They used pretty much the cheapest everything they could get.

Flash units look about as basic as something like this, some gels from a sample swatchbook, some whatever remote triggers of this kind ... what about this is so expensive?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01I09WHLW x 2 - Speedlights - $56

https://www.amazon.com/Neewer-Wireless-Speedlite-Receiver-Universal/dp/B00A47U22U - Wireless Trigger - $19

https://www.amazon.com/CowboyStudio-Photography-Light-Stands-Cases/dp/B001WB02Z4 - Light Stands - $29

https://www.amazon.com/Neewer-Professional-Universal-Speedlite-Umbrella/dp/B00JJJR7PY - x2 - Cold Shoe - $22

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0132I34K4 - Octobox - $23

https://www.amazon.com/Fotodiox-Premium-Shoot-Through-Translucent-Umbrella/dp/B005ODKMOC - Shoot though umbrella - $14

https://www.amazon.com/Neewer-43-inch-Collapsible-Multi-Disc-Reflector/dp/B002ZIMEMW - 5 in 1 reflector - $20

That brings you for a full starting light setup that can be used for headshots and starting boudoir for $183. And you even have flexablity in there to use a 1 light setup with reflector or use 2 lights. You would want a few sandbags to keep the gear stable, but I am not including those in the price.

Now for a background setup

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E6GRHBO/ref=psdc_3444601_t1_B00MTF6ZVC

Is a good basic stand but hard to fit under your budget with the above lighting gear.

https://www.amazon.com/Neewer-Studio-Collapsible-Backdrop-1-8x2-8m/dp/B00UWL02PU is also an okay starting backdrop, Grey can be turned into white or black. I will warn you that you will need a fabric steamer to get the lines out, but that is pretty much the same however you go with cloth. Another more expensive choice is to go with seamless paper, I love working with paper, but it is an ongoing expense to use it.

Now if you are going to make this her studio all the time, they make http://www.homedepot.com/p/EUCATILE-32-sq-ft-96-in-x-48-in-Hardboard-Thrifty-White-Tile-Board-HDDPTW48/205995949 that you can use to make a great background. Or to me the better option if you are going to use a room as a full time studio, paint the walls, put down hardwood or laminate, and you have a great studio setup.

I wrote an article on intro DSLR kits on Amazon. I wouldn't bother unless you bundled them with your camera.

They're definitely crappy extra toys, but they may help you learn more about photography (by showing you how things make your image quality worse); but they also were kind of fun at the beginning and encouraged me to get out and shake the bugs off and dig into learning how to shoot good photos (and how extra toys don't really help). Everyone takes shitty photos at the start anyway, so you're not missing much; and it's not a ton of extra money over grabbing a body/kit lens/good SD card; but if you already have your camera kit, you can skip it for sure.

DO NOT USE THOSE TRIPODS!

Those are strong enough for point and shoot cameras at most. Especially with a telephoto lens, the tilt arm is likely to fail and it'll fall on sensitive optical mechanics. Those are in the $10 price range. Spend at the very least closer to $30 on a tripod, and a $100-ish tripod will be a safe, and useful tool to use with your precision imaging equipment.

tl;dr - Sure, it's a waste of a little money, but they can be kind of fun toys. Burn the tripod.

Stuff I'd suggest getting:

• 2-3 nice SD cards: Class 10, 32-64 GB each
  
  
• Another few cheaper (but still fast) SD cards: 4-8 GB
  
  
• Solid tripod. $30 or $100 is well worth the money
  
  
• Rocket blower. Avoid touching the lens, whenever possible and never touch the sensor. A lens cloth should be plenty. Avoid being tempted to use a wet cleaning kit on the lens or the sensor if possible
  
  
• I love my big, cheap camera bag. I have 3 lenses, and a speedlight and this is perfect for me. I wear it across my chest and carry it on my lower back where it's out of the way and easy to deal with 95% of the time.
  
  
• An Intervalometer that matches your camera
  
  
• Manual flash that can tilt & swivel
  
  
• Flash triggers are fun and work great with those cheap $10 tripods. Check Strobist.com for great tutorials and inspiration
  
  
• Flash gels can be fun creative tools too. Can you tell I'm getting into playing with off-camera speedlights?

https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-Electronic-Flash-Cameras-Canon/dp/B01I09WHLW/ref=sr_1_3?s=photo&ie=UTF8&qid=1520620988&sr=1-3&keywords=flash


They work great, adjustable power, swivel/tilt head, guide number 33 so they're fairly bright, optical trigger. They even have a pc sync port.


And the voltages are safe to use with a modern DSLR.

Is this for stills or video? If stills, just get an inexpensive manual flash unit and a way to trigger it off-camera. They provide a TON more power than hot lights and honestly aren't that difficult to learn.

