Earlier this year at NAPP’s Photoshop World in Orlando, I was sucked into the vortex of some very unique studio lighting on the trade show floor. Westcott makes a series of lights called Spiderlites. They were a little out of my price range at that time and it is much easier for me to travel with studio strobes. 

Recently, an opportunity presented itself to do a photo shoot of every firefighter, paramedic, and top brass in the St. Lucie County Fire District. The shoots would be done  in a warehouse in their main building as a precursor to creating  a yearbook that would also include images from newspaper clippings and firefighters in action during brush fires and trainings.

I had just seen Larry Becker, Executive Director of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) and host of a podcast segment called Cheap Shots, do a quick segment about a cost effective way to create these lights in a DIY manner. Light bulbs were going off in my head, and all around the home box store I generally shop at.

This would be great for several reasons, the most compelling being that we could inexpensively invest in this system and leave it at their location as it would take six weeks of scheduled shootings to complete the project. Another good reason is that, since they are constant, my work spouse, Wendy Dwyer, who is generally the organizer and wordsmith of our duo, would be able to shoot the firefighters during times I might be called away.

We collected two light stands, two soft boxes, two power strips, 16 socket-to-AC adapters, 8 socket y-adapters, a few extension cords, and 16- 100w, 5,000k compact fluorescent bulbs and a large package of zip ties.

Abracadabra…..we have our TAL (Totally Awesome Lighting) system two-light studio light setup that didn’t break our bank. The whole thing was created for an investment of under $300. By comparison, Westcott sells one unit by itself without the softboxes, stands, etc., for $419 each. The Westcott piece is a much better crafted unit, but at this stage my concern is the image quality. I truly believe we struck gold thanks to Larry Becker’s segment. In a different economy, I’d buy the Westcott product. This made it possible to accept this contract and create amazing images. We don’t like turning down business.

Ceck out Larry Becker’s page with a small video we submitted at Larry Becker’s Cheap Shots here.

Here are just a few stills of the finished product and an image from the first shoot.