Hi guys, I'm just a newbie in photography... during this shoot, I even just used a Canon digicam since I don't have a DSLR yet... since I have no money to spend on strobes, I purchased 3 halogen lights from a hardware which costs me less than 1k pesos... I assembled everything, I put the bulb in place, connecting the halogen light into a on/off switch and into the electronic socket... I also used cellophanes (Red, Green, and Blue) that costs me aroung 40 pesos to add some effects on my background... and finally, I used the large tissue paper that I saw on our office's pantry for the light diffuser... all in all, I spent Php 1,400 to have some gears for this shoot... I asked my friends to pose for me and here are some of my shots using DIY gears... please feel free to criticize them... thanks...

Kat
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3182/2526423678_7e37684628.jpg?v=0

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2001/2523935964_63ae0bf878.jpg?v=0

Kat and Ada
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2288/2523936680_a681dc9a37.jpg?v=0

Rolly
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2306/2523929774_99170b8728.jpg?v=0

and Agnes
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2409/2523923284_1017b220bb.jpg?v=0

Hi! Ken.

The gears you assembled may have cost you some inconvenience, which is the price you pay in exchange for the very expensive professional lights. If you attained your photographic objectives, who cares anyway. You are happy and that is more important.

Welcome to DPP!

good continous light. does your digicam has manual settings? like shutter speed and apperture setting? try to add a little more f/stops to highlight your subject. if not, try to relocate your keylight closer to the subject. you have creative placement of lights but I think you might wanna add some more to make your subject look like popping out of the background. your light must consist of a key light (main light), background light and highlight. your subject must stand out from your background and should be highlighted for greater effect. I think you are trying to achieve low key here so can you place the light more closer to your subject and post your shot after? hope to see your post soon. cheers! by the way, the DIY lighting is great. :)

well, thats just me. let's see what others can tell you more about this.

The digicam that I used is a Canon A400 (3.2 mp)... it doesn't have shutter speed and aperture priority features... another thing is that we have a limited space in the location... thanks for the feedbacks, I'll consider them on my next photo shoot... i'll setup a photo shoot again but by this time, I have my Canon EOS 450D with me but I'll still use my DIY lights... thanks sir Jonathan and sir Sam...

:Grin::Grin::Grin:

good for you sir! 450D is a good entry. now you can play around with your new equipment. you'll get good results from then on. hope to see more of your work. for the mean time that you are experimenting your DIY lighting, which I suppose are continous light, try the strobes sometime if you have friends who has strobe sets. you'll see the difference and there and then you'll get to decide what artificial lights are ideal for your shooting style. happy shooting sir! :)