No matter the field, everyone starts with the most basic 'stuff' to get the job done. This is the best time to learn. No matter your field, you'll either borrow, beg, et al. to get started and to learn something you're interested in; for our purposes, we're talking photography, and right now, the least expensive gear you'll have is a smartphone because it's already in your pocket.

As your passion for photography grows and you finally have enough to invest in a camera and a lens after hours of hard work at your local diner, filling station, or retail store, I recommend exploring used camera stores. You can find quality equipment at a fraction of the cost. My first cameras and lenses were all purchased as used.

You take out your new Nikon, Fujifilm, Sony, Canon, Pentax, Olympus, or whatever you happened to get into and decide that taking photos of people is what you want to do. But because buying a strobe, aka flash, is too pricey, you're an existing light photographer, but squash any apprehensions you might have about this; light is your friend and your greatest tool, and learning this way is the best way.

You'll find as you move along in your dreams of becoming a photographer that light falling onto a subject is the best way to use light; you'll also find that the first couple hours after sunrise or the hour/hour and a half before sunset is the best light to photograph a person.

You also realize that by using a reflective surface, you can 'guide' that excellent light source, the sun, onto your subject's face and get a pleasing look; and, in doing so, directing the light to the face creates what we in the field call a catch light so the eyes don't look like dark circles of blackness; like the darkness of your exes heart, but I digress, casting a reflected light source on to your subject always creates a pleasing look as well as a catchlight in their eyes.

As your knowledge and experience grows, you begin realizing also that learning light involves rotating your subject around a light source and finding some interesting positions so as to create other looks to your photos and that light falling onto your subject's face, or light falling on the side or even on the back, isn't your only choice and then realizing that you do actually have quite several options when you are an existing light photographer.