Haha, that's great guys! Glad to see the topic sparked a lot of good information. It'll take a bit to digest it all (I admit to being rather naive about lighting) but regardless it's much appreciated!

Let us know of you have questions, we're here to help.

Thanks for a great discussion, one of the best!

The question I have is about the flag in front of the soft box, to put the shadow on the blackout background. Is the talent masked by it as well? Dumb question, but I assume the intent is for the talent to be illuminated.

The flag is positioned so that the light falls on the talent but not the background. Thus increasing the contrast between the two, and making the background truly black instead of dark gray as it appears in daylight.

The distance between the background at the talent is about 6 feet. I used very shalllow DOF so that the background would become a soft muddled mess instead of showing the true pattern it really had.

Overall, I was VERY pleased with this shoot, save for the fact that I recorded with the focus soft because my monitor I was using couldn't show me I was out of focus. I didn't want to bring my real monitor, and that bit me in the end. Not a mistake I'd make again.

Slightly off-topic: Perrone, is that you in the photo? It's always neat to be able to put a name to a face (and a history of wisdom...)

Yea, that's my ugly mug.

Looks like you're "mugging" for the camera... <laughs>

I think that is one of the things that we sometimes forget to do is take photos of us at work (ok, someone ELSE takes the photos...)

How does this factor in to this discussion? Simple: rather than trying to explain light placement, distance to background etc. just post the appropriate pics. That whole 1000 words thing...

Thanks for sharing Perrone!

Perrone, thanks for the level of detail and the photos you used to illustrate your setups - neat!

Man! If you think YOU are ugly, I ain't showing my photo anywhere! You should be in FRONT of the camera!! Handsome AND talented . . .

Grazie

I agree with the prevailing opinion that the kit you were considering would fall a little short.

My suggestion is get the Mole-Richardson baby. Or consider a tweenie II; they have a lot of punch. Either of these is a good place to start. Stay away from a 2k for what you are doing. Besides some of the issues already mentioned they are heavier and larger and that is an issue when you're doing a one man show.

BTW if you are going to buy used you might want to try calling a rental house. Sometimes they will be glad to sell off some inventory at a good price compared to new. I've been able to make my money go a little further that way.