No worries Mickey good to have a constructive conversation and to have a
creative person here. Too much technicality and not enough basics makes me
cringe. I visited a photographic club about 5 years ago and technically they
were superb but creatively they were as dull as watching damp toast.
Although by today's standards damp toast could win a major prize in the art
world.

My philosophy is buy the best you can't afford - but then I love to tinker
around with all sorts of common place items to get the shot. Any examples of
what shots you are describing? A link would be good so I can get a better
impression of what you are after. Magazine shots are fairly standard and are
usually two light set-ups with softboxes and a key light just to throw a
touch of shadow. Though it's more like a digital sausage machine today.

Cheap soft box is to have a directional light bounce off of a large sheet of
polystyrene that they use for filling in walls with. lol

Back to the builders yard again!

If you don't want to use a tripod you don't have to but think of using
monopod instead. These can be a lot more useful and keeps the fluidity
going. But a quick release on tripod or monopod would also help.

Light is one thing but it isn't just about the lights. Having reflectors
both white and black to kill the reflections are just as important. Art
board from an art shop is a cheap and effective as reflectors and also
double up as useful backgrounds for still life. And when you're bored you
can use them as a wobble board and do a Rolf Harris impression!!!

Even mirrors can be useful to bounce around light from just one source and
the old friend the inverse square law will help soften as it goes.
I may be wrong but was it Lattigan who say he only used one light as the big
guy [meaning God] does?

Shielding the camera with material to stop reflections of yourself being in
shot is important when highly reflective surfaces are in shot. And the
material can be used to push lighting through it to give a soft effect.

I've used my Carousel projector as a light source and used all sorts of
objects like the tin can examples to make what I need. In fact today my
project is to make a light brush. Hensel make a fabulous light brush by it's
expensive. So I'm off to my local electrics shop to find a low voltage light
source and some fibre optic to make one. I've a budget of around AUD50 as I
have transformers and other bits to piece it together. e.g. tin can tube and
some gaffer tape.

One source of amusement to some friends is that I admit to watching Art
Programme for children. It's great seeing how inventive these people are
making it easy for kids to do. BUT the big one is that I remember all sorts
of stuff from my younger days and I delight in remembering all the basic
stuff I forgot when I got technical! But it's a real buzz since they make me
think about shots and ideas I can make up for my projects.

Happy to continue this conversation by email if you like Mickey.

Duncan

Bits and Pieces

Contrast ratio its called and there are some basics to use to achieve
the end result.

If you want to hand hold your camera then a flash unit would be more
appropriate for the application.

A studio flash of about 500W/s is all you need for portraits.

Using one lamp and trying to direct tungsten lamps is difficult.

Have you tried using available light with a flash fill?  Placing a flash
off camera and bouncing out of a brolly.

Soft lighting can be achieved by pointing lights into the
corners/ceiling of a room.