800W 5500K Umbrellas Softbox Continuous Lighting Kit with Backdrop Support System for Photo Studio Product, Portrait and Video Shoot Photography

Frankly, I’m kind of amazed that you get everything you need for such a great price. I bought this set to create training videos, but as soon as I got it, a friend of mine told me she was running for public office. She said she wanted to shoot a video of her standing in front of city hall, and asked me for help. Rather than set up a bunch of equipment in front of city hall and deal with ambient traffic noise, passers-by, etc, I decided to go the green screen route. I first went to city hall and recorded ten minutes of live video. That gave me the light angles I needed to match. Then set up the lights in the studio to match the light angles / brightness, etc., and videotaped her with the green screen. With city hall as the background of her video, it looked like she was standing live in front of city hall. We even used the ambient background noise to make it feel like it was shot live.LIKES: Everything you need. Unbelievable for the price Includes two white, one silver, and one gold-tone umbrellas Has three different backdrops – green, white, & black Comes with a tote bag so you can carry everything to a locationDISLIKES:- The equipment is NOT super sturdy. I would recommend this for studio use where you can set it up and leave it. If you’ll be moving your equipment a lot from place to place, perhaps consider something sturdier — unless you are extra cautious with set up / tear down.- The stands that hold up the green screen do not get tall enough for an adult to stand in front of. The height is fine if you’re shooting kids or if you’re sitting down, but if you want to stand in front of it to make a video or do a standing photo shoot, you’ll need to find a way to extend the height. I went to Lowe’s and bought a length of sturdy 1/2″ PVC, cut it to the length I needed to get the height I wanted, then drilled holes in the ends so the crossbar could still be secured. That did the trick. Cost was less than $2.- You will probably want sandbags to hold your lights in place. I’m using this in a home studio and not taking the equipment from place-to-place, so I didn’t need anything super durable or professional looking. I made a few sandbags by putting 6 – 7 lbs of sand in plastic shopping bags, tying them shut, then double/triple bagging them. Because they are sand, they form fit to the light stand base brackets, and the light stands stay firmly in place. That was an easy, cheap fix, but anything with a bit of weight will probably work for you.Like I said, I’m not a professional photographer. I simply want to shoot training videos in my home studio, drop in the background of my choosing, then send them on to clients. For my purposes, this set has everything I needed (except the sandbags), and the value-to-price ratio is awesome. Definitely recommended. [...]