It's perfectly possible to get nice diffuse light with some 500 watt hot lights (incandescents) and umbrellas (get ones that let you remove the back and shoot-through) or even cleverly hung bedsheets. Bedsheets might not give you the cache you may need if you're shooting for money, but they work. Just make sure all the light in the scene is of the same temperature, or things get wacky. The trouble you might run into here is losing detail of those with very dark hair, but that's easily worked around.


Basic hot light kits are inexpensive and fast to setup. Mine has served me well.