What you'll find in a studio
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LIGHT IS AT THE heart of any studio, and the lights you use will largely determine how much freedom you will have to be creative with portraits, but you can go a surprisingly long way with very little money.
Though it is undoubtedly possible to shoot very effective portraits with only one light, a basic set of lights will contain at least three units. This provides much greater flexibility, and by adding a range of reflectors you can create an almost infinite number of lighting combinations, so that the arrangements can be as varied as the faces you will photograph.
Studio light units are available in a range on different strengths, and can vary in the exact composition of the materials used to create the generate the light. For instance, some light units utilize tungsten bulbs and therefore generate light of a slightly yellow quality while other such as may be balance to match the color of daylight. For more on information on color balance, click here.
In the old days of film photography, using anything but daylight balanced flash was a real pain, and photographers happily splashed out the dough for expensive units. But today, with digital photography, which allows us to shoot under lights of a wide variety of color temperatures, there is a good case for using tungsten or lights and then correcting any color casts on the computer. Provided you shoot in RAW, rather than jpeg, there should be no disadvantages in quality. (Keep an eye on the site for a future discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of specific types of light sources.)
Apart from the lighting units, you will also, depending on you budget, want to invest in a range of accessories and paraphernalia. These will include soft-boxes and umbrellas that allow you to soften the shadows cast by the lights, reflectors of varying colors that allow you to bound light back into shadow areas and snoots that focus the light beam, so that you can highlight a particular feature.
Your arsenal will be expanded by backdrops of different styles and hues and you will want desk fans around, both for cooling the model (many studio lights generate a lot of heat) and for creating that sought-after wind-blown effect, often used on young, pretty models.
A sturdy stepping ladder is another useful tool, as it opens the skies of possibility to new camera angles.
Some photographers also opt to have a computer present at the shoot. This allows them to get instant feedback from the shoot and lets them see the images in high resolution, making it easy to spot problems and opportunities.
Though some other photographers disagree, I don't like showing models the images during a shoot, as it can be detrimental to the rest of the shoot. "Look at my double chin!" they say, only marginally appeased by my promises to fix it afterwords in image manipulation software.
My favorite studio dwelling object, however, is the props box. In it, I keep all of the little knickknacks that will someday find their home in a suitable portrait. My box is usually filled with a strange and varied collection of bits and pieces. From time to time, this will include feather boas, a piece of thick rope, a beautiful silver pen, horn-rimmed glasses, boxing gloves, a bowler cap and any number of other objects that I collect from anywhere and everywhere. Half of the stuff didn't cost me a penny, as I'd found it washed up on a beach somewhere and the rest was dirt cheap, unwanted leftovers at a jumble sale.
My props box is never full and it's never empty. I'm always adding stuff and throwing things out, some of which will never have made it into a picture. I'm forever going around, picking up odd things, thinking about where I will be able to use them. And collecting is half the fun.