Indoor Lighting

shutter

New member
Hi Everyone, I am trying to research what additional flash I would need and studio lighting for taking portraits indoors this winter. I have had my Nikon D3000 since last Christmas and I have just started taking some portraits for friends outdoors but I hate cold weather so it will not be long before I have to move my photography inside where the heat is. Also what lens do you consider the best one for portraits since I will be looking at purchasing another one soon.

Thanks
 

Fotojo

Senior Member
Hi Shutter
Indoor shooting can be a lot of fun and does not have to cost an arm and a leg to get started. You could start with some simple clamp on lights from your local hardware with some normal house hold bulbs. Just make sure you adjust you white balance properly or read your manual and use the preset white balance. If you want to use strobes you can pick-up some of the lower Watt series for fairly cheep. JTL makes a very nice light in a 160 watt range and I know you can get a 2 head with stands and umbrellas for under $400.00. Just do a search for JTL lighting and it will come up. Another option would be using some flash units you can pick-up used from local camera store and some slaves. Look up Stobist on you - tube and see some of the set-ups for us flash for lighing source. A good lens and inexpensive one is the 50mm 1.8 with on your camera with its sensor it would be equal to a 75mm 1.8 which is a good portrait lens. Hope you find some of this info of some use good luck and happy shooting.

Fotojo
 

shutter

New member
Hi Fotojo,

Thank you for your reply. It was very helpful. I still have a lot to learn with my photography skills so it is great to have someone that will provide so much information. I hope to learn from all of your here that have vast knowledge and experience to share.

Shutter
 

Ranie

Senior Member
The 50mm 1.8 is a very good portrait lens on a crop body like you're D3000. But the D3000 does not have an in body motor to drive the 50mm F1.8 D. You need the AFS version of the 50mm to AF on the D3000. You have to manual focus it.
 

shutter

New member
The 50mm 1.8 is a very good portrait lens on a crop body like you're D3000. But the D3000 does not have an in body motor to drive the 50mm F1.8 D. You need the AFS version of the 50mm to AF on the D3000. You have to manual focus it.

Thank you Ranie. I will put that one on my list of lens to buy. My husband has me making one for him for the holidays. I need the practice on manual focus so that will force me to master it. The auto focus makes things way too easy.
 

fotojack

Senior Member
Personally, I think the 35mm f/1.8 lens is a better portrait lens. If I had to choose between the 50 and the 35, the 35 would win hands down. Much better DOF with the 35 1.8. Just my 2 cents worth. :)
 

naja

Senior Member
You will always get advice about lights, but very few seem to mention the importance of a reflector. A reflector can act as a secondary light source and make all the difference to a photograph. It can be just a sheet of white card or card with tinfoil stuck to it, or it can be a proper reflector. these are only about £36 in UK so maybe $40 in US or even cheaper. You will have a white, silver, gold and black reflector. This can just bounce light in, warm it up, kill it off (black) or act as a diffuser (white). Please do consider getting one, it can make all the difference to an image and enable you to get great shots with an off the camera SB800 or SB900.

AS for the lens it depends on what sensor you have. If you have an APS sensor with a 1.5 multiplier then something around 50-70mm will give you the best and most flattering effect. If you have a full sensor (D700, D3 etc) then something around 100m to 135mm will give the best and most flattering effect. I ten to use my 105 micro lens on my D700. Although it is normally for Macro work it has excellent glass and gives a really wonderful portrait because of the focal length. A lens of around 35mm CAN give slight distortion (wide angle effect) on APS sensors and even more so on Full sensors.
 
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