Image1 wrote:
On that product shot, is that foam core on both sides, with the softbox lite from above only? ...it's hard to tell from that setup shot! ..Nice Results J.S.
Hi John. Sorry I didn't see your post earlier.You're right, the product is lit from above with a small photoflex litedome with foamcore on both sides. I used poster board with the top part duct taped to a wall and curved down to the table. Then I laid another piece of thinner, shinnier foamcore over-lapping on top of the sweeping down poster board. One piece of foam core on the left side is perpendicular to the background/wall and the piece on the right is tilted somewhat to the front of the product and towards the background poster board. It works great for small, short items. When I shoot large and taller products I usually light from an angle and usually add another light.
A friend is letting me rent some space at her salon part-time at a very generous rate. I am sharing a sectioned off room that her husband, who is an artist, occasionally uses. We just work around schedules and move things around when needed. A great bonus is when the salon is closed I'm welcome to use the entire salon, which near warehouse sized with plenty open areas and great design by the owners husband. I will post pictures of the larger salon area soon. Below is the sectioned-off private area I share.
I don't like muslin so I've been extensively using my only roll of (blue) seamless. I have three more rolls coming in hopefully tomorrow.
This one was taken near the entrance of the salon using one AB 800 and umbrella. I tried to get the frosted glass behind her glow but it didn't think of how until it was too late (long story). Sorry for this poor example, I will update this post soon with more proper set-up shots.
wow.... i just spent my entire friday night reading this whole thread
thanks to everyone for sharing all this great info
i have a much better understanding of lighting and will hopefully soon start building mt setup
White Lightning got my dollars recently, I just got done converting the back portion of the garage into a studio, whooo what a bit of work as I had to repaint the walls and all. Just got done painting the floor today.
Still some details to do after the floor drys but its getting close and I hope to share preliminary pictures of it later this week.
I'll be throwing down a rug in the middle for the comfot of customers but it likely won't come in to play as I am confined to a 19x10 space and mostly will be having to do half body shots unless I step into the kitchen and shoot to my subject in the garage or clar out the cars and shoot the other way which I did leave as an option.
I will have 2 to 3 different backdrops up ranging from a warm orangish camofloge pattern to a grey blue sort of thing. Of course there is white and some others I purchased mnaterial for and am having the wife make for me.
Floor is drying nicely so I'll take some pictures by weekend and show you Marks Garage Studio! :-) I should be able to roll all the lights back into position thursday night after I get my backdrop holders up wednesday eveing.
At least I got one heck of a lighting setup to fill it!
Mark, I'm curious why you didn't take the painting opportunity to make your walls less reflective or more nuetra? I would love if the owner of my studio would let me paint some surrounding walls dark gray or even black. Do you plan on using black curtains or anything?
Oh..., and I'd love to hear the details on your lighting setup
Mainly because I did not want to completely change my garage since I am only using about half of it. It is very reflective but I plan on working my lights in such a way as to pretty much control the situation. Some Black curtains will be in order when it is all said and done.
The lights, well, its a pretty full setup as I wanted to be able to grow into it and also go remote if needed:
WL Lights/Stands/Bags
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2 ea X1600/WLBAG White Lightning X-Series X1600 (free WLBAG carrying bag)
2 ea X800/WLBAG White Lightning X-Series 800 (free WLBAG carrying bag)
2 ea LSB48 Stand Carrying Bag
3 ea TS13AC 13-foot Air-Cushioned Stand
3 ea LSCA25MM Set of 3 Caster for the 13-foot Light Stands
2 ea LB1 Boom Arm Attachment
1 ea LS1100 Backlight Stand
Modifiers
-----------------------
1 ea SB2436 Medium Softbox (with LGSR)
1 ea SB3060 Giant Softbox (with LGSR)
1 ea U48TWB 48” Shoot-Thru Umbrella
1 ea BR Background Reflector
1 ea HG4X Four Honeycomb Grids
1 ea RBH2566 Reflector Kit Mounting Arm
1 ea Barn Doors
Power& Controllers
------------------------
1 ea V300 The Vagabond 300 System
1ea LG4X Four-Channel Wired Remote
1 ea Pocket-Wizard Rec/Tran B&H Kit
1 ea L358 Transmiter Chip
Shooting with a Fuji S3, Nikon 50mm 1.8 and the Tamron 90mm 2.8. I also have other lenses that might play in this setup but I have not tried it all out yet.
