Home Theater Studio

You know, I have only been at this photography hobby for about two years now. I have an engineering background, and am currently getting my PhD in MRI instrumentation. With MRI, you don't need light to get an image, rather you need atoms with an odd number of nuclei. With photography, you certainly need light. In fact, photography is all about lighting. With that in mind, I decided to take a $100 plunge and get some entry level lighting. I found this budget system via amazon.com :
PHOTOGRAPHY STUDIO LIGHTING KIT 600 WATT FLUORESCENT PHOTO DIGITAL VIDEO by PBL


I have nothing to compare this kit with, however the fit, finish, and build quality are excellent for the money. I got this lighting to use in my "man-cave", where I can watch a flick on the projector, etc. I can also use the white projection screen as my studio backdrop. Here is what the studio looks like:







I did some research on how to get true whites and they recommend the white background to be about 1 to 2 stops brighter than the subject. I have no light meter, but did manage to get some decent results. At first I tried to use both lights on the screen to get even lighting, but that forced me to use an off-camera flash. I then used one of the lights to illuminate the background and another light to illuminate the subject. I turned off the background light, found proper exposure on the subject, then set the camera manually with the subject exposure settings and took a picture with both lights on. For a first try with lighting, I'd have to say it isn't too bad. Especially since my fiancee isn't so happy with my photography hobby and thus would not pose for me tonight. Here are some results of my still life subject and your's truely.