Correct studio lighting

I have been asked to take some shots of the interior of a friend's

store, and I need some advice on the correct lighting to use. I

prefer to use any and all available light, as I don't like fussing

with artificial lighting. The problem I have is that the interior of

this store is very dark, as the sun doesn't hit it at the right angle

due to being blocked by stores across the street. I am using Kodak

160 VC film, which I've had excellent results with before. I need to

know which type of studio lighting to use, to achieve the same effect

as natural daylight on the resulting prints. Also, the least

complicated the lighting system, the better.

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks,

 

Nancy

I'm not sure I'm helping, but here goes.

 

First, not all daylight is the same.

 

Bright days are specular, and cloudy, difuse light.

 

Color temp also varies. Noon is around 5500K or what a typical strobe outputs. Early morning and late afternoon light tends to be warmer (4500-5000K) and overcast tends to be cooler (6000-6500K).

 

Now which "natural light" are you looking for? It's a little easier to warm strobe light via filters. Color corrected photofloods seem to be in the 4500-5000k range, but they're hot and you'll need lots of watts to get a iso160 film exposed properly. If you're looking for a broad light like overcast, you'll need a good sized diffusion panel to put your lights (hot or strobe) behind. These can be bought or fabricated out of pvc pipe and white ripstop nylon.

 

Oh, and to make matters worse, you either need to balance your light to the store's ambient light or have that light turned down while you shoot. Or have your light completely overpower ambient.

and to follow up, how big an area are you looking at imaging in a shot? A piece, a set, a 10,000 sqft store? Even if you had lighting from the windows, would you want it?

Thanks Jim. I called my local rental place, and the guy I spoke to suggested that I try a Tungsten light, with an umbrella reflector and a Tungsten filter on my lens. Would you agree that this would be a good alternative to the strobe system? I have to take the small size of the store and relatively low ceiling into consideration when I'm planning a lighting scheme.

 

Nancy

To answer your second question, I'll be shooting small sections of the store, highlighting the merchandise. I would say the store is about 20 feet by 30 feet, very small and cramped with maybe 8 foot ceilings. Yes, I would have liked to have used the light coming in the windows, but as there is next to none, I have no alternative but to use a lighting system. I'm not comfortable with complicated lighting systems, so this needs to be as easy and stress-free as possible!

 

Nancy

Probably ok for maybe 10'x10' areas, maybe a little bigger and you'll probably want 2 or more. Now understand, the 80B filter you'll need for the vc160 (about 2 stops) will make your effective film speed 40 from 160. Kodak makes a Tungsten color neg film at iso100 in the portra line and fuji makes a 160T film. Both of which would have to be a better answer if you're going hot lights.

what color are the ceilings? If they're a decent white, use them to bouce your light rather than an umbrella

Well, I'm not so sure anymore that I want to use hot lights, considering the small space. It was suggested to me to try something called Omni Bounce, which fits on my Vivitar flash, and will spread out the light from the flash in a much more pleasing fashion. An alternative to the Omni Bounce is a white styrofoam coffee cup fitted on the flash, with a business card taped to the back. This seems like a viable alternative, then I wouldn't have to worry about film colour correction with the filter or rent lights. What do you think?

 

Nancy

Nancy,

 

Product lighting is highly skilled and equipment intensive, and so is architectural interiors.

 

On camera flash gives amateurish lighting at best, and as has already been pointed out, hotlights will need filtering to colour correct, losing a lot of film speed - if you did this you would possibly get problems with any natural light, which if bright enough to make a contribution would end up very blue. The alternative, if you really want to use tungsten light, is to filter the lights themselves - but you then end up with a problem with the heat, which lighting gels don't like.

 

My advice is the same as Jim Felman's, to use strobe and bounce it from the white ceiling or from a white overhead reflector. People expect to see soft lighting from above, it looks natural.

 

Hope this helps

Garry, I agree with both you and Jim, I guess I'm just a bit nervous using, what I perceive as, complicated lighting equipment, but I've done it before and I'm sure I could do it again. I do want to produce the best results for my friend, as these photos will be used in a brochure and web site.

 

Thanks for all your suggestions.

 

Nancy

<I>. Yes, I would have liked to have used the light coming in the windows, but as there is

next to none, I have no alternative but to use a lighting system. </I><P> You have an

alternative: it is called using a tripod a a self-timer and exposing for longer. You might

needan 80A which converts tungsten blanced light to the daylight balance of the film.

filter

reciprocity failure and color shift.

 

basicly what happens is that at a point, even if you double the exposure, the film doesn't respond like it got double the light.

 

A consequence of the above is that in color film, not all colors will "fail" in the same way. That is to say that cyan layer might NOT handle long exposures as well as the magenta (just an example). The "T" films are generally designed for longer exposures, and if you're using hot or ambient tungsten, they would be they way to go.

 

On another point, how wide a lens are you using, and do you understand what it will do to furniture shapes?

if your friend is just looking for a few small'ish' pics for a web site( say, 200pix on a side), no one is going to see or notice the details. If, however, this is going into a decent sized print or web display, then there is a *lot* to get right here. There's a world of skill and gear between *good* and *great* product/arch/interiors, and a 35mm with a hot shoe flash isn't going to get you close.

 

I don't mean to discourage you, only pre-set your expectations at what your likely outcome will be.

Ellis, I do have a tripod and shutter release, but the interior is so dark, that I was worried about reciprocity failure, as Jim has pointed out; so I had already decided not to go that route. That's when I realized I would need proper lighting.

