A couple of our friends have a pottery shop and would like to set up inexpensive studio lights for cataloging and sending out photos of their work . Does anyone have any suggestions for this type of lighting? - the cheaper the better. The shots will be digital, so suggestions for WB adjustments for any suggested set-ups would be appreciated as well. Thanks a lot for any suggestions.
For subjects as smalll as pottery, they could easily get away with a small camera mount strobe, an off-camera cable and a white reflector larger than the pottery. White poster board would be fine. And the strobe doesn't have to be auto to work. Just do a custom white balance in the camera. I'm not at my home computer to provide a quick link, but google The Strobist for lots of guidance. I bet with a small cheap strobe you could do the whole thing for under $100.
I'll heartily second the suggestion to check out The Strobist. And DIY Photography has a lot of cheap, do it yourself lighting ideas. I'd suggest building a softbox for your items - search on those sites and you should get great ideas. Or if the items are small enough, this macro studio works great - I built one and the results are terrific, and just about infinitely variable to how you want them.
Posted by Kent Staubus on March 3, 2008 at 11:11 AM
Two used Sunpak 383 flash used off camera, with PC sync cords and maybe bouncing the light off of white poster board or through a white cloth would probably do what you want. You do need to get the flash off the camera for a more professional look. Use camera and flash in manual mode. This isn't difficult. Another thought is to set your products up in a north facing window and use white poster board to reflect light around.
Kent's suggestion of the north-facing window is a good one when it comes to minimizing reflections off those nice glazes. A tripod, subdued lighting and long exposures is a very good alternative for simplicity when dealing with reflective subjects.
Even with a pro studio at my fingertips and more lighting than most stores, I often turn off the lights and move to a window with sheer white curtains for such shots. The problem with reflection from strobes can turn into a tail chase. You spin in circles getting rid of one set of reflections, only to introduce new ones.
I have had very good luck with bounce light from on camera flashes. It takes some practice to really understand how the bounced light works for the setup you create, but for studio on the cheap, it is a good option.
If you want to go the studio strobe route, Alien Bees is a fairly good package. They are at the bottom of good and inexpensive, rather than just cheap and "Anyone have a baseball bat??? ". I wouldn't go any lower than them. Color is consistant, power is consistant, fairly durable, inexpensive, and with a god-awful cheesy website. When they first came out 10-15 years ago, there were people reporting some power and color issues, but I haven't seen any serious complaints about this in the last 5+ years, among those who have actually purchased them in the last 5+ years. (Undoubtably there is someone out there who has had a different experience recently.) They have served me well in my studio and portrait work.
We've got five brands of studio lights between our packs and monos coming to a total of a little over 20 lights, but none are Alien Bees. That's mostly cuzz the ABs weren't as reputable 10 or 15 years ago when we were buying most of our gear. I shot with a borrowed set of 5 of them recently for two days, and I agree with Dan on the state of affairs with the current gear. Durable, consitent and reliable.
I'd still be real hesitant to recommend that your friends by any just yet. You start stringing multiple lights around a complex, often reflective shape such as pottery, and it will make you nutty in a hurry. Flat light is easy if you don't mind reflections, but when you start using differential lighting to reveal shape, form and texture it's easy to paint yourself in a corner with multiple lights. They're certainly valuable later in your "lighting career" when you have more experience, but when starting out the best thing you can probably do is turn on only one light and use a reflector for fill.
That was the foundation for my recommendation of a single light and reflector, or better yet a sheered window along with a reflector. There's no sense spending a lot of money on multiple lights that will only confuse you or a bunch of power when long exposures are fine for static subjects.
Your friends might also quickly decide that the shooting is simply too much of a hassle and stop soon after they start. A single light and reflector or the sheered window will let them get their feet wet for a while before investing more money.
I understand their ambition for better photos. For lots of reasons artists need them. Many try to get by with amateur photo gear and quickly learn that in sales or competitions rotten photos of great art are a liability.
Both my wife and I contract and shoot lots of art work done in a range of media. It's good business for us, and artists have learned that investment in our time is very worthwhile for results in sales and competitions. All our clients once took their own photos. They also decided they'd rather hire us to take great photos than invest the time and money in good gear and technique so they could take their own. Even paying our $100+ an hour fees, they feel like they are coming out ahead.
Thanks everyone for the suggestions and the time to type them. I have a SB-800 and cord for off camera use and a soft box that we can test with their stuff. David that macro studio looks great and I think most of their stuff would fit in a slightly larger version. A reflector is a great idea instead of a second light or strobe. I'll probably look into a light of some type - Hank is right about the reflections and at least with a light adjustments can be seen before the shot.
We've used natural light and I agree that works well, but we're often at the studio at night after the day jobs. So some type of studio light may be the best option. I'll look into those Alian Bees. Anyone have any other brand that are decent but inexpensive? I've even heard of people using bright work lamps -any ideas
Thanks again for all the suggestions - I'll probably try them all.
Last week I photographed a 5' x 9' highly textured oil painting in a custom frame. And of course it had to be done in the artists studio with no windows. I ended up pointing a 2400 w/s strobe at a white wall opposite the painting, effectively turning it into a giant 10' x 20' "soft box." That was nearly right, but the light was a little flat and the texture of the brush strokes was lost. I ended up putting two 4' x 8' silver reflectors to one side of the painting, adjusting the distance so I got almost 2/3 of a stop more light from that side with no extra light from the other. It wasn't quite enough to produce noticeable shadows in the texture, while just enough to "lift" the brush strokes.
I was pretty proud of myself after that one. It even turned out that the wall was at the right distance so that the shadows around the frame were pushed back under it and invisible to the camera.
I guess the moral of my brag is that with challenging subjects creativity and original thinking is more likely to do the job than extra lights.
