotshot adapter have to be insulated except for the centre pin? I have seen some where the plate is all metal and some where only the centre pin is metal...this is probably a dumb question!

Gareth,
It depends on the flashgun

But with a PC cord setup you should run everything in MANUAL. (Only the *ist-D and *ist-Ds had TTL support anyway). And that's the easiest setup for studio type shots anyway.

You can always use an old white sheet just to try things out (or anything translucent). Get a cuddly toy as a model and experiment
Large sheets of polystyrene are good for a reflector (try at an electrical outlet - somewhere like Comet - they may have loads to throw away )
Once you've worked out what you want, then you can go and buy any extra bits you need, but it doesn't have to be expensive to be effective

Matt

Matt, are you saying the DS supports TTL with any flash set up?

ken

Ken,
Yup. The *ist-D and *ist-Ds work a treat with the hunking great Metz 50MZ5 that I still have (anyone want to buy it? Send me a PM)
After the DS Pentax ditched TTL. Don't even think the DS2 has TTL
Matt

D'oh! I'll give it a go anyway, whats the worst that can happen

I realise the flash isn't P-TTL compatible so will only work in manual mode, which I have used when on the camera itself.

Will give things a go with polystyrene and a cuddly toy...now there's a sentence I never guessed I'd use

Will try to post some pics over the weekend.

Thanks all.