It's time to get more serious about taking pictures of my artwork, and the built in flash doesn't cut it any more, so I'm looking at used lights on Ebay.I want to set up a dedicated area for doing pics,with a nice background,and some good light. First question: how many watts will I need ? No sense in buying 10,000 watts,if I only need 100. I'm only shooting small pinstriped panels,usually in the 12" x 24" or smaller range. Second question: what temperature bulbs ? Third question,flood light or spot light ? Fourth question: is one light enough ? Any suggestions ? Thanks in advance. Ian
for a lesser $ setup that is a good start is the alien bee 400watt setup... it will do everything you need... you can use one and get another later... all depends on how much you want to spend. I have the 1600watt and looking to get 2 400s soon. Real nice stuff for the $$$... what camera are you using? The lights come with remote cables so you can set the flash to the side if you need. blake www.dpreview.com is a great site to read up on anything photo! Read Read Read!
I shoot alot of photos of pinstriped panels for HotDog & than use them for t-shirt designs. The best way to do it is outside on a shady day with a reflector. You can use studio lights but its kinda overkill.
The best results I've gotten so far are outside,havn't tried a reflector. But the weather here is too variable,I'd like something I can use year round.
Unk, You don't need fancy photo lights to take good pictures of your panels. You could probably get away with a couple of 100w incandescent (tungsten) bulbs, or if you have a couple of halogen work lights, those would work. If you're shooting digital, the camera should adjust itself for the different color temperature of the lights. Check your manual for setting the white balance.. Black velvet works great for a background. It ****s up the light.. You want to set your lights on either side of the panel so they're pointing at it from a 45 degree angle. Not too close.. maybe 3-4 feet away. Darken the rest of the room lights so your work lights are your only source of light. Stand back and zoom the lens in. Fill the frame. The farther away you are from the panel, the smaller your reflection will be. This also gets the lens away from any stray light, minimizing lens flare.. Angle of incidence equals angle of reflection. If the light hits the panel at 45 degrees, it'll bounce off at the same angle. This means no light bouncing back and causing glare on the panel. like this: confusing enough? more questions? hit me. R
What Shortbus said about using Black velvet is perfect if you're using one of them ancient 35 mm cameras and Kodachrome transparencies too. The black will be opaque in the slide so the only thing showing in the shot will be the art work itself. Great, if you're projecting the work on a screen later too. I like Kodachrome and even get prints made from it when I want 8x12's of them. I always get 8x12s because that's the format of a slide, and if I want an 8x10 I can choose which two inches to crop off instead of the doofus at the lab choosing.
I second everything shortbus said. My addition is if you use film, use negative film and over-expose at least one f-stop (or one step longer exposure time) if you use tungsten lights. Tungstens are more yellow, and with negative film you can compensate for it afterwards. The over-exposure will take away blue discoloration in the darker parts after the compensation is made.
To add to what the others said, I'd HIGHLY recommend a tripod if you aren't already using one. You may have to set you camera to "manual" to force the flash to NOT FIRE. (Different cameras handle this in different ways). But like ShortBus said, a couple of incandescent 100W bulbs would get you real close. These can just be put in a couple of desk lamps or those spun aluminum clip-on work lights. I have had the best luck with "standard" bulbs, not the "Soft White" ones. And another thing is to allow the camera to correctly meter the lighting situation. 99% of digital cameras allow you to do this by holding the shutter release (the ****on you press to take the pic) down halfway. This also allows the camera's auto focus to really do it's job. Once your camera confirms the metering and focus (usually takes less than 1/2 second), press the ****on the rest of the way down to take the shot.
Like ShortBus said, a couple of incandescent lights will work just fine for what you're doing. Get a couple of those shop lights with the tripods and you're all set. As for metering, remember that you're shooting a stationary target. Get yourself an 18% grey card, available at any camera shop. (18% grey is the default exposure value for any camera.) Set your lights and panels up the way you want them, then drop the grey card right in front of your panel. Set your camera to manual exposure (to keep camera from picking a different exposure value when you take the card away), and expose for neutral grey. Every camera's different, but it's usually the big exposure mark in the middle. Now, take away the grey card and you're guaranteed proper exposure on your panel. Why? Because you've already chosen your exposure based on a known color in front of your lights. All the other colors will fall into place around that central value. PM me if you want an easy color correction tutorial. If you do decide to get studio lights, I'll second the Alien Bees recommendation. They're decent lights, and the company's really easy to deal with. The light stands are a pretty flimsy, so plan on weighting them down. Their telephone cord remote control setup is a big PITA to set up. Spring for wireless.
