Home studio Shadowless lighting on a budget - help

I know absolutely nothing about photography, so please have
patience...all I've done so far is to read a few articles on the
internet, and in this NG.

I've been using my digital camera (Sony DSC-70) for a couple of years
now, to take photographs of items I sell. I've had pretty good
results, simply using floor lamps in my living room and turning off
the flash on the camera. Most of the items I sell are small to medium
sized pieces of furniture, and other (small) antiques.

Now, I want to move to the next level in quality and composition of my
photographs.

What I would like to do is improve my lighting. I plan on buying a
muslin backdrop and creating a tiny 'home studio' area. My goal is to
properly light the subject for accurate color representation, and zero
shadows. Here is what I was thinking (I'm on a very tight budget :-)

1. A pair of 500W halogen work lights, aimed into black-backed white
umbrellas.

2. A 2nd pair of 500w halogen work lights, with home-made soft boxes.

I'll play around with arranging the lighting, but was thinking that
the umbrellas should be behind the camera, one to the left and another
to the right -- and the soft boxes should be on either side of the
subject being photographed (?)

Without going to the expense of using flash units...here are my
questions:

What else should I do to try to completely eliminate shadows?

Should I put a 5th light directly above the camera, on the same axis
as the imaginary line from the lens to the subject?

If so, what kind of light should that be? Really bright and direct,
or diffused?

Should there be direct overhead lighting, above the subject?

Should there be lighting behind the subject?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions or ideas you can give me to try.

-Randy

Randy MacKenna wrote:
What else should I do to try to completely eliminate shadows?

Two lights - and 150W tungstens in inexpensive flood holders are
probably plenty, you don't need 500W work lights - arranged one to each
side and using simple diffusers of some sort - such as fluorescent light
plastic or muslin over a simple square frame - should provide good
lighting with minimal shadows. Use a tripod and experiment with some
fill flash from the camera, as well as the positioning of the lights.

The usual flaw is to use lights that are too small (in size, not
wattage) and too far from the subject. Use a big diffuser (3x3 feet or
more) and put the lights as close in as possible. For tabletop objects,
you will probably have a light almost touching each of your shoulders.

--

| James Gifford * FIX SPAMTRAP TO REPLY |
| So... your philosophy fits in a sig, does it? |
| Heinlein stuff at: www.nitrosyncretic.com/rah |

you are talking about equipment without understanding what and how it does,
and why they did it that way.

forget it, on ebay there are lots of those whte cube tents, buy one, problem
solved. you need to shoot bigger stuff, first think about how surrounding a
shiny object with white takes care of the problem, do something similar only
bigger.

do you have a white room? bounce some lights on to one side wall and behind
you and make the whole room a box..

LIghing isn't about umbrellas and boxes, its about arc of the horizon, the
wider the softer, umbrellas are only OK if you can get them so close the
shaft is in the picture, thats why they invented softboxes, you could get
them closer.

for most things you need an arc of 90'

for smooth polished things you need almost 180

when they invented lights they didn't have fire proof fabrics, they had very
very slow film and slow lenses, so they need to concentrate every bit of
light into the smallest space, the spot light was born.

later they got faster films, so they could use bright bulbs in metal
reflectors, to do head shots nice.

in the 60s they invented umbrellas, who job was to focus the light towards
an area about twice its size, but really its as specular as that metal scoop
used at their designed distances.

if you go out and see what light makes things look the best, its twilight,
what is it, a big big arc of the sky, no specular sunlight.

set up a light to bounce off a side wall, base your exposure on it, now you
can add some lights to emphasis things, skim a light from the opposite side
to raise detail of texture and shape.



I know absolutely nothing about photography, so please have
patience...all I've done so far is to read a few articles on the
internet, and in this NG.

I've been using my digital camera (Sony DSC-70) for a couple of years
now, to take photographs of items I sell. I've had pretty good
results, simply using floor lamps in my living room and turning off
the flash on the camera. Most of the items I sell are small to medium
sized pieces of furniture, and other (small) antiques.

Now, I want to move to the next level in quality and composition of my
photographs.

