jimjjc Loc: Wisconsin

Thank you for this link! Prior to my post I really hadn't looked into buying a set. I had no idea they were available this inexpensively. I assumed they were a lot more. (I know, before this thread goes crazy...price is relative...you get what you pay for...blah,blah). I think I will forego the work lights and get a set like you have shown...give or take.

LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field

This looks like an economical approach to the "hardware". The next part is the aesthetics, or the craft of lighting. I would recommend reviewing the work of Yousef Karsh. One can learn a lot about lighting from looking at portraits and making some assumptions about lighting ratios and placement of sources. Nor would I ignore portraiture using natural "window" light. There's not a lot that's revolutionary, or new, about lighting. As a matter of fact, study the portraits by Rembrandt. He used what is still referred to a "Rembrandt" lighting, which if you study them, is essentially three lighting sources: one at a 45 degree angle, another from the front with a lower ratio, and a third as a back light to add a separation from the background. Experimenting can be lots of fun, and a lot easier than the Polaroid Back days.... Good Luck.

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

I would rather stay away from those fluorescent lights and use speedlights, or strobes (if you can afford them)!

jimmya Loc: Phoenix

I find this an excellent set. The soft boxes are a very light but strong cloth with reflector in the inside and soft fusion material you can put on the outside... they're really nice and the stands are correct for the amount of weight in the lamp heads.

Billy Bob

The best buy you can spend.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/291316011193?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Billy Bob

Stand or hand hold.

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

Absolutely!

The difference in cost is not really much in perspective, $200 instead of $100. But the functionality is way more than worth that difference.

The upgrade path is easy too, because a set of inexpensive strobes (or even speedlights) will still be useful as the kit is incrementally replaced by higher quality gear. If even one nice strobe is introduced, the fluorescent lights become hard to use. But with a set of three inexpensive flash units the only change if a very high quality strobe is added is that a four light set up can be used instead of only three!

GENorkus Loc: Washington Twp, Michigan

Talking about the work lights, forget it. As mentioned earlier, they are hot when indoors. You will find that if they should ever fall over and you go to grab it... you know what I'm talking about.

Whatever type bulbs you ends up with, remember to get the correct base for the bulb. Be that I mean the heat temperature. Regular home room lighting is probably only good for up to 60 to 150 watts. If you are going to be using high watt bulbs, get the ceramic base light holder, They are made to take about 250 watts.

Two things about the "curly florescent" bulbs, (to a lesser degree but not much, the straight shaped ones), are they are very FRAGILE and when turned on, they have to warm up to get full brightness, (warm up time is relatively short but depends on the ambient temperature. That's what makes them bad for garages and cold rooms. They may cause a problem with powder from inside the glass should they break AND even though the glass part doesn't get as hot as the older tungsten bulbs, the base portion does!

If interested, I had some as high as 85 watt, (actual wattage used), that were claimed to be somewhere around 300 watts (equivalence). More commonly, 75 watt that claim to equal around 200 watts. I had a couple 300 watt curly bulbs and in my basement, (Temp was around 65 degree year round). The curly bulbs would take about 5 minutes to warm up. (I ended up not liking them at all so I got strobe units.)

Should you look into getting them, notice the light's color temperature. I tried a half dozen and found the same batch claiming daylight color temp was not really the same after they warmed up. You will get far better matching color temp from LED bulbs but I haven's seen any higher than 100 watt equivalence in stores and never tried them either.

Important! The curly light bulbs are being replaced with LED bulbs and you'll find the LED's only use 1/6 the energy that a tungsten bulb will use.