If you want to play with color, flash gels are an inexpensive way to get into that.

At that budget, get some manual offname speedlights, and some cheap 28in umbrellas. They are far from the best things out there, but even the junk has its place, and that place is on shoestring budgets. As for backdrop, go to walmart, and pick up some queen or king size bedsheets of the walmart brand. Get one thats close to middle grey if possible. A middle grey sheet with a speed light and a color gel will become whatever color your gel is. I bought the strobist pack of gels, so my one sheet instantly becomes the whole rainbow. The reality is that $150 is a drop in the bucket of a proper studio, but there are plenty of budget ways of doing things. If you want even cheaper lighting, at the trade off of control, go to your local hardware store and pick up some of the $5 work lights that look like more like a bowl from your kitchen than a proper light. Continuous light can still be plenty useful but can be a little trickier to set up, and dealing with spill can be a pain. $2 foam core project boards make great dirt cheap reflectors and flags. You best bet at that budget is to think more DIY than "what can I buy". Try things and experiment. I have spent almost as much money at HomeDepot making my own lighting modifiers as I have on buying actual modifiers, and the results aren't really much different between my homebrew and the actual gear.

edit: Here's some links!

AmazonBasics speedlight $28 (x2, ~$60)

flash triggers, $15

two shoot-through, two silver reflectives, two gold reflectives, w/stands and carry bag $57

so that puts us at ~$135 right there

grey bedsheet $15

cheap gel kit $8

So add in tax and shipping, and there's your $150 budget plus a few bucks extra.

Now like I said you can do continuous light a little cheaper.

Here are some lights, modifiers, stands, and backdrops for $97

The key here is this is all "junk". That doesnt mean dont use it. I have a bunch of stuff from kits like these. But dont be surprised if an umbreallas silver lining separates off, or a softbox develops a tear in it. They just arnt made to the same standards as "pro" gear, but you can get just as good results with it if you take your time to learn what you are doing, and accept the downfalls of what you are buying and work around them. Work in your budget and develop your skills more. You will either pursue it further and buy better stuff later, or like me, still have the cheap off name junk because it works fine and you would rather spend money on glass than umbrellas.

Yongnuo YN560-IV

AmazonBasics Flash if you need really cheap.

LumoPro LP180 as the upgrade pick (Wirecutter talks about it).

If you need TTL, not sure what would be best.

So I bought the amazon basic flash. And I'm having trouble with it. All of my photos look really really overblown. All my photos with this flash are really white and blurry. The only time it looks okay is when I do -5.0 Exposure comp and -3.0 flash comp and I use the lowest setting of the flash. What's the point of buying a flash if I'm just going to diffuse it completely? I also use an altura flash diffuser btw. I just want a nice soft light on my portrait's faces. I find it annoying to mess with the exposure compensation etc is there something I'm missing here and not doing right? My goal is to get pictures like this I'm just really frustrated because all of them look completely white or the background looks like night because of exposure compensation.

Consider trying this Wonderfull manual flash from amazon basic:
https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-Electronic-Flash-Cameras-Canon/dp/B01I09WHLW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1519971690&sr=8-1&keywords=amazon+basic+flash+for+dslr

The Yongnuo is very good flash but only in manual. It is not consistent in the ETTL mode. So why pay the extra for ETTL.

One advantage of the some of the Yongnuo models is they have the radio cont
rol for off camera flash trigger.

When it comes to macro, depth of field is a major challenge, because it's razor thin at those distances. You can increase the depth of field by using smaller apertures, but the smaller you go the less sharp the image will be (due to refraction). I'd just try different apertures, because you may still find it acceptably sharp. Another way to improve how much appears in focus is to use focus stacking, a post processing technique using multiple images focused at different points, but it can be challenging. One easy tip, since the plane of focus is perpendicular to your camera, shooting straight on will utilize the entire plane of focus.

As far as lighting, as HelplessCorgis said, outdoors can be challenging because the slightest movement can throw things off. If it's bright enough to use a very fast shutter speed, you may be okay. If you're indoors, and the table and tripod are stable, you can even use longer shutter speeds to get the exposure you want.

Ultimately flash is always better for still photography than constant lights, due to efficiency and light output. Even a $28 Amazon Basics manual speelight will do a decent job! Then you'd want a cheap flash cord so you can move the light around (just make sure to get the right one for your camera brand).

the amazon basics flash for silly cheap on camera to trigger is an option... for $£ 25 ish or less usually https://www.amazon.co.uk/AmazonBasics-Electronic-Flash-DSLR-Cameras/dp/B01I09WHLW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1509584723&sr=8-1&keywords=amazon+basics+flash

you chose two flashes that came with wireless triggers. is that something you wanted, or did you just happen to come across those bundles?