 

Jim, I'm using my 28mm lens, which I believe is wide enough for the small space, without distortion. I've used this lens for other interior work, with available light, with great success (sorry, I have no examples on the computer I'm on, to show you). The store in question is a lingerie store, so my main focus will be on the wall displays, to showcase the merchandise, with no furniture except maybe a large chest of drawers. Like I said, these pics will only be used for a brochure and a web site, so it's very important to have good detail and proper colour.

 

I'm not feeling discouraged, maybe just a bit overwhelmed at all the decisions; I just want to do the right thing to get the best results. I'm going to pop by my local rental place tomorrow, and speak to the staff there about my options. I'm not going back to the lingerie store until Sunday, so I have a few days to mull all this over.

 

Nancy

Nancy,

 

Available light and a long exposure might not be as difficult as it seems. If you're concerned about reciprocity, shoot some film tests at the location, before the actual shoot.

 

I've shot entire Home Depot's inside store displays, large interior areas and sections of their stores using 100 ISO Transparency film which needs filtering at the time of exposure (before digital). Turns out a 20 magenta filter works out nicely at the Home Depot if you're not near the windows at the front of the store.

 

Of course I used a color meter to determine filtration and BW polaroid to check exposure but you could do the same thing with a film test at different exposures, in different areas of the store before you shoot the real thing. Take some large white foamcore panels to bounce some available light into the shadows. Include a grey card in one shot of each area for the printer to balance to.

 

On the other hand....if it were my job..and the client really needed critical color, I'd use strobe, power packs or monolights, umbrellas or softboxes, maybe a ceiling bounce if possible. If you want to go this route, rent a flash meter, 1200ws powerpack, 3 heads, medium and small softboxes and 4 light stands, one for a fill card and 3 for the lights.

 

But you might want to try some reflectors and available light and shoot some film to test color and exposure. Film is cheaper than renting equipment and it might be all you need.

Thanks Brooks, the list of equipment I should rent is very helpful. I would venture to say that a Home Depot is at least 1,000 times larger than the store I'm shooting in, being as it's only 550 square feet with 9 foot ceilings!! There are two windows right at the front of the store, which most conveniently faces West, the only problem being that the buildings across the street block the sun right when it is setting, and would be shining in these windows! This makes the small interior very dark. The only light is provided by small halogen fixtures on the ceiling. Another problem is that I work full-time during the week and this store is a 30 minute highway drive away, and I'm limited to Sundays, as that's when the store is closed (no customers to get in the way). So, as you can see, my time is very limited, otherwise, I would have no problem taking test shots before I actually do the shoot. I would really like to only have to do this once. Of course, the client (my friend) may not be willing to pay for expensive lighting rental fees, so this may all be for nothing!

 

Nancy

If you are renting lighting gear the rental house should have a list of experienced

assistants. Hire one to run your lights so you can concentrate on styling and getting the

right lighting effect (which is a separate matter from how to run the controls of the light.

 

You'll have to trust me aboutthis but it is how a lot of the very big nam photographers

work -- as directors not electricians & grips.

That's a good idea, Ellis, but that may just add more to the cost. I'm not sure my client is willing to pay that much. But, I'll certainly look into it anyway.

 

Nancy

You need to research the specs on your film to see how it does on long exposures.

 

I use Provia for interiors because it can go 100 seconds without reciprocity failure or color shift.

 

You probably won't need much more than 10-15 seconds even at f16. A lot of electronic cameras have long shutter speeds up to multiple seconds. My old FE2 had 8 seconds, and that was very useful. In the worst case you can use Bulb and a watch.

 

Then measure the light in the store for various shots and see what you have.

 

A tripod, 80A filter, and a hot light with umbrella or foamcore reflector would be good for frontal fill about 1-2 stops down from the ambient light. (The fill should add 1/2 to 1 stop to the overall exposure. Shoot variations with both levels. A higher level may give you better reproduction in the brochure.)

 

Shoot a white card or gray scale in the first frame of each view and then take the picture without the card. This will give your lab a standard for color correction.

 

This is a small job so I would suggest that you not overproduce it.

Thanks Steve, here's the specs on the film I was going to use, Kodak 160VC. You can see that it can go up to 10 seconds:

 

KODAK Portra 160VC ? The Portra 35mm series debuts Single Channel Printing, a breakthrough technology that provides the same spectral sensitivity and spectral dye density across a wide range of film speeds.

160VC is especially notable for vivid colors, extremely fine grain and medium contrast

Enhances color in scenes with one predominant color, or flatly lit situations

Film Speed: ISO 160 for Exposure times of 1/10,000 second to 10 seconds

Color Balance: Daylight or electronic Flash

Suggested Applications: Advertising / Illustration, Architecture, Corporate / Industrial, Fashion / Glamour, Medical / Scientific, Museum / Art / Copy, Digital film recorders

 

You're right, I don't want to overproduce, but I don't want to underproduce either. Since I already own a tripod and Sekonic digital light meter, all I need is the light and reflector. I've used Kodak 160VC for interiors before with available light, and was pleased with the results, but I could always try the Provia; couldn't hurt. I'll be using my Nikon FM2, so I'll be using the Bulb setting and my watch!

 

Thanks,

 

Nancy

Now measure the environment and consider using 400 speed film.

 

At the small scale of planned use the increased grain probably would not matter.

 

If you have time to test you could try Provia. It may be better to stay with a film you know.

 

I like slide film because it is more objective than negative film. You either have the exposure or you don't, although I do always bracket a little.