What is a good first light/flash to get as a beginning photographer?

[Hell Puppy]

Originally Posted by Jace

I wanna get to the point where I don't have to rely on someone else to take all our professional photos....so, I am going to need some good lighting

what can you all suggest?

Springer's questions definitely apply....

At the bare minimum, start with a decent digital SLR (Canon or Nikon) and throw a speed light on top of it. That'll get you something portable that takes a decent pic anywhere you want to go.

More light means more natural warm looking skin though. If you shoot outside, get a reflector disc and someone to hold it.

If shooting indoors a lot, get yourself some hot lamps. Learn how to bounce them and the flash to get the skin tone you're looking for. If you're going for that pro-look, you're going to find there's no substitute for the big umbrella flashes.

Keep in mind those lights really are a pain in the ass for portability. We have 'em, and use 'em for pro-level shoots, but for amateur stuff they often stay at home simply due to the pain in the ass of lugging and moving them.

My favorite middle road is to pack extra speed lights and use them in a master slave mode scattered around the room. Slap a small diffuser on top of them or ricochet 'em and you can get a lot of light. Nikon's deal with master slave mode really well, only trick is all the speedlights have to be able to see each other, and take an assload of batteries with you.