If so, either of those should be fine. If not, you can get a cheap amazonbasics flash and buy triggers later.

After we lost a set of family pictures (and having to pull teeth to get another set) to crappy, non-responsive mommytographers after our second was born, I decided to finally get a real camera and learn some photography basics. We've got our third on the way now, so I'm starting to evaluate the kit I've acquired over the last few years in light of this.
If you're looking to get a flash, just grab the cheap AmazonBasics manual one and bounce it off the ceiling behind you; you'll get 80%+ of the utility of the flash for $30, adding the Cowboy Studio radio trigger gets your flash off camera for cheap as well. Regardless, learning how to use flash is another skill to research (the Strobist is a great resource) and takes a ton of practice. However, babies are slow enough that you should be just fine bumping your ISO a bit and shooting your 20mm wide open.
Really, though, I'll echo what other posters have said: knowledge beats throwing money at kit. What you have is plenty sufficient for good pictures, and buying more kit will barely move picture quality if you don't add knowledge. Practice with mom, practice with a doll, look at pictures of babies, etc. In addition, learn to post-process. Your first attempts will suck, but shoot RAW and practice. You're better off spending $150 on good PP software than another lens, but you can still make do just fine with open source software.
 
We have a similar setup: EM10m2, 14-42 kit, 25mm f/1.8, 40-150 f/4-5.6, 7.5mm f/3.5 fisheye, as well as a smattering of old adapted lenses (most useful is the 50mm f/1.7 that fills the classic "portraiture" role)

Unanswered question from the previous megathread

Author /u/JohnCarson89 - (Permalink)

I have purchased the Opteka E-TTL AF Dedicated Flash (IF-980) for my Canon t6i and am looking to purchase a wireless triggering system that would work for it. I'm trying to stay under $100 CAD. Would I need something that compatible with ITT-L? Any suggestions?

I just want to make sure the system I purchase will work for this and a cheap AmazonBasics Electronic Flash if necessary even though it does have a slave function.

I have purchased the Opteka E-TTL AF Dedicated Flash (IF-980) for my Canon t6i and am looking to purchase a wireless triggering system that would work for it. I'm trying to stay under $100 CAD. Would I need something that compatible with ITT-L? Any suggestions?

I just want to make sure the system I purchase will work for this and a cheap AmazonBasics Electronic Flash if necessary even though it does have a slave function.

So I couldn't get a decent reflector here without it costing more than £15 so I was gonna leave the reflector for now. However, I just saw this on amazon it looks really decent since its super basic and it could help a lot. Thoughts?

The harsh bit of information is: you're not going to be able to get good results with no experience and a £100 budget.

Basically, for that level, you'll only have full manual flashes, so will need to understand how and why you're adjusting the settings (which will be limited) on that budget.

However, in the UK, look to amazon, for the brand Neewer.
You will want the following items:

• a light stand
  
• a shoe mount
  
• a large diffuser - an umbrella or octobox are typical
  
• remote triggers (cable or radio)
  
• a flash
  
  An example set up of this can be a lighting kit of the stand, umbrella, and mount at £25, a full manual flash for £26, and very basic transmitter and receiver for £11
  
  Be warned though: this kit is not brilliant. But can be a reasonable starting point to get an idea of what to do.
  
  The other alternative is to find and see if you can have the scene naturally lit, and use some form of reflector (large bit of white cardboard can help for cheap) to add some fill in the shadows.

probably not, but why risk it? Amazon sells a manual flash for 28 dollars..

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01I09WHLW?aaxitk=zlaEm5ltNU6i0nO6cGRx7Q

Word's out its promising, and dirt cheap. No auto modes (TTL), but it'll be good for learning.

Yeah they do, I just ordered one

The AmazonBasics flash is ~$30 and is just a rebranded Neewer model. It's full manual, but if you're shooting off camera with speedlights, with the A6000 that's the only game in town anyway. (If there's a TTL wireless transmitter/receiver out there for the Sony multi-interface shoe, I'm not sure).

For stands and umbrellas, when I started off Cowboy Studio stuff was inexpensive and relatively good quality to price. I'm not sure if it's still that way, but if you're looking to keep it cheap to start with, it's not a bad way to go. Same with their wireless transmitter, but Neewer has one for $16 on Amazon right now that comes with 2 receivers.

(The one thing to keep in mind is that the hotshoe on the black A6000 is painted/coated, so the transmitter may have issues grounding, but I haven't had one of these in hand for several years, and I'm having difficulty remembering if the transmitter required a ground spot in the first place, as it's just a simple "pop the flash" affair. You should be fine though.)

So for a starter kit to learn off camera stuff, I'd say go with 2 of the AmazonBasics Flashes

This umbrella/stand kit

And the above mentioned trigger set. That's around $130 and two lights should be plenty to get you started. Maybe even consider getting some softboxes while you're at it.

