Portrait photography on a budget

Affordable Photography

Most people accuse photography of being an expensive pursuit, and it certainly can, but that doesn’t mean you can’t take reasonable photos on a budget. I developed an interest in Portrait photography after being exposed to Peter Hurley’s work. Now, I’m certainly no Peter Hurley, but over the past couple of years I have purchased a few bits and pieces to make Portrait photos possible.

Lets start with the end result and work our way back.

These are a few photos I took for the Aus Table Talk project you have probably already seen. My subjects were reluctant at best, but the results were not bad!

The Gear

These Photos were achieved with some very cost effective gear… here is the gear list…

Camera: Canon 600D (With ebay battery grip) (<$500)

Lens: Tamron 17-50 2.8 (<$350)

Tripod: Nothing Special, just something I got on ebay years ago (around the $60 mark) But after years of use the ball head started to have trouble, so I replaced it with something like this.

Key Light: Yong Nuo YN560 MkIV (under $100) With Shoot-through Umbrella ($7-$10) On a cheap flash bracket (<$5) and stand (about $35 for 2)

Trigger: You dont need a trigger as you can use the YN560 as an optical slave, but I have triggers so I used them for the sake of simplicity. Mine are pretty much like these and they are great, hardly any misfires, but they will bleed your batteries in the receivers fast, so make sure you take them out when you are done. If I was to buy some now, I would probably grab the Yongnuo triggers.

Secondary Light: You should be able to pick up a stand+flouro light combo for Under $50 (I paid this price for one of these now you get two for the same price).

Backlight: A little Bunnings spot light is all I used, but I cant find it on their site to link you, but If you purchased the secondary light I mentioned above, then you will have a spare one of those, so you could use that without the umbrella for even better results.