This is essentially the back inner end of the garage. Luckly it is a finished garage in so far as the walls and cealing. I repainted the walls to make them fresh again. I painted the floor with a grey expoxy sealer. Hung some 8 foot Curtain rods for my back drop and home made backdrop (right side). I'll likely do some paper rolls later after I recover from all the cost.
I used my Back drop stand since it was costing me depth as the side partions with a white background. Maybe change it to black later.
I have all Paul Buff WLning right now, and the main lights are on casters, so I can roll them around and use the different walls available to me.
I'll get a roll around cart for monitor and laptop to shoot teathered when I want, again later after I recoup a bit.
I an looking eventually for a good strip soft box figure that will give me some nice flexability.
So here it is, still very rough but coming along. I am open to feedback and suggestions based on what you see.
here' is my current setup. I finally made space at my house and i'm slowly building a mini studio. I need more lighting than i currently have right now... hopefully it'll be int he works within a couple of months.
Thought I'd share my "portable" studio. Essentially what I take to do location shoots:
Tripod, 4x3 softbox, 2 light stands, b/g stand kit, 2 Elinchrome 500's, 2 Opus pro 250's with stands and umbrellas, 9' super white seamless, blue and green silk 6' x 12' backgrounds, stool, battery pack (for outdoor shoots) and of course my camera. There's usually a bag full of clips and extra power cables, etc.
After going through every page of this amazing thread I'm preparing to put my order into Alienbees.
This is the planned list which will be changes once I see the total in my shopping cart:
-2 or 3 strobes (1 B800 and 1 or 2 B400's)
-Giant softbox or possible Large Octobox
-48" B&W reversible umbrella
-48" gold and silver umbrella
-10' General Purpose Stand (2)
-13' HD stand
-Boom attachment
-The 5-in-1 Circular Reflector Kit and mounting bracket
I may get some honeycomb grids and wired remote down the road.
I'm quite excited about spending hours trying out different combinations once my order will arrive.
I have a few questions if anyone cares to enlighten me.
1. Can you recommend a source of studio lighting knowledge? A book would be great.
2. I need a flashmeter. I don't mind buying used so I'll check out Ebay. What features are crutial in one of these doodads?
3. Is the fastest I'll be able to shoot 1/250th on my 20D? I'd like to try some stop motion action but am unsure about shooting faster with cold lighting.
4. I'm getting the largest softbox because I want to do some car studio shots with the SB above the vehicle. For some portrait shots it looks like a smaller SB is better. Is there a curtain available that restricts the lit area of the SB from the exterior? I'll just make my own if not.
5. Are barndoors an invaluable tool or do you suggest I wait and see?
John, your 2nd and 4th set on pg.1 made my jaw drop. You are one talented fellow.
Username wrote:
I have a few questions if anyone cares to enlighten me.
First off I want you to know that I have a pretty limitied experience with studio lighting. I do not claim to be an authorative source in any particular photographic area. but am learning and will try to help out where I can. I'm sure others will jump in to fill in the gaps or correct me and possibably add their experiences.
1. Can you recommend a source of studio lighting knowledge? A book would be great.
Depends on what you plan to photography. But a good over-all lighting book is "Light - Science and Magic : An Introduction to Photographic Lighting" Then you can get more specific books based on more paticular interests like on portrait lighting, product, food, etc.
Also, here's a link to a Photo.net disscussion of lighting books.
2. I need a flashmeter. I don't mind buying used so I'll check out Ebay. What features are crutial in one of these doodads?
Crutial would be that is measures incident light and that is actually a flash meter, not just ambient light.
3. Is the fastest I'll be able to shoot 1/250th on my 20D? I'd like to try some stop motion action but am unsure about shooting faster with cold lighting.
I believe the max x-sync speed of the 10D is 1/200. Although, so is my DRebel but I sucessfully pushed it to 250 with my bees. As long as the flashes are your light sources freezing motion should not be a problem.
