Re: Need suggestion on what type of lights to buy

It sounds like some of the locations where you will be shooting will have significant amounts of daylight. So you are probably best off buying daylight-balanced units. It also looks like you studio is tiny, so you will have a hard time lighting the foreground separately from the back ground. Fortunately, all these spaces are indoors, so you do not need to be fighting the sun, other than what you see out any windows. You can reduce that intensity with RoscoScrim and/or ND gels

The classic approach would be one 4x4 Kino with daylight bulbs (though you can also get tungsten bulbs for not a whole lot more money), and 2 2x2 Kino with daylight bulbs. I haven't looked at prices lately and this may break the $3,000 limit.

There are cheaper fluorescent alternatives to Kino Flos, but I have not used them. They all tend to have green spikes that you can deal with by adding 1/4 to 1/2 minus green gel. (See the thread on "a little green.") Sooner or later you will want some diffusion to soften even the soft Kinos: 1/2 grid is great but chews up quite a bit of light. Opal transmits more light but does not diffuse as much. If you can, get some of each, for starters. (There are many other diffusion gels to consider.)

Another way is to go LEDs. I'll leave that to others with more experience to describe. I have yet to use them.

Be sure you also get with your order: several C-stands, some means to rig one of the 2x2 Kinos from the ceiling, some scrims, at least one 4x4 piece of foamcore. You can make flags out of wood or cardboard for now; just paint them black.

Rick Wise
director of photography
and custom lighting design
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com