B&H Photo - Lighting Introduction Index

Some great information on lighting. Beginner level sure, but right now, that suits me fine.

I've never really used much more than natural light - recently with an assistant holding a reflector as well, with a bit of flash to either fill or to light whole scene. Only recently have I got my hands on a flash you can alter the direction of - my new SB600 - which allows me to bounce the flash off the ceiling (which, incidentally gives a much more natural looking light - I highly recommend trying that out, if you're taking evening photos indoors).

I'm looking at getting into more portrait type work - and for that, I need better lighting. I'm also looking for a good background of some sort, but will figure that out after I decide what lighting to go for.

I'm looking at a pair of decent-ish flash units, that are available in New Zealand (which is a big limitation I know - I've looked on eBay, but I'm hesitant to buy stuff that I may have to obtain replacement parts for, and that have different power requirements to what is natively available over here), with a couple of umbrellas to soften and spread the light. Now, the only question I have to answer is how much am I going to spend, and what can I get for that that doesn't suck too much? Oh, I want them to be portable, and easy to set up too... not that I'm demanding or anything.

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