4. I'm getting the largest softbox because I want to do some car studio shots with the SB above the vehicle. For some portrait shots it looks like a smaller SB is better. Is there a curtain available that restricts the lit area of the SB from the exterior? I'll just make my own if not.
I can only comment on what I've used. I don't believe there are accessories available for the "Light Gear" brand boxes that Alien Bee sells on their site. That said, I own the Light Gear giant soft box and have used it many time for portraits. I also use Photoflex boxes but only know of louvers, stripmask, and circular masks for their boxes. There may be other brands that offer such a mask and I'm sure you can devise your own home-made solution. Maybe some light opaque fabric or gaffers tape would work?
5. Are barndoors an invaluable tool or do you suggest I wait and see?
I have a set but tend to use honey comb grids more for controlling the light beam.
Thanks for the compliments Graham. I'll try to answer some of your questions. Here goes.
1. "studio lighting knowledge" There are so many sources... right here at FM's for one. In the way of books, try "The Lighting Cookbook" by Jenni Bidner (Amphoto Books), "Corrective Lighting and Posing" by Jeff Smith (Amherst Media), "Posing and Lighting Techniques" by J.J. Allen (Amherst Media), "50 Portrait Lighting Techniques" by John Hart (Amphoto Books) and "Lighting Secrets for the Professional Photographer" by Alan Brown, Joe Braun and Tim Grondin (Writers Digest Books) The last one (Lighting Secrets..." actaully has several examples on lighting automobiles. I'm sure others can also recommend some excellent book. These are just a few from my library.
2. Flashmeter: Sekonic makes very good meters. IMHO you really don't need a ton of fancy features (at least I don't use them.) The Sekonic L-358 Flash Master is a very good, no frills meter (Just my opinion.)
3. "...the fastest I'll be able to shoot..." Yes, (per Canon's spec's on the 20D) 1/250 is the fastest shutter speed you be able to use synch'd to you Alien Bees. Any faster and you'll start seeing black areas on one edge of your photos.
4. "Large Softbox...Is there a curtain available that restricts the lit area..." There is usually a difussion panel inside the softbox to scatter and soften the light. It really doesn't "restrict" the light per se. Maybe I'm not understanding what you're wanting. The one book that I mentioned has some examples of lighting automobiles. I have been to shoots where vehicles were lighted inside a studio. They basically used (huge) homemade softboxes that were nearly the size of the vehicle.
5. "Barndoors" The secret to good lighting is not just getting the light out there... its getting the proper amount of light (not too little nor too much) where you want it. That means that blocking and controlling the light (subtractive lighting) is just as important as overall scene/subject lighting. Barndoors, cutters, black curtains, black foamcore... all of these (and more) help to control and fine tune where the light falls. As an example, last year I attended a lighting seminar by Jerry Avenaim who demonstrated how he lit the TV Guide portrait of Halle Berry. He used 3 lights. two at 45 degrees to the simple paper background (she was about 6' in front of the background) and one main light with a 12" pan reflector with the reflector covered with ripstop nylon (as difussion material.) The main was placed approx 3' in fron of Halle's face and slightly above her forehead (super hard light huh!?). However, he placed a cutter panel right infront of the strobe so that the shadow caused by the cutter blocked most of the light above her nose and eyes (subtractive lighting.) The end result... a very famous photograph from some very simple lighting. Barndoors help to control the lighting. Can you wait... sure. There are many other ways you can block/control the light.
Hope it helps a little. There are many here that can share thier extensive knowledge.
On the left is an AB400 in an AB brolly box. On the right is a cheap eBay strobe bounced into a silver lined umbrella. Overhead is a Quantaray MS-1 flash booster mounted on a homemade PVC boom stand and fired into a shoot through umbrella.
I used a small piece of plexiglass (3' X 4') and it was way too small. Go big or don't use it at all, I think. The background turned out gray because there was no light on it so it was way underexposed. All the wrinkles were taken out using JohnE's technique found earlier in this thread (I think its on page 15.) That technique works awesome! Thanks, John.
I bet Paul C. Buff has made another fortune from this thread!
