Harsh lighting in basement/studio

HI everyone.

I was inspired by the peppers photo in this month's Practical

Photography magazine (UK publication).

I'm trying to setup a mini-studio in the basement just for doing

still lifes and that sort of thing, I am contending with really

harsh lighting (3 bare lightbulbs individually controlled).

I have a table with background paper setup

One bulb is directly above me (in front of table).

One bulb is inline with me and to my left about 10-15 feet.

The other is back from me by a couple of feet and to my right by 15-

20 feet.

Shadows galore let me tell you - and long ones because of the

distances from the lights to the subject).

I've got a Canon Rebel XT/350D with the 580EX flash (and 3 lenses).

I'm only mentioning the 580EX in case it comes in handy but with a

ceiling that won't reflect light - I can't use it to bounce

effectively so it only serves to add more shadows if used.

 

I tried battling with the light bulbs with one of those tall ikea

paper floor lamps (figured it was a good diffuser with the paper)...

not bad but still harsh shadows (ok ok - it was a feeble attempt but

it was midnight and I was anxious to make progress).

 

My question is this....

I'd like to light the subject (say a bowl of colourful fruit) with

nice and even difused light (with out the long harsh shadows). I am

assuming that with flash units I'm having to deal with triggering

them, and besides - I like to play with the lighting before I take

the picture.

 

So I am thinking a hot light is the best way to go. FIRST QUESTION:

Is this sound logic - should I be looking at hot lights as a tool

for perfecting light? The heat isn't so much as issue - I'm in

Canada and basements here stay wonderfully cool anyhow.

 

SECOND QUESTION: Keeping in mind I just spend $4000 on the camera

and gear so far this year and a baby is on the way, I want to spend

as little as possible... how many lights will I need and which

diffusers should I use?

 

Can I get away with one light and an umbrella?

Or will I have to go two lights, one umbrella and one barn door

configuration for example?

Perhaps one light and a (big) light box?

 

These are not pro shots (gee - as if you couldn't tell by now haha),

I just want to take some nice shots to put up on my wall to join the

rest others.

Hi David,

 

Take a look in the Administration section of this Lighting Forum. There are many Lighting Themes archived there which deal with the questions you are asking.

 

You can use "hot" continuous lights. The downside to hot lights is their heat which can be dangerous when using modifyers such as scrims, softboxes etc. And hot lights produce mostly heat. Their light output is fairly low.

 

The cheapest modifyer for your lights is what's called a scrim. A scrim is a frame of wood, metal or pvc pipe construction with a translucent cloth stretched over the frame. You can make scrims yourself. Position your light behind the scrim to diffuse the light. The larger the scrim and the closer the scrim is to your subject, the softer the light.

 

A scrim is not as efficient as a soft box because there is a lot of light spilled around the edges and you need a way to support the scrim which usually entails another stand. But softboxes designed for hot lights are expensive and they're usually made for quartz light fixtures, not the household fixtures that you are using.

 

In any event, you can do a lot with just one light/scrim and a reflector card. A second light with a grid or barndoors is a useful thing for lighting the background seperately or mixing hard and soft light together.

 

Here's a sample shot done with just two lights. Overhead and slightly from the rear was a medium 3'x4' softbox, positioned just out of the frame, very close to the subject. A hard light with a grid was used to light the background.

 

Be sure to check the Lighting Themes in the here in the Administration section of the Lighting Forum.<div></div>

First off, read this primer if you haven't already: http://www.photo.net/learn/studio/primer

 

The poor man's solution to this problem is clip lights with 500watt tungsten bulbs in them and frosted Mylar in front to diffuse the lights, or to go one step up, lights on light stands still with Mylar in front to diffuse the light. From the sounds of it the bulbs you have are the existing bare bulbs used to light the basement. You should assume that these will be turned off when you are taking pictures. Bare bulbs have many problems including that they are too far away in your case, you can't reposition them, and they are likely not going to be bright enough.