Can I add a quick question to Ian's ... Does the type of flash that surrounds the lens work for these situations? The lab that I hang around uses them all the time. The pictures seem to turn out well. (very few shadows)
Thanks guys.Sounds like the ***y studio lights I was looking at are way overkill,and would create more problems than they solved. I'll probably make a light tent,and add some lights on each side.
I want to add something important to you guys using stobes (off camera flashes) ALWAYS use a radio sender or use your on camera flash to trigger the strobes. The flashes will sometimes (alot!) send a charge back to your camera and fry it. There is no fix I've heard of for it once its done aside from a new camera. If you like to gamble with your equipment - go ahead, plug it in, but you've been warned. I'm giving an amen to ShortBus's recommendation on the work lamps. He is a RULER! That's how we did it at the fancy schmancy photo school I went to. Just set the camera for tungsten and rock and roll. The nice thing about using lamps over strobes is you can accurately see with your eyeballs what the lighting and shadows look like - easier to get rid of hot spots or glares right off the bat. Remember - incident angle = angle of reflection, just like shooting pool.
I must say I'm seriously impressed by the number of photographers on this website, and the great suggestions they have given. Hell one fella even came up with a pretty darned good diagram. I've done weddings, model shoots, and tons of car shows. But when it comes to indoor lighting, there's absolutely no difference between expensive lighting boxes and umbrellas, and the stuff you could get at the hardware store. First wedding I did, I showed up with 4 or 5 umbrellas. Not fancy ones, regular rain umbrellas. Mounted them on cheapy tripods I'd picked up at a photography resale shop, used aluminum foil, from a roll, to line the umbrellas, and moved them until I had the lighting I wanted. Shot regular 35mm film, and I'll be dang if those aren't some of the best pictures I've ever shot. Since then I've tried "real" lighting at weddings. Using boxes, backdrops, reflectors, powered umbrellas, etc. I tell ya what I've found is that a wide collection of bedsheets, white, black, grey, tan, beige, brown, does EVERYTHING i need. Black velvet is great, but so is any color of velvet. Even white velvet will eat up a glare from a flash. It reflects some light, but if used carefully even that can create some awesome effects. As to what you need for those panels, I think everybody here summed it up pretty well. A few regular light bulbs with aluminum reflectors will do the trick. Aim them so that the reflection doesn't bounce into your camera, and you've got it made. Best of luck to ya, and please feel free to e-mail me at nineteensixtycaddy@hotmail.com I'm not only a professional, I'm also into hotrods.
Here is a link to another forum I belong to, it is a how to on building a photobooth, It could probably be scaled up or down, depending on size, this one is sized for drums. http://www.ghostnote.net/backup/photobooth.htm
I'm impressed too. I shoot ****py amateur photos on a marginal Sony digital camera... but I feel as though I too may need to tap into the vast HAMB knowledge pool for a work project in the near future. Nothing too special... just hot chicks and cars... Great ideas so far.
Thanks for the link, 55ford! I had never thought of using a shower curtain tto make a lighting tent like that. There's some real good ideas there!
Bang for your buck... Rick is right.... this is the best way to get the results you need... I would ad a tripod to the mix... your camera may need to be steady due to some low light... depends on the watt bulbs you find.... anyway good luck and post up these shots after you find what works for you. blake
There is great information here thanks. I am constantly amazed at the never ending willingness of the H.A.M.B. community to share their vast knowledge. So far the ideas presented are geared more towards studio shooting. Are there any good tips for shooting on location? I have a problem shooting striping at shows. the reflextion of the base coat causes too much mirror like feed back. I know only shoot only flat paint but that is not always possible Any tips or suggestions are welcome. Camera is an Olympus Camedia C-2100... here is the type of image I am talking about moose
SecaTim, you might try bringing a piece of cardboard, foamboard, etc with you, and place it so that it's what is being reflected in the paint instead of trees, awnings, people, etc. You might even try something like painting one side of the board black, and the other side white. Take the pics both ways and keep the one you like better. Keep in mind what the others have already said about reflections: "angle of incidence = anle of reaction".
See if you can get a[size=-1] Circular Polarizer[/size] for you camera. It will remove the reflections & glare.
Yea, they work digital or film! I'm not sure if you can get one for your camera though...? Do a search and see.
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