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This article is part of the ‘Portrait Lighting For Beginners’ series. This series is meant to help you go from a beginning photographer to making beautiful portraits.

Obviously, before you can take any portraits, you’ll need two key things: a camera and some light. In this installment, I’ll tell you what you need to know about the camera, what you need to know about the light, and what you need to know to make the two work together.

The Camera
You have a lot of options in choosing a camera for portraiture. To be honest, you could get yourself a point and shoot (P&S) camera, find some natural light, set things up the right way, and come away with some very acceptable photographs. But if you want to consistently take great photos and always have control over how they look, you need to invest a little extra cash and get yourself a single lens reflex (SLR) camera. If you’re new to this, you’ve seen them before, they’re the cameras with the interchangeable barrel shaped lenses.

But even within the SLR category, there are tons of choices, and it’s tough to navigate the options if you’re not familiar with all of the features. Throw in the wide price range (let’s say $500 to over $4000), and anyone new to the world of SLRs will get a headache in no time.

There are a few main features you get with an SLR that make it ideal for portrait photography:

• Quality: An SLR has a much larger sensor than a P&S camera, and the image quality can’t be beat.
• Manual control: You have total control over all settings.
• Lenses: Lenses available for SLR cameras are vastly superior (especially if you have mucho $$) to P&S cameras. In addition, you can keep lenses on hand that have different focal lengths (zoom).
• Connectivity to flashes: SLRs have at least one way to connect to small flashes and large studio strobes. This is important to start producing consistent, controlled portraits.
• Less shutter lag: This is a biggie for those who photograph kids and babies. If you’ve ever tried to capture a fleeting moment with a P&S, you know the frustration of waiting for a camera to react and then missing the moment because the camera was too slow. SLRs have a lag that measures in fractions of a second, which means you never miss the action when you press the shutter. And kids move fast.

Since I’m a Canon guy, I’ll use Canon cameras as examples. If you’re just starting out and want your first SLR, the Canon Digital Rebel line of cameras is a great way to start. At the low end you have the Digital Rebel XT at about $500. Moving on up the chain, you have the Canon 30D, which is the best Canon SLR before you get into the uber-expensive full frame SLRs. If you’re reading this, you probably aren’t ready to dump $2700 on a new Canon 5D. My primary camera is a Canon 20D, which is the 30D with a smaller LCD screen on the back. It wasn’t worth an extra $500 for the extra screen to me.

To really research and compare what you want, check out DPReview.com. You’ll find incredibly in-depth information on any camera ever made. This will really help you before you make a big purchase.

The Lights
So now that I’ve told you about the plethora of choices on cameras, the good news is that there are even more choices when it comes to lighting!

Lighting can be basic or it can be complex. Starting out on the simple side, lighting can be from the sun, a window, desk lamps, ceiling lights, etc. On the more complex end you have multiple strobes fitted with umbrellas, softboxes, gels, honeycombs, snoots, gobos… Don’t worry, this will all make sense as we work through the series.

My advice when starting out is to get yourself a couple of shoe mount style flashes, the kind that would attach right onto the top of your camera. If you’re shooting Canon or Nikon, these can be really expensive, anywhere from $250 to $550 a piece. The good news is that you have no intention of putting these things on your camera, so you have the option to choose much less costly alternatives. Even getting a Vivitar 285HV flash ($89) is no problem if you use a Canon camera, as long as you’re not putting the flash right on top of the camera.

The reason I advise starting out with small flashes is that they are cheaper than big strobes, and they are portable and battery powered. Big studio strobes run on household current, and can’t be taken to the middle of a park without expensive battery packs. Small flashes can be tossed in a pocket or backpack and you can set up your shoot anywhere you like. This is important, because if you want to challenge yourself and learn to take your portraiture to the next level, you’ve gotta learn how to get outside and balance flash with ambient light.

Big strobes can come later. Even if you buy the biggies now, I promise you’ll still be buying the small flashes later for location work. I know, because that’s how I did it.

Putting It All Together
So now you have an idea of what you need for a camera and flashes. Let’s talk about how to make them play nice.

You have two options when you want to use a flash: use it on camera or off camera. Scratch that, you only have one option. Don’t even think about putting a flash on your camera, unless of course you want to see what a bad photo looks like (grin). Okay, so we’re going with off camera. You have two options here to fire the flash: wired or wireless.

Wired is certainly the cheapest solution. If your camera and flash both have a PC connection, a 15 foot PC cord will set you back about $10. If your flash doesn’t have a PC connection, you can get a handy PC to hot shoe adapter for about $10. If your camera doesn’t have a PC connection, you can get a hot shoe to PC adapter for about $10. So if you’re a math whiz, you’ve already figured out that even in the very worst case scenario of needing adapters for everything, your wallet is lighter by $30. Not bad. PC cords do have their downside though. They are a little fragile and the tips can be fairly easily bent and broken. Plus, you can only put the flash as far from the camera as your cord will reach. This of course, leads us into the wireless options.

The big advantages of wireless are the increased flexibility in where you move your strobes, and the obvious absence of wires. If you’re photographing kids, the lack of wires to trip on (and knock over your expensive gear) is a huge plus. Like every thing else though, you’ve got options.

Some flash systems have built in infrared communications for triggering. Nikon and Canon flashes have this. The problem is that it’s expensive, short range, and can be less than reliable. On the plus side, you can use the automatic features of your flashes with this kind of setup. But that’s okay, because you’re going to go manual anyway.

Then there are the “eBay triggers”. Gadget Infinity makes some triggers that are cheap (around $25) and relatively reliable. I haven’t tried these myself, but I understand they can be a great option for the hobbyist who wants to go wireless without backing up the dump truck full of cash.

Finally, there are the world famous Pocket Wizards. When you want incredible range (how’s 1600 feet for ya?), reliability, and flexibility, the Pocket Wizard can’t be beat. If you’re a pro or thinking of going pro, this is your new best friend. They’re expensive at about $180 a piece (gotta have two to start out with!), but you could never get a shot like this one from Sol Tamargo down in Maya Riviera without them. You can set up your flash, walk away (a long way away), and still get the shot. Plus, you can even trigger your camera with them. Heck, trigger your camera and multiple flashes with the push of a button. These are a tough act to beat.

I use Pocket Wizards, and once you start heading down this road of creative portraiture, you’ll start coveting them. That’s a promise. You’re probably already coveting them…aren’t you?

Being able to hook up a flash wirelessly and hide it away some place to get an extraordinary effect opens up all kinds of creative doors. It means your photographs will never be the same again!

Here are a few resources that you might find helpful on this topic:

• Strobist: Lighting 101: PC Cords and Pocket Wizards
• Pocket Wizard
• Gadget Infinity
• DPReview.com
• Buy these accessories right here on Sublime Light

Next up in this series, we’ll talk about the other accessories that you can use to make your portraiture easier and better. Don’t worry though, now that you’ve shelled out for a camera and some lights, this other stuff is a drop in the bucket.