Posted by David Bostedo on March 3, 2008 at 11:16 PM
Jay - If you don't need a complex setup where a strobe goes off and you can balance the flash light versus the ambient - in other words if you want to use continuous lighting - then just about any light would work. The main problem you'd have with simple work lamps would be color temperature. If your lights are all consistent, then balancing after the fact in PS or similar shouldn't be too much of a problem. Or you could try daylight balanced light bulbs, but I've never done that.
I have tried to balance my flash with regular tungsten lights, and you can definitely get some odd colors. In that case, I've seen it recommended that you gel the flash to the correct color to match the tungsten (essentially put a colored filter over the flash - they make them to match normal types of lighting). Then the WB of the camera or some PS work can fix all the colors.
Great point David! Gels are critical when you start mixing light sources. And they're not as scary (or expensive) as anyone might guess. We keep rolls of the right colors for tungsten and florescent lights, as well as 4-stop ND. Whether used to cover windows, lights or strobes, gels allow you to bring all light sources similar enough that the camera's white balance can work on all of them at once.
If you need cheap reflectors, here's a great source for silver. Go to the nearest hardware store and look for the silver "bubble wrap" intended for insulation. It's sold by the foot in a variety of widths very cheaply. It's durable and easy to work with, and when not in use it's great for padding gear inside duffle bags.
For cheap backdrops, go looking for velour blankets. They're available in a wide range of colors and have just about perfect surface texture for use as backdrops. You can buy half a dozen or more king sized ones for about what one good muslin backdrop costs.
Posted by Dan Borzynski on March 4, 2008 at 10:29 PM
I'd have to agree with Hank as well - I didn't read you note quite as carefully as I should have. You'll learn a lot more with basic equipment (reflector and a window, or a strobe and some bouncing/reflectors) than you would if you dive in with a full set of studio lights. The KISS principle is very much at work here - keep it stupid and simple!
The Alien Bees are a nice step up, but if you don't understand lighting, they won't do you much good. Something to keep in mind for the future, but if the owner is not a photographer, it is probably overkill.
As far as I am aware of, there really isn't anything in the same price and quality range as the Alien Bees.
Thanks for the additional comments - we're going to try some things this weekend and see where that gets us. We're definitely not afraid of new territory, so who knows a lighting set up of some type may be in our future. You can't learn if you don't try
Thanks again for the help - I may have additional Questions in the future.
Discussion
12 repliesKent in SD
Even with a pro studio at my fingertips and more lighting than most stores, I often turn off the lights and move to a window with sheer white curtains for such shots. The problem with reflection from strobes can turn into a tail chase. You spin in circles getting rid of one set of reflections, only to introduce new ones.
If you want to go the studio strobe route, Alien Bees is a fairly good package. They are at the bottom of good and inexpensive, rather than just cheap and "Anyone have a baseball bat???
I'd still be real hesitant to recommend that your friends by any just yet. You start stringing multiple lights around a complex, often reflective shape such as pottery, and it will make you nutty in a hurry. Flat light is easy if you don't mind reflections, but when you start using differential lighting to reveal shape, form and texture it's easy to paint yourself in a corner with multiple lights. They're certainly valuable later in your "lighting career" when you have more experience, but when starting out the best thing you can probably do is turn on only one light and use a reflector for fill.
That was the foundation for my recommendation of a single light and reflector, or better yet a sheered window along with a reflector. There's no sense spending a lot of money on multiple lights that will only confuse you or a bunch of power when long exposures are fine for static subjects.
Your friends might also quickly decide that the shooting is simply too much of a hassle and stop soon after they start. A single light and reflector or the sheered window will let them get their feet wet for a while before investing more money.
I understand their ambition for better photos. For lots of reasons artists need them. Many try to get by with amateur photo gear and quickly learn that in sales or competitions rotten photos of great art are a liability.
Both my wife and I contract and shoot lots of art work done in a range of media. It's good business for us, and artists have learned that investment in our time is very worthwhile for results in sales and competitions. All our clients once took their own photos. They also decided they'd rather hire us to take great photos than invest the time and money in good gear and technique so they could take their own. Even paying our $100+ an hour fees, they feel like they are coming out ahead.
We've used natural light and I agree that works well, but we're often at the studio at night after the day jobs. So some type of studio light may be the best option. I'll look into those Alian Bees. Anyone have any other brand that are decent but inexpensive? I've even heard of people using bright work lamps -any ideas
Thanks again for all the suggestions - I'll probably try them all.
I was pretty proud of myself after that one. It even turned out that the wall was at the right distance so that the shadows around the frame were pushed back under it and invisible to the camera.
I guess the moral of my brag is that with challenging subjects creativity and original thinking is more likely to do the job than extra lights.
I have tried to balance my flash with regular tungsten lights, and you can definitely get some odd colors. In that case, I've seen it recommended that you gel the flash to the correct color to match the tungsten (essentially put a colored filter over the flash - they make them to match normal types of lighting). Then the WB of the camera or some PS work can fix all the colors.
If you need cheap reflectors, here's a great source for silver. Go to the nearest hardware store and look for the silver "bubble wrap" intended for insulation. It's sold by the foot in a variety of widths very cheaply. It's durable and easy to work with, and when not in use it's great for padding gear inside duffle bags.
For cheap backdrops, go looking for velour blankets. They're available in a wide range of colors and have just about perfect surface texture for use as backdrops. You can buy half a dozen or more king sized ones for about what one good muslin backdrop costs.
The Alien Bees are a nice step up, but if you don't understand lighting, they won't do you much good. Something to keep in mind for the future, but if the owner is not a photographer, it is probably overkill.
As far as I am aware of, there really isn't anything in the same price and quality range as the Alien Bees.
Thanks again for the help - I may have additional Questions in the future.