Light recommendations

[CaptainPeanut]

Hi

I'm after some recommendations for a lighting option to be used when photographing food and the occasional portrait in the absence of a decent natural light source.

Was thinking that a single continuous light with softbox would be sufficient but haven't a clue as to what I would be looking for.

Don't want to spend a fortune as it will only be used occasionally but would also rather avoid a cheap import that is going to get really hot.

Thanks

[Simpo Two]

Continuous light (unless LED) isn't very bright and makes the room hot. My most common arrangement is 400W + 100W flash heads with adjustable power, radio trigger, softbox/s and various other modifiers to taste.

[markmullen]

The entry level Elinchrom kits are great value, kits like this http://www.theflashcentre.com/d-lite-rx-one-softbo...

I use Elinchrom gear for flash and really like it, well made, reliable etc.

IMO better to spend a bit more than the usual ebay no name Chinese stuff, it is scalable too so you can expand your gear as time goes on.

[andy-xr]

The best thing I've seen for this is an LED light bank, they're brilliant at illumination. The problem is that they give 'everywhere' light. They're hard to close down where you want the light to fall. If you just want a nice even light then that'd work but if you want to be able to position the light source to just hit a certain spot then they're not great.

[kman]

If you want to go cheap, you probably already have some speedlights - get some radio triggers (yongnuo are cheap and reasonable), a bracket and a simple softbox. You don't necessarily need high powered strobes/packheads etc for the most part.

[budfox]

thelittleegg said:

I've been doing some food photography (https://www.flickr.com/photos/lepetitoeuf/) for my blog....

Nice work.

[budfox]

I've not done much work with lights but the kit I have is from Lencarta - www.lencarta.com

Just another option really but I've found their kit to be reliable, well made and a reasonable price.