ADvise needed for studio lights for shooting reference

[rattsang]

hi guys,

i am looking to purchase some studio lights for shooting my ref photos and not knowing that much about photography im a little stumped. i would be trying to simulate sunlight and overcast conditions mainly. is there any need to get strobe/flash lights or will continuous lights be ok? how many lights would be necessary? are there any good cheap solutions? i just read james gurneys book and he says his main light is a small theater spot light. any help would be appreciated
thanks rat

[Noah Bradley]

Strobes are probably ideal, but there's always cheap solutions to problems like this. You can go to a hardware supply store and pick up a few work lamps with stands that'll do just fine (make sure you've got a camera with good color balancing options, unless you want every reference you shoot to be horrifically yellow). For more diffused lighting (like overcast), try putting a sheet to block your light, or have it reflecting off a white board onto your subject.

You can get creative with it and make it work.

[Qitsune]

http://photo.net/learn/
http://www.danheller.com/techfaq.html Dan Heller doesn't really do studio photo but he has loads of other great info about picture taking.