KimParks Loc: Kenosha, WI

Sorry didn't realize I could edit. I tried to delete this. Sorry

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

A few years ago, a town in CT would not allow business people to have their business cars/trucks visible in their driveways, etc. They had to be in a garage.

RobertMaxey

I recall a case involving a ham radio operator. He put up an antenna you could not even see from a few feet way. The head of the home owner's association was miffed that her TV was garbled and she assumed it was this ham. Forgetting that it is not necessarily up to the ham to fix things like "your" interference problems and sometimes we are blamed for garbled TV.

Sometimes, it happens because the TV/Radio is not as well-protected as it should have been, so the FCC might impose "Quiet Hours" on the interfering ham.

Anyway, this operator went to court and threatened to install a 30 or more foot wide, gargantuan TV antenna that would look like the Mars Probe landed on the roof. TV antennas were allowed by the rules but nothing in those rules to say it had to be of a certain size. As I recall, he also threatened to add a big satellite dish in the back yard. Satellite dishes were allowed by the rules. This woman assumed that all satellite dishes look like Direct TV.

The ham won his battle.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I'm so glad I don't live in a community with its own zoning rules about the height of the grass, color of the shutters, etc.

RobertMaxey

I found out before I moved that I apparently lived in such a neighborhood. Apparently, the new owners discovered several restrictions. Since she did not sign anything that restricted much, she was immune.

In this case, it was a self-described homeowner's association. Several bored housewives got together, wrote some rules and tried to get others to join.

In my place, the rules are: make sure to lock the doors before you leave and feed the cat. I am hoping to train the cat to open cans and work a lock.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

If you do, be sure to put the video on youtube.

RobertMaxey

I will.

richz Loc: upstate New York

Check out Cowboy studio, they have a very good fluorescent setup, with three light stands three heads with (5) 85 watt fluorescent bulbs. The bulbs can be individually turned on and off. It also comes with (30) inch soft boxes. The price is around $200 for the whole kit. I bought one, and I am very happy with it.

fcrawley Loc: Melbourne, FL

Lighting is an incredible control over a subject's appearance. You may want to read up on different methods before deciding what way to go whether it be straight model lights, flourescents, studio strobes or even using regular thyristor flashes (see the strobist website) or a combination of these. If you are working indoors exclusively, then a straight AC powered system will save you big bucks. You will also need to decide how to trip the system. Radio systems can get expensive, but built in ones are becoming less so. A good old PC cord with AC adapters is always handy. If you are using manual strobes a flashmeter is essential (both reflective and incident depending on backdrop and subject to backdrop/camera distance). There are lots of other things to take into account such as using your on camera flash or not and optical slaves if you do. You eliminate red eye by not using it, but if you want to, make sure to not use optical slaves if your strobes don't have a secondary flash sync. Also, make sure you understand the white balance on your camera before starting if there is any ambient light in the room and you are using only continuous lighting. In the film days we would either use tungsten film for incandescents or color compensating filters for incandescent or flourescent. I could go on, but like I said the best thing to do is read some lighting books, for hardware capabilities as well as placement. There are many available for different levels...I still swear by my old Time Life photography series that was printed around 1970.

myts10 Loc: SE Ohio

I see a lot of good information here and will add only a couple of things. If you figure you need 3 light stands, buy 4, I never have enough stands.

I like continues lighting, it is more “what you see is what you get” than flash. I use LEDs, that's where all the bulb research is going now.

Don't mix Kelvin temperatures of your lights. I like the 5000k lights. Pick one you like and stick with it. That includes ALL the lights in the room. I will set up and turn on my lights than turn off those ugly overhead florescent things.

Manually set your white balance for each person and each time you change the over all light. Than add any cosmetic, warming or cooling gels. If you add the gels than set the white balance you will wipe out the effect of the gels.