HOMEBREW RINGLIGHT

Step 7 Crack a beer and play with yer new toy

Congratulations, now the fun of shooting professional portraiture in your home studio can begin. You will need to be fairly close to the lights to get a good effect because even with 1200 watts of light I had to shoot with my aperture all the way open at about 125 shutter speed. Due to this, my depth of field was incredibly narrow making some of the shots worthless. I would have gotten a higher percentage of them if someone else had been on the other end of the camera and I wasn't running back and forth using the timed shutter. Oh yeah, REMEMBER TO ADJUST WHITE BALANCE FOR TUNGSTEN!!! If you fail to do this all of your shots will have a reddish overcast.
Also, I shoot with non-automatic prime lenses which means I have to meter off camera and generally accept that not every shot will come out. This half length one was shot with a 50mm Pentax Asahi lens, the close up was shot with a 135mm SMC Takumar lens. You might not be able get this kind of sharpness with all zoom lenses. At least, probably not with the kit lens that comes with your camera. I know that I can't with mine but maybe it is different with yours. try it out and have some fun.
I hope this project was a good learning experience and that it allows you the freedom to shoot some pictures that will astound your friends and peers wih their professional look. Happy shooting!

you can see more examples at:
http://flickr.com/photos/macdawg/