Yes, Matt, I do.
Ken

Just tried to trigger my new studio flashes (not to be confused with continuous lights anywhere else on this forum :wink and found that the built in flash on my DS now takes about 5 seconds to get out of bed. It could be that it has become arthritic through lack of use but has anyone else had this problem?

Ken

Pete, can you define what you mean by 'studio lights' as opposed to 'flash'?

As Matt rightly says start off with one light and a reflector. A strobe with a white brolly and a softbox will give you everything from a hard to very soft key light, then use a reflector (white/silver) for fill. Lastolite do a range of collapsible backgrounds but they can have a sort of 'school photo' look to them unless you use them carefully, I have some pics taken with exactly this set up which I'll post when I can lay my hands on them.

Ken

Mr Studio One does all sorts of packages, two lamps are plenty take a look at this web site and see just how Michael Grecco lights.

http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0701/contents.html

This morning I took delivery of new studio lighting kit, I usually use continous light but one job coming up requires strobes so i didn't want to spend a lot of money. For £80 I got 2 x 180ws (GN4 heads with IR and wired sync as well as slave sensors, they've variable power output and 35w modelling lamps; 2x 50x70cm softboxes, 2 gold brollies, 2 air damped stands, sync and mains cables; 16 channel wireless Tx and Rx. The Postman didn't even ask for any money and the delivery time from Hong Kong to UK was just 13 days. Build quality of soft boxes, stands and brollies is extremely good, the flash heads seem very good but obviously not like Elinchrome etc but neither is the price.

I was a little apprehensive buying from somewhere so far away but the only downside is that all the instructions are in Chinese apart from, on one box, "The Perfect Choice for the Professional Camerist" - so clearly *ist users are being catered for, the mains plugs are Australian and shipping was £58.

This guy's shop is really worth checking out, I've ordered some reflectors!
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Mr-Studio-One

Ken

I've embaked on a similar project with my Minolta Dimage IV, quite pleased with the results although B+W grain seems a lot more noticable especially with Tri-x rated at 1600 ASA. I haven't had any problems with dust fortunately but if you are going to wash your negs then use proper photographic wetting agent (just a few drops) which will break down the surface tension - DO NOT USE DETERGENT - household detergents are full of salts which will harm your film. I was going to archive everything and then realised just how long it would take so I'm now just prevewing each strip and scanning just the negs that are really worthwhile; one of the nice things is discovering pictures that I never printed.

Ken

Well mine is beautifully smooth, no roughness at all

for the same reason that communities are always 'close-knit' - never be original when some time-worn hackneyed cliche will do.

John, I am with you on PHOTO TECHNIQUE, it was brilliant and I've still got a couple of copies lying around. Just about everything I learned about photography (history and technique) came from its pages. Jack Schofield now edits a computer mag and John Hannavy, who wrote a lot of its history articles is now a professor in Wigan. However, all time favourite has to be 'Zoom', anyone remember it?

Ken