Originally posted by ScottK:
I don't have everything - in fact, I have very little. Just took a little thought and effort. I never (that I can recall) use my flash on "studio" type shots. The light is too harsh and the shadows are too stark. I learned that one real quick. :) What I do have, I've cobbled together over the last few months:
- One 500w halogen work lamp. "Inherited" from my dad when he left it in my garage a few years back. This one's a pain in the but to use, cause there's no stand - it just sits on a table or the floor. But lots of bright, even light without real harsh shadows.
- One 60 incandescent lamp with a clip and a goose neck - I can clip it anywhere near where I'm shooting and angle it pretty freely. $10 at Home Depot.
- One 150w halogen clip light. Softer than the 500w, which is good and bad - using both doesn't cancel out each othere's shadows - the 500 creates shadows in the 150's area. The clip is very stiff, and the ability to aim it is somewhat limited, but it does a decent job. I think about $15 to $20 at Lowes.
- A couple of little pen-light type flashlights. I use these to "spotlight" small areas in my shot, such as my Alone In A Crowd shot. Got these as stocking stuffers in past Christmasses, but probably less than $10 each.
I've also seen several forms of small (maybe baseball diameter) halogen stick-on lights, like for running under cabinets or in closets, at places like Lowes and WalMart for around $20 for two or three - some day I think I'll by a set of those and see how they work mounted on three sides of my "light box" (an opaque plastic tub for about $10 at Ikea - a Father's day present) and see if that gives me a nice, even, shadow-free lighting.
Anyway, the point being, there are lots of ways to overcome the harsh, poorly positioned flashes on cheaper digicams than profesional lighting systems costing hundreds of dollars. The professional systems might produce somewhat better results and are probably easier to work with, but there are cheap, effective alternatives.
P.S.
Here's a picture of an earlier version of my "lightbox" set up, before I had the plastic tub and the 150w halogen. This was for my Corn Syrup (Liqud) shot. |
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