 

Tungsten bulbs are cheap (make sure you use Tungsten film if you are shooting in color) and hardware store clip lights are cheap as well (make sure you get the kind with a ceramic socket rather than a plastic or metal and cardboard socket -- you will be exceeding the rating on the clip light so only keep the lights on for short periods of time and NEVER leave the room with them on). If you have a bit more money then proper light stands are the way to go and are not really that expensive.

 

The key is that you need something to diffuse the light. The best low cost diffuser I have found is a sheet of frosted Mylar attached to a wood frame (actually more like a "shadow box" with a Mylar back) that is, say 45 cm x 75 cm. You have to get clever to find ways to position the diffuser in front of the lights. For small still-lifes you can stand the diffusers right on the table that has your subject on it. Make sure you don't get the diffusers right up next to the bulbs or you will melt the Mylar. There needs to be good air circulation around the light bulb so don't try to seal the bulb into an enclosed space. I have never had any problems with this sort of setup, but you need to use your head and pay attention. 500 watt bulbs generate quite a bit of heat. Also, watch out how many you plug into one circuit and use good extension cords.

 

For many subjects the ideal lighting is a big diffuse light source directly above the subject pointed straight down with a second light source off to one side to cast shadows and a much smaller light source (or simply a reflector) on the other side to keep the shadows from getting to harsh. The lighting can be fine-tuned with sheets of black and white foam core to act as shades and reflectors. You can, of course, get boom lights to do the overhead part, but boom lights are big and expensive and you still need a diffuser. With some ingenuity you should be able to rig up something that you can build and hang from the ceiling yourself.

 

Of course these days most pros go with strobes of some sort, but that is a much more expensive route. Also, playing around with hot lights is a good way to learn about lighting.

 

I have used a setup like this to take portfolio photographs of artwork that get the artwork in question into national caliber shows and in one case I got one of my photographs published in an art magazine, so you can do good work with this sort of a setup if you practice with it and have some patience.

I'm sure that there are as many low cost ingenious solutions as there are people who visit this board. My own preference was to use bounces and not diffusers - it's so much cheaper to control the size of the surface which becomes the light source, and size of surface control is how you control softness of lighting. It also works great with hotlights because you can have nice big air spaces. And, cheap - I used foamcore V shapes (two pieces of foamcore taped on an edge into a V).

 

That is a lot less low budget amateur than you may think. I've seen several lighting setups shown by some of the "hot" portrait photographers, and an awful lot of them involved foamcoare V or flats. You can also use space blankets for silver reflection, stretched over the foamcore, or sheets of that silver house cladding.

 

As to reflectors - If you're using halogen or incandescents, nothing beats $4.95 reflectors from Home Despot. I used a couple of big workshop flourescent banks, filled with daylight flourescents, and had a very nice smooth light that required hardly any white balance work.

 

I also like combining flash with hot lights or flourescent. I use gels on the flash to match the color temps, sometimes, or gels at the opposite end of the color temp scale to add unique highlights. If you order the gel sample packs from Adorama or such (I think they charge you $.01, plus shipping, for them) you'll find that they're almost the right size to gel your flash, needing only a tiny trim.

 

How's that for budget ideas...

Hi Guys.

Thanks for the tips.

I think I am going to go for the hot lights instead of worrying about flash lights.

I was going to try to diffuse the existing lightbulbs somehow, but perhaps my first mistake was trying to make something work for me that frankly just won't.

 

Thanks for replying, I'll keep checking back here for more feedback. Oh - and that example pic - perfect - that's exactly the look I am going for.

 

Dave

Mylar on a frame is an interesting idea, I'm going to have to source the mylar out and go from there.

 

Hanging things from the ceiling is do-able. It's a new house with an unfinished basement so the ceiling is all wood rafters - no problem attaching things to it.

 

The other thing that I thought of was the backing itself. Right now it hangs vertically down and then over the table. Well I'm going to change it so that the roll will start above the camera, travel across the top of the ceiling to the original holder, down behind that (vertically now) and continue as is over the table and so forth. Then I'll have a nice surface for bouncing the light. That should go a long way. Perhaps that used with my 580ex, along with a second light source, diffused and off to the side and above will give me the effect I'm looking for (even diffused light).

