[Leica] studio photography

["Hoyen ~simontart~" <simontart@hotmail.com>]

A number of people have asked me to do portrait photography for them, after seeing my non-portrait work.  I have done a bit of research on this, and thanks to some helpful hints on the LUG and elsewhere, I have a basic idea of what is needed (I think).  I plan to use my motor-driven R7 and 35/2, 50/2, and 90/2.8 lenses.  Let me give a quick rundown of what is on my mind so it will be easier to make suggestions:

I would like to have full control of lighting and background, so I am planning to set up a small room (10'x20', 10' high), or a studio area within a larger room, with black sides and overhead (by draping off with black felt sheets).  I plan to have interchangeable backdrops, and will start with white, grey muslin, and black for the time being.  I would like to have three light sources: main, fill, and background.  As for film, I will most likely be using TMax100, TMax400, NPS, Scala, and Astia.

My main question is lighting.  What I need is a small, portable lighting system that does not need to be plugged into the wall, and yet will give me full manual, independent control of each light source.  There will be no light on-camera, so I will be firing all three strobes using a wireless Wein SSR slave system.  I am also armed with a Sekonic L-408 Multimaster, which I will be setting up to trigger test flash remotely.  As to control of lighting quality, I am planning to shoot the main and fill lights through collapsible softboxes most of the time (or even through white bedsheets for full-length portraits), at a 2/3/4:1 ratio, unless a hard look is required, in which case I may even go so far as to use main light only, no diffusion.  I may also look into fabricating a black cardboard/velcro flagging contraption.

For head-to-toe shots up to head-only portraits, will I be OK with 3 Metz 40MZ-2 flashguns?  Will I still need the dedicated SCA module for this?  Since I am firing everything remotely, and under manual control, I think I would be just as well served using a triplet of Nikon SB-28s, and the only dedication I would conceivably need is to the Wein system, if even.  Am I missing something here?  I want to avoid using the big monolights or powerpack/head systems, since I don't think I need that kind of power, and I think most, if not all of them need AC power.

I want the whole thing to be as modular and compact as possible so I can take at least part of it down and transport on-location without needing to call U-Haul.  If I can fit the essentials into 2 rolling suitcases that would be great, and that would also mean collapsible yet sturdy lightstands.  Any specific recommendations or technique suggestions?


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