I'm an enthusiastic beginner with Canon 550D, shooting both stills and videos, indoors and outdoors.
My biggest problem is strong shades and insufficient light when photographing people. I figured out that the solution is some basic lighting equipment.
My current wishlist is:
On a budget of $25-$50, what general-purpose lighting equipment should I buy?
With that type of a budget, you are much better going the DIY route, putting in some of your own time instead of your own money.
For portrait photography, you can find a huge benefit to having a beauty dish. I made one of these myself for only a few dollars. You can find examples of how to do so on many internet forums, but here is one example.
These were the materials I used:
You could also do things like
Just take a look at the instructables website, or Google the lighting accessories that are mentioned in this thread and see if you can make it yourself on the cheap.
Instead of going to an expensive photography shop, think of the hardware store as your new photography store, you can find many many things that will suffice just fine for non-professional use.
I was in your situation and after playing arond with some light bulbs and a borrowed manual flash I've discovered that (unsurprisingly) a flash is better.
You can get a YN480 flash on eBay for arond $40 - it's a manual flash, that means you have to put the camera on manual mode and adjust exposure and flash power manually (but it's easier than it sounds, I can get the correct settings with just 2-3 test shots, and I'm not an expert).
Or, you can do what I did and get the YN485, that's a TTL flash, that's means you get the correct flash power automatically on every shot, but it's just a little bit above your budget.
You point the flash at the cieling or a nearby wall and use it as a reflector to get nice soft light.
You can easily make a DIY reflector from stuff you already have or from really cheap items you can pick up at and hardware store, so I wouldn't buy it unless you have the money to pay for the conviniance of a folding reflector (the same goes for softboxes and most other light modifiers).
With such a tight budget every penny counts. Instead of getting the 5-in-1 reflector I recommend saving $9 and just getting a sheet of white posterboard. Alternatively save $7 and get a sheet of white foamcore.
With the remaining budget I think you're basically limited to using standard high-wattage CFL light bulbs in clamp lights like can be found at a hardware store. Then get a piece of iced acrylic to clamp over the light to diffuse it for softer light.
You can also have a look on Amazon at YN 462 it's under $35, I have two of YN 460 and I love them. Add to it a white umbrella for around $7 and if you can stretch your budget a few more dollars, you can also buy a light stand for about $12.
