Hi, I find that studio equipment usually are rather depreciative, meaning the more expensive strobes you buy, the more you lose. So if you are not intending to shoot on a full time basis, its actually better to stick with the cheaper brands. Afterall selling off 5k worth of "cheap" equipment at 1/2 price, you will lose less than selling off similar high end equipment worth 20k at 1/2 price. That said, studio equipments have quite a lot of hidden costs like reflectors, modifiers, stands, backdrops etc.
I shoot in a living room with some furnitures and usable space is only about 3.5 x 10 m, it's really too small!! The only good thing is the ceiling is higher than average.
For wireless triggers, if you are referring to those used to trigger off strobes, they can be pretty cheap if you go for the china brands. They do work well. I have been using mine for about 2 years and they still trigger every single time.
Modifiers like softboxes, umbrellas are good to have, but not really necessary. I have a number of umbrellas but practically unused as I'm trying to move to harsher lighting. It's more important to invest on the reflectors, grids and barndoors. I feel they are used more frequently. Of course there are much more modifiers like gels, beautydish, snoots, sun umbrella etc. Do take some time to read up on what you really require as these stuff add up to a rather significant amount.
Reliable brands like bowns and elinchrom are the most common in singapore since they have agents here. If you can somehow get brands like profoto,broncolor,balcar they are even better, but of course much much more expensive.
I'm using Jinbei that CSer afiend brought in, its really much cheaper and so far its been pretty reliable, so you may like to take a look at that. The number of lights required, well that's for you to decide. Sometimes I use 1, sometimes it goes up to 5. I think a good tradeoff will be 2-3. Think CP carries such 2-3 set kits too. Wattage wise, the higher it goes, the higher the F stop you can use. It usually recharges much faster too. Somewhere along 600w - 1000w will be very usable range.
Ok din realise I rambled so much. Better let you digest the vebal vomit first ;p Hope this helps!
very very helpful post for a newbie like me.i really appreciate the time taken to make the post.just a few queries.
1)how does ceiling height affect studio photography?not like we're going to use bounce flash right?
2)wat are grids?are they like venetian blinds that directs the flash to the subject instead of scattering them?
3)when i look for wireless trigger, how do i know if it's compatible with the studio flashes?or is it universal?
4)wat are beautydish and snoots?wah piang eh.lots of jargons!
5)so assuming 1 get a 2 unit light.it is enough to get going right?do i need a flash for backdrop?
i'm thinking i may not have sufficient space.which only limits me to half body shots.so sad.:cry: