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07/12/2004 10:47:19 AM · #1 |
I want to start playing around with some indoor still life pics and was wanting a bit of advice.
Now this is prob a silly question but am i going to be able to get some reasonable results without a flash gun? I have a 10D and was fiddling with the camera flash and the use of natural lights. Would a strong household light do the trick?
I just want to play around a bit to get a feel for if i like this kind of photography or not. |
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07/12/2004 10:56:28 AM · #2 |
Depending on the area you want to use as your studio...
You could try the following...
Pick up some "Painter's Floodlights". These are usually fairly cheap spotlights with somewhere near 500-watt halogen bulbs. Most often they are very short units that you may need to put on a shelf or something in order to cast light any direction other then up.
If the lighting seems WAY to harsh, take some very low thread count white cotton sheets and hang them close to the halogen lights to diffuse the light that is going to hit your model. (Don't cover the lights, since you probably don't want to shoot pictures under the natural light of fire...)
Studio lights are dang expensive. The least expensive set of 'Studio' lights I have seen run around $130 through Ritz Camera. They might not even be worth the cost, except that I think they have a setup to connect a diffuser to the lamp. (I haven't seen them up close.)
I hope I was of service. |
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07/12/2004 11:40:27 AM · #3 |
| Perhaps I'm restating the obvious but-- work with the natural light available to you. If you can shoot in different rooms with various directions of exposure, experiment to see what you like best. Same goes for experimenting with different times of day, direct sunlight from one direction may be better in morning/evening while on an overcast day you may get the results you want by shooting in the middle of the day. A corner room with windows facing two directions gives more options if available. |
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07/12/2004 11:43:14 AM · #4 |
I recently bought a couple of 500w Halogen work lights and an external Vivitar 238 flash, I am looking forward to some still life stuff.
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07/12/2004 11:50:30 AM · #5 |
I have gotten good results using "Clamp Lights" from Lowes. The can take up to a 300W bulb and are not as hot as the Halogen lights. I paid ~$7 for the light and $3 for a 200W bulb. Not really bright enough for portraits, but they work well for most still life stuff.
If you want some diffusion, get some Rosco frost gels. They are heat resistant enough to hang over the front of a 300 watt bulb (you just don't want it in direct contact with the bulb). If they do get too hot, they just get a hole melted in them, and don't ignite as bedsheets and paper materials are prone to do. They are also relatively cheap.
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07/12/2004 12:20:44 PM · #6 |
| With incandescents you can rig dimmer switches, one for each bulb even. I don't think you can do that with halogens. |
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07/12/2004 12:39:11 PM · #7 |
I use mostly 500W or 150W halogen floodlights from the do-it-yourself store. The 500W light came including a stand, very useful.
One word of warning : they get very, very hot. Keep any flammable material at a safe distance, never leave them on while not in the same room. Also don't switch your watercooker on at the same time to make some tea (I did blow the fuses a few times).
I also use white styrofoam boards for reflection, different colors of paper for backgrounds, a white umbrella spraid with silver paint for portraits.
I use tracing paper or a white bedsheet for diffusion. Or a frosted glass table for diffusion from underneath. And black velvet where needed.
If you want to build your own light stands, have a look here at tinker tubes. , although I am not sure whether this still is the cheap way.
Dimmers are not available for the 500W but you can dim the 150W. But usually you want more light, not less. With the two 500W lights from the front, I am often struggling to get sufficient light on humans.
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07/12/2004 12:47:22 PM · #8 |
Originally posted by willem:
I use mostly 500W or 150W halogen floodlights from the do-it-yourself store. The 500W light came including a stand, very useful.
One word of warning : they get very, very hot. Keep any flammable material at a safe distance, never leave them on while not in the same room. Also don't switch your watercooker on at the same time to make some tea (I did blow the fuses a few times).
I also use white styrofoam boards for reflection, different colors of paper for backgrounds, a white umbrella spraid with silver paint for portraits.
I use tracing paper or a white bedsheet for diffusion. Or a frosted glass table for diffusion from underneath. And black velvet where needed.
If you want to build your own light stands, have a look here at tinker tubes. , although I am not sure whether this still is the cheap way.
Dimmers are not available for the 500W but you can dim the 150W. But usually you want more light, not less. With the two 500W lights from the front, I am often struggling to get sufficient light on humans. |
Do you have any portraits you would care to share, with no editing. I would like to see what kind of results you are getting with what you use. I am very interested in putting together a similar lighting system and it would be very nice to see the 'straight from the camera' results that others are getting with an inexpensive setup.
I ask for straight from the camera shots as I want to perform as little editing as possible to images beyond a crop, resize or slight increase/decrease of lighting/contrast. I have done some very minmal cloning, but that's just to get rid of some marks that might be on background walls and such.
Message edited by author 2004-07-12 12:47:53. |
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07/12/2004 01:00:56 PM · #9 |
Originally posted by willem:
Dimmers are not available for the 500W but you can dim the 150W. But usually you want more light, not less. With the two 500W lights from the front, I am often struggling to get sufficient light on humans. |
I bought a couple of halogen lights for use in my make shift studio. They have three settings but my husband built me a custom dimmer switch. I intend to get some umbrellas for both. Anyway, here's a pic if you're interested.
Message edited by author 2004-07-17 18:05:49. |
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07/12/2004 01:02:13 PM · #10 |
Sears Roebuck sells a 'shop light'that has two 250W halogen lamps with two power settings for each lamp, all mounted on a tripod stand.
Cost: $19.95 USD. I use a set of these for studio work as well as video.
Foam core poster boards are nice for reflecting and diffusing light in a variety of colors. |
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07/12/2004 01:35:57 PM · #11 |
Originally posted by Nelzie:
Do you have any portraits you would care to share, with no editing. I would like to see what kind of results you are getting with what you use. |
My photosig account shows some self portraits.
One of them is the same as here on dpc, which had only levels applied.
Another one is converted to B&W (and a bit low in contrast because of the way I converted it)..
And the third one is straight out of camera.
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07/12/2004 01:39:06 PM · #12 |
Originally posted by coolhar:
With incandescents you can rig dimmer switches, one for each bulb even. I don't think you can do that with halogens. |
Be careful, dimming incandescent lights also causes a color shift.
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07/12/2004 01:52:56 PM · #13 |
Originally posted by willem:
Originally posted by Nelzie:
Do you have any portraits you would care to share, with no editing. I would like to see what kind of results you are getting with what you use. |
My photosig account shows some self portraits.
One of them is the same as here on dpc, which had only levels applied.
Another one is converted to B&W (and a bit low in contrast because of the way I converted it)..
And the third one is straight out of camera. |
You've obtained some nice results. I noticed in one photo a reference to "Still life and special effects photography". I'm waiting for my copy to show up from Amazon and am very excited about what I might learn from it. |
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07/12/2004 03:34:15 PM · #14 |
Originally posted by Spazmo99:
Originally posted by coolhar:
With incandescents you can rig dimmer switches, one for each bulb even. I don't think you can do that with halogens. |
Be careful, dimming incandescent lights also causes a color shift. |
Yup, you should readjust WB after adjusting the lights, knew that but didn't know it was ok to dimmer the halogens, that's useful, thanks. |
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07/12/2004 04:04:40 PM · #15 |
For most of my still lifes, if I haven't used indirect window light, I've used one 60W lamp in a desk light, and a few pieces of white paper as reflectors.
 and  were both shot with that set-up.
E
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07/13/2004 04:13:53 AM · #16 |
| Thanks people, some usefull tips, i'll try them out. |
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07/15/2004 12:55:11 PM · #17 |
Ebay has some pretty reasonable priced lights. I bought a sith victor continous lighting kit for 154.00.
Comes with 2 10 inch reflectors
1 5"reflectors
3 Diffusers
3 Light Stands
and 750 watt total in bulbs.
I could of went to Home Depot but it was probably cheaper to go this way and at least look like I know what I am doing.
Also Photek and Background in a bag for 194.00 it comes with background, stand and seat.
//cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3860&item=3828046965&rd=1
I hope this helps. |
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07/16/2004 11:40:12 AM · #18 |
| For taking still shots, mostly of very small items (jewelry) are 300-500 watt bulbs needed? I am using 65 watt bulbs in clip on desk lamps but I am thinking I need more light. The light tent is just not very bright and I can't get a good white background without washing out the jewelry using aperature and exposer compensation settings. |
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07/17/2004 05:31:25 PM · #19 |
using my film SLR i've done a few still life/portraits in very basic studio set-ups. i use spotlights (100W), reflected off anything i can lay my hands on (paper, plastic folders, sheets). i haven't tried any digital yet, but for film i've found 100W lights fine, but normally on a longish exposure with tripod.
Message edited by author 2004-08-21 17:26:11. |
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07/17/2004 05:37:19 PM · #20 |
The best kind of light to use is natural light. If you got a big window that alot of light comes through then that should work. Just get a background and someone to pose. Pretty simple.
If you don't have alot of natural light, buy a flash that you can bounce off the ceiling or walls. Works great. Make sure you set your white balance correctly.
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07/17/2004 06:00:02 PM · #21 |
I'm just getting into this side of things..
I'm using one of those cheap folding card tables turned upside down as the stand and then I drape a white sheet over the legs to difuse the light. I have 2 low voltage direction adjustable halogen lights these are the normal lights for the back varanda area plus a 75w desk lamp reflecting at the back and natural light from 2 other sides and I use the curtains to adjust the amount of light that enters from them.
I suppose it is a white balance night mare but it seems to work ok.
Bob
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07/17/2004 06:06:24 PM · #22 |
My husband is, as I type, fitting my halogens (see pics above) with umbrella holders. The umbrellas are the white shoot thru/reflect variety and yes, they will be positioned far enough so that I won't burn down the house! :-o
And went to the camera store this weekend and bought a bracket that will screw onto my tripod that will hold one umbrella and my flash attached to a slave.
Can't wait to play with some still life photos :-) |
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07/17/2004 06:20:25 PM · #23 |
Not all halogen lights are compatible with all dimmers. So be careful or you will damage your light and/or your dimmer.
A halogen light with a toroidal core transformer should probably not be dimmed with a triac-based dimmer. Triac dimmers work by cutting off part of the AC cycle and the DC component of the output will overheat (and eventually destroy) the transformer. Or the inductive kickback current will destroy the dimmer. Use a dimmer designed for inductive loads; if the dimmer instructions caution against using it for electric motors, I wouldn't use it on a halogen light.
A halogen light with an electronic transformer may or may not be dimmable. Check the instructions that came with the light. If it was designed for dimming, go for it! If not, you risk damage by using a dimmer. |
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07/17/2004 06:56:04 PM · #24 |
Originally posted by dr rick:
Not all halogen lights are compatible with all dimmers. So be careful or you will damage your light and/or your dimmer.
A halogen light with a toroidal core transformer should probably not be dimmed with a triac-based dimmer. Triac dimmers work by cutting off part of the AC cycle and the DC component of the output will overheat (and eventually destroy) the transformer. Or the inductive kickback current will destroy the dimmer. Use a dimmer designed for inductive loads; if the dimmer instructions caution against using it for electric motors, I wouldn't use it on a halogen light.
A halogen light with an electronic transformer may or may not be dimmable.
Check the instructions that came with the light. If it was designed for dimming, go for it! If not, you risk damage by using a dimmer. |
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Right on Dr_Rick. Inductors and solid state switching controllers do not mix well unless the inductors are well damped. So run the lamp at it's rated power and use other objects to block, diffuse, or filter portions of the light. Artist supply stores will have multicolored transparencies and poster boards that can be used to good advantage. Music stands and clothes pins are useful here! |
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