ok so do I have to go for cheep ass umbrellas or soft boxes then constant light or strobs ? sigh, so many pros non of them can give full answer instead of that they talking between them selfs ;-/

Hate to be blunt but that type of budget is no where near enough to have a full working studio.

As for umbrellas/ softboxes.. it also depends on what you're photographing. I find umbrella hard to control and has to much spill, but i do occasionally use them as kickers. I tend to work with octas with grids or stripboxes and honeycombs/ snoots. Different modifiers have different uses and it's hard to tell you what to buy. : /

I'm gonna ask again in diffo words (since I'm struglin sometimes to explain what I need/want)
What would you buy for basic studio - portraits of adults,kids etc not talking about full pro shoots for top range fashions magazines just for normal people.

background 2 colours : white, black - do i need green if yes why ?
two flash guns + two umbrellas or same guns plus soft boxes ?
constant light set up or strobs ?
any tripod for working in studio or shot from hand ?
wireless or cable trigger realise ?

guys let's say you doing this more often then me and still can't explain what to do where to start ? I'm not trying to be a prick or something but I'm just curious what would be your choice if you would have around 500$

if you're gonna be green-screening, I'm gonna laugh at u

why ?

Hate to break it to you but ~450 ain't jack and will get you jack.

Sell your worst camera body and a couple lenses you don't use.

One flash won't yield any decent results at all.

Two large soft boxes + One beauty dish (with grid/sock) Should get you started.

Always strobes. Constant light is not neccessary.

You don't need a tripod unless you are shooting still life.

Always wireless.

I honestly wouldn't waste 500 on lights. I'd keep saving until I could afford something decent.

This could start you off but the quality of light will be pretty shite

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/732294-REG/Novatron%5FNKV240D2W%5FV240%5FD%5F2%5FHead%5FFun%5FKit.html

This post was edited by lithfkn on Jul 12 2011 06:54pm