Studio lights cannot be purchased from Lowe’s.

One thing I really hate is seeing people cobble together crap for their studio out of crap they get from Lowe’s or Home Depot or some other hardware store. Seriously, by the time you cobble together all of those pieces and spend all that time trying to make it work, you would have been better off buying the product in the first place.

Along with that – I despise seeing people recommend to newbies to go buy work lights at a DIY store to use as studio lights. Seriously?

Oh, did you do that? Well, how’s that working for you? Have you had your fill of clients complaining how hot they are? Have you gotten a handle yet on color balancing the end photos or have you just decided to convert everything to black and white to avoid the hassle? Have you actually burnt a client? I can guarantee you, those lights were not meant for human skin to be that close to them.

Additionally, these lights were not designed for modifiers.

Let me guess, you don’t know what a modifier is.

The folks that recommended the DIY lights failed to discuss soft boxes, grids flags and gobos, didn’t they?

Let’s put it this way. If I see you in Lowe’s and you have anything other than wallpaper or paint in your cart, we’re gonna have a little chat.