What I would like to do is improve my lighting. I plan on buying a
muslin backdrop and creating a tiny 'home studio' area. My goal is to
properly light the subject for accurate color representation, and zero
shadows. Here is what I was thinking (I'm on a very tight budget :-)

1. A pair of 500W halogen work lights, aimed into black-backed white
umbrellas.

2. A 2nd pair of 500w halogen work lights, with home-made soft boxes.

I'll play around with arranging the lighting, but was thinking that
the umbrellas should be behind the camera, one to the left and another
to the right -- and the soft boxes should be on either side of the
subject being photographed (?)

Without going to the expense of using flash units...here are my
questions:

What else should I do to try to completely eliminate shadows?

Should I put a 5th light directly above the camera, on the same axis
as the imaginary line from the lens to the subject?

If so, what kind of light should that be? Really bright and direct,
or diffused?

Should there be direct overhead lighting, above the subject?

Should there be lighting behind the subject?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions or ideas you can give me to try.

-Randy

On Thursday 04 December 2003 07:24, Randy MacKenna wrote:

I know absolutely nothing about photography, so please have
patience...all I've done so far is to read a few articles on the
internet, and in this NG.

I've been using my digital camera (Sony DSC-70) for a couple of years
now, to take photographs of items I sell. I've had pretty good
results, simply using floor lamps in my living room and turning off
the flash on the camera. Most of the items I sell are small to medium
sized pieces of furniture, and other (small) antiques.

Now, I want to move to the next level in quality and composition of my
photographs.

What I would like to do is improve my lighting. I plan on buying a
muslin backdrop and creating a tiny 'home studio' area. My goal is to
properly light the subject for accurate color representation, and zero
shadows. Here is what I was thinking (I'm on a very tight budget :-)

1. A pair of 500W halogen work lights, aimed into black-backed white
umbrellas.

2. A 2nd pair of 500w halogen work lights, with home-made soft boxes.

I'll play around with arranging the lighting, but was thinking that
the umbrellas should be behind the camera, one to the left and another
to the right -- and the soft boxes should be on either side of the
subject being photographed (?)

Without going to the expense of using flash units...here are my
questions:

What else should I do to try to completely eliminate shadows?

Should I put a 5th light directly above the camera, on the same axis
as the imaginary line from the lens to the subject?

If so, what kind of light should that be? Really bright and direct,
or diffused?

Should there be direct overhead lighting, above the subject?

Should there be lighting behind the subject?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions or ideas you can give me to try.

First, you should read a few books on product lighting techniques, just
to get an idea of what's involved. In the meantime, if you want
shadowless lighting, the easiest way is to use a small room to make a
"lighting tent." It only needs white walls and ceiling. The floor
should be white, too, but, if it's not a "bright" color that will cause
a colorcast, it should be okay. (You could always cover the exposed
floor covering with something white or neutral grey.

Anyway, just position 4 lights -- one at each of the room's corners --
pointing at where the walls and ceiling meet. Be sure to have the
lights far enough away, so that most of the walls and ceiling are
illuminated. Position the object to be photographed about a 1/3 the
long dimension of the room from back wall. You'll get very even,
"wrap-around" light with this technique.

You can also use a 3 light setup: 2 lights aimed at the room's corners
in front of the subject (behind the camera position) and a 3rd behind
your background muslin to hide it from the camera, pointed at the
ceiling, aimed a little behind directly above the subject.
Alternatively, this 3rd light could be aimed directly at the subject to
"rim light" it to separate the subject from the background, but you'll
have to use a much lower wattage bulb to prevent burnout of the
highlights.

If needed, to add "accents" to the subject use various sized silver
reflector cards (regular silver artboard from an art supply store will
do) to reflect more light to certain areas of the subject.


Those "work lights" should be just fine. Although with 4 - 500 watt
lights going, it's going to get hot quickly in your "studio."
Depending on circumstances, 250 - 300 watt units might work just as
well.

Also, remember to do a manual "white balance" to read (and lock) the
proper color balance for the lights' color temperature.

Good luck...

--
Stefan Patric
NoLife Polymath Group