Since you're just getting started with it, I wouldn't dump too much money into it for now. Those two flashes with umbrellas/soft boxes will be plenty to just get the basics down, learn the different lighting styles, and decide if shooting with flash is where you want to go.

From there, shelling out for some PocketWizards, Profoto strobes, and all the high end kit is up to you!

I also wanted to experiment with flash units for portraits. I bought a couple of these: https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-Electronic-Flash-Cameras-Canon/dp/B01I09WHLW/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1542945415&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=amazon+basics+flash&psc=1

It's fully manual and rather close-range (the guide number is only 33), but you can trigger it remotely with your onboard flash, and for the price, it's great to just have fun and experiment with. And they've improved my indoor photos dramatically.

The advantage of a flash with a trigger is that you can take a couple with it, click the transmitter off, and take a couple without it...

I use a flash on a very low stand for exit photos, generally - but if something wrong - for example, if I can't get into the right position to put the couple between me and the speedlight for some reason, I want to be able to click it off remotely and still get photos! Of course you can handle that with a signal to your husband to switch off that light, so you'll be fine there!

That said, there are cheap flashes that are absolutely fine. You can buy a manual only flash for $30, or one with TTL for $50-60. In addition to the 622's, which are what I use most of the time, you can also get the super cheap 'dumb' transmitters that just pass the trigger signal for under $20. If you're really not going to use this stuff again, they'd be fine.

So something like
https://www.amazon.com/Neewer-Wireless-Speedlite-Receiver-Universal/dp/B00A47U22U/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1524622121&sr=8-3&keywords=flash+trigger

And

https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-Electronic-Flash-Cameras-Canon/dp/B01I09WHLW/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1524622217&sr=8-16&keywords=yongnuo+flash

That flash will actually trigger as an optical slave to any flash... so you COULD skip the trigger and just use your diffuse fill flash to trigger it while your husband holds it.

Are those great products? Nope. Would I shoot paid weddings with them? Nope. But I think there's a 95% chance they'd do what you need them to do - all for under $50.00.

If you'll use off camera flashes again... invest a little more in the YN-622c's and/or the godox flashes. But if not, cheap out and you're probably okay.

Whatever you do, make sure to get out there 10 minutes before the exit and test your setup! Sparkler exits have everything a photographer hates - bright lights, darkness, fast movement, and a narrow window of opportunity!

Also, coach your couple! Tell them to come out, kiss, move to a certain spot, stop and waive, wait for your signal to move to the end of the line... kiss again. They tend to just RUN for it and it's easy to miss the whole thing, especially if you need two seconds to adjust a setting or switch on or off a flash trigger. That's more important than the gear! The sparklers really DO give enough light to get a shot with ambient only, or ambient and a little flash fill.

Oh, and if you are using front fill, gel it warm!

> https://www.amazon.com/Neewer-Rotatable-Aluminum-Adjustable-Photography/dp/B01CHQ8Z7Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Qf2ooD3alA
This is the look I'm going for.

If I had all the money in the world, I would buy 1 big octagon modifier and 1 professional speed light which would work.

But I dont. I'm caught between buying 4 of these: Which I still need to find a way to attach them to stands, and what stands to buy.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01I09WHLW/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1510881560&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=amazon+basics+speedlight&dpPl=1&dpID=41NIpT%2Bjt5L&ref=plSrch

The idea came from here: I really like the last photo. But this takes up a LOT of space.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRU5x8DWq_k&t=530s

And a recommendation a redditer made:


https://www.amazon.com/Yongnuo-YN-560IV-Wireless-Speedlite-Controller/dp/B015ZALVI4/ref=redir_mobile_desktop?_encoding=UTF8&dpID=51jDyWBhEoL&dpPl=1&keywords=yongnuo&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&qid=1510935752&ref=plSrch&ref_=mp_s_a_1_5&sr=1-5

Did you know Amazon will donate a portion of every purchase if you shop by going to smile.amazon.com instead? Over $50,000,000 has been raised for charity - all you need to do is change the URL!

Here are your smile-ified links:

https://smile.amazon.com/Neewer-centimeters-Octagonal-Speedlight-Photography/dp/B00PIM3I6I

https://smile.amazon.com/Fotodiox-Premium-Shoot-Through-Translucent-Umbrella

https://smile.amazon.com/Neewer-Professional-Universal-Speedlite-Umbrella/dp/B00JJJR7PY

https://smile.amazon.com/Neewer-centimeters-Portrait-Product-Photography/dp/B00L4YR0BS

https://smile.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-Electronic-Flash-DSLR-Cameras/dp/B01I09WHLW

https://smile.amazon.com/Neewer-Wireless-Speedlite-Receiver-Universal/dp/B00A47U22U/

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