11x11ft High-Key Portrait Studio Lighting... Little Help ?

[Bluefire]

So wife has most of her stuff worked out for her startup..
Natural light isnt cutting it due to room orientation/window sizes.

11ft x 11ft room she has decided to do high-key portrait photography. Which was her prefered style to begin with but her tutor was all natural light etc etc.
So now its a bit of a change up and extra expenses.. JOY!
Anyone do high-key portrait?
She is stuck on lighting atm and everyone seems to have a differnt oppinion.
Currently leaning towards strobe or stobe/speedlight mix.
Cant decide on brand or power.
Or if she should go continuious due to toddlers/kids.

Its driving me nuts!

Anyone with actual experence in the field ? perferably willing to offer useful advice ?

[aboutagb]

http://learn.garyfongestore.com/blog/
This is the solution I use;

Speedlite's vs. studio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGb1eO9awFk
Speedlites for a small studio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sKK_lvQiVA
Speedlite's vs. Constant lights
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QaCI_SUc5c

[aukiman]

I think you are spot on with the strobe, speedlight mix. You should also consider maybe being mobile if possible.

I currently use 6 x Vivitar 285HV's ( 2 x twin mounts and 2 x singles ) for my shoots eg this High Key port shoot - http://blog.aukihenry.com/2012/03/maddi ... -2012.html

Mid year I will be investing in the Elinchrom Ranger RX Speed AS for that much needed extra power but will continue to use the Vivitar's for rim, fill and fx lighting where needed. That exact combo can be used to great effect eg - http://blog.aukihenry.com/2011/10/when- ... party.html

The reason I use Vivi's is although they are manual, they are bloody powerful and cheap, easy to rig a battery pack for if you have basic soldering skills and portable - same with the Ranger. If I am doing outdoor shots the whole lot come with me in the back of the car. The strobe/speedlight combo is extremely versatile and suits many genres. The addition of a Ranger kit when affordable is the ability to over power some extreme lighting conditions, basically the luxury of power on-tap.

If your wife wants to do a range of genres of photography then a couple of cheap ebay continuous is all you need, can do more naturalistic shooting in less demanding lighting conditions, good for video work on the off chance you might need it and I use it for my food shots as a flash tends to wash out fine detail - eg : http://blog.aukihenry.com/2012/01/food- ... y-diy.html

sorry for post length, hope that helps somewhat. Please remember these are opinions from experience only, no need to take my word as gospel - different things work for different people