What does it cost to set up a fashion photography studio? 

Thanks Daniel for the video. For my two bits; most of the photographers you see on RU-vid have been doing the job a long time and when they looked for a complete system there was only Profoto or other similar brands. I do not know any professionals in my area who use them - they all use Godox if there are younger and maybe Elinchrom if there are a bit older. For Daniel, Jinbei is a major competitor to Godox in China but less known elsewhere. I find their individual lights better made to Godox but they lack a well integrated range of lights.

I have standardized on Profoto with a deep parabola from Westcott and some cheap Chinese thing that folds like an umbrella and is like a beauty dish. First you pay for the brand. Second the difference in cloth they use is huge. Part of the higher price I pay for Profoto is in that. What is rally important to know is that most softboxes generate the same light circle at 2 or 3 meter distance. Irrespective of shape. What differs is the quality of light. Some of the softboxes are not particularly heat resistant and cannot be used with constant light. Some have cheap matte white internal lining, others textured silver Then there is the inner diffuser, the outer and both. As a Profoto flash head has a recessed into a reflector flash tube, the head's light beam is rather focused. Put such a head into a softbox without diffuser and from some distance photograph into it. The flash from the strobe may not hit the walls of the reflector. The same softbox will give a different light quality when you put a strobe in it with an exposed flash tune (broncolor, some God Ox models). The Profotos look sturdy and well made, but the baleens are a weak point. At some point the thin rod may come loose from the thicker end on one side and at that moment it is good to have some superglue or 2 component epoxy for metal-metal connections But you can buy spare parts for several Profoto softboxes and that is fine. What you need to keep in mind is that it helps to stick with one brand or you might end up with tint differences. Also, when you buy into strobes/speedlights, there are a few parameters to have at hand in comparisons. Folk talk about Watt.seconds (W.s=Ws=J - the miniature version of kWh) and forget that the number indicates electrical energy consumption in one full power flash while it says nothing bout the mount of light popping out. We can compare light output by looking at the guide number but this again may not be straightforward. ISO 100, a flash angle to cover the frame of a 35mm wide angle lens, and then the f/number needed to correctly expose at 2m distance. Imagine the correct exposure with all this is with f/16 and this then makes the guide numbers (the meter version) 2m*16=32m. God Ox may specify the guide number with the angle of a 120mm or 200mm lens as a way to get an unrealistically high guide number. So false. The best speedlights from God Ox (Holy Cow) are not so surprising - about 50 Ws. Top models from Nikon and Canon about 75 Ws (0.5 EV more). My experience with the Profoto 3'*4' (90*120) softbox is that I can shoot most cases in the studio with one speedlight in it (I have a dozen Nikon SB-910 with optional SD-9 battery pack) but for speedy recycling I put two of these into that softbox. And a single on in a 1'*4' (30*120). The speedlights can carry colour filters, a snoot, etc. as separate lights or in softboxes. I started to build my setup as mobile as possible when monoheads were not as common as today. The biggest pain in the anatomy is recharging 144 AA batteries. That does not work with classical "blind" charge devices so I had to invest into chargers that are processor controlled and display status per battery with 16 at a time. A mono-head with lithium battery will be a lot easier. What I miss the most from the old professional studio days when we used a big generator and control pack with several heads connected? The proportional modelling light. That meant each head's modelling light was proportional to the flash setting of that head, and the pack managed proportionality between the heads. In short, we could see what we were doing already before the flash - mid 1970s. So, my kit is expensive. Very important with flash heads, strobes, speedlights is their consistency in two qualities: (1) colour temperature when flash levels vary, (2) flash duration. Last time I looked at the full power flash duration of cheap Chinese was 1/200 sec. That may have become better in the past two years. You can do a lot with cheap umbrellas, but it boils down to how much control you get over your light and shadows - chiaroscuro. If you want to experiment a bit, buy a couple umbrellas and cheap speedlights and write them off as learning money in 0.5 to 2 years.

Is photogenic still a going concern?

@@Thereal111t Yes. Check with Adorama

Ive jyst purchased a godox 300ws strooe from ebayfr £30 ($36 today ) and wil bjy more every month (on benefts/welfare so cant afford a big spend, nexr withbesome soft boxes. Again 1 a month

Dang I just bought some for black friday