What lighting equipment to purchase for under $50?

Question

I'm an enthusiastic beginner with Canon 550D, shooting both stills and videos, indoors and outdoors.

My biggest problem is strong shades and insufficient light when photographing people. I figured out that the solution is some basic lighting equipment.

My current wishlist is:

• Neewer 110CM 43" 5-in-1 Collapsible Multi-Disc Light Reflector ($9.46)

• Some kind of lightbulb

On a budget of $25-$50, what general-purpose lighting equipment should I buy?

Asked by Adam Matan

Answer

With that type of a budget, you are much better going the DIY route, putting in some of your own time instead of your own money.

For portrait photography, you can find a huge benefit to having a beauty dish. I made one of these myself for only a few dollars. You can find examples of how to do so on many internet forums, but here is one example. These were the materials I used:

You could also do things like

• DIY Light Diffuser
• DIY Softbox
• DIY Gary Fong Lightsphere
• DIY Light tent for product photography(Google has many options)

Just take a look at the instructables website, or Google the lighting accessories that are mentioned in this thread and see if you can make it yourself on the cheap.

Instead of going to an expensive photography shop, think of the hardware store as your new photography store, you can find many many things that will suffice just fine for non-professional use.

Answered by dpollitt

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