 

I did read that primer, but honestlty - my impression was that it delt so much with equipment and flash syncing and all that stuff - that it didn't address my situation (no ceiling to bounce the light, existing harsh light sources, and just an overall environment not condusive to lighting).

Just read my new post. Something got screwed up in the text (sequence of paragraphs or something). The gyst of what I was saying was all in there, but something got messed up with the posting.

David, if you can manage it you might consider a budget hot light setup. In the long run hot lights have limitations but the short term advantage is that they enable you to see every change you make as you make it. So if you move a reflector, you see the result before you take the photo. If there's too much spill you can rig up a gobo and see the result immediately. That's one reason why we used 'em in school. Well, that and the instructors didn't trust us with the expensive flash stuff.

 

SP, Smith Victor and Tota Lights are all possibilities. SP and Smith Victor are all old school stuff, cone shaped (or, if you prefer, beehive shaped) lamp housings/reflectors and a handy dandy genuine pasteboard carrying case. But there's no telling how many folks have learned on these things and how many pros still keep a few around for particular purposes. (For example, some glamour type shots are done with a few gelled hotlights here and there in the background to add a more three-dimensional look to the entire setup.)

 

Nowadays the somewhat more expensive Tota Lights seem to get the thumbs up from many experienced photographers. If they like 'em, I'd definitely consider buying or renting 'em. The design is totally different from the old school stuff but there are lots of accessories for modifying the light to suit your needs.

 

Anyway, that's one way to go. But I went for years with farmrigged stuff like clip-on or gooseneck lamps with photofloods or halogen bulbs, using large sheets of white posterboard and foamcore as reflectors. I even rigged up multiple sheets of foamcore to make large reflectors, making hinged edges with duct tape so I could fold 'em up afterward.

 

I'd also use multiple auto-thyrister hotshoe flash units like the Vivitar 283 along with optical triggers. No telling how many photographers on a budget have gone this route - probably tens of thousands judging from the posts on photo.net alone. I'd set 'em up adjacent to the hot lights so the flash results would be pretty close to what I saw with the hot lights.

 

Good luck.

Talk about studio on a budget.

- a table at Ikea ($60)

- background paper role ($50)

 

A backgroud paper holder with the stands goes for $200. I decided screw that and went to Rona and picked up one wood dowel and 2 hooks for $10 jsut to test things out first.

 

Set the hole thing up. Found that I was getting shadows from the light bulbs that I couldn't get rid of. Tried setting up a tall ikea lamp. No go - still shadows everywhere. Tried angling my flash to bounce of the ceiling and back down on the subject just so the light is from above and defused (spread out) from the bounce. But it's an unfinished basement with wood rafters so no light would bounce.

 

Hence my initial post here.

 

Went to Wal-Mart and picked up 2 lamp shades ($8 each). Got back home and put the lamp shades over two of the light bulbs (later I found I only needed one since I ended up turning one light off). Found the light from the windows were creating shadows... Covered them up with garbage bags. Fixed that. I was still getting some shadows (although not as bad as before). I found some old hooks and re-rigged the background paper so that now it travels across the ceiling, pases behind a cut off section of an old extension cord held in place with vice grips on the two screws I found, drops down from there, and then forward over the table and down again. Now I can bounce my flash (mounted on the camera) off of the paper above me and onto to subject. Repositioned the ikea light and presto - just very light difused shadows... Which I thought was pretty damn good for something rigged up with pieces of extension cord and $1 hooks.

 

I'll attach two pictures (taken with 2 different lenses) and one of the final setup. I've got to go get another piece of dowel tomorrow night to replace the extension cord and vice grips but aside from that my budget system is in place and I was able to avoid the need for a $400 twin light setup with stands and difusers.

 

Now - I did the hack and slash method on purpose as a way to try it on a budget. Honestly, I'll probably go out and get a 2 light beginner kit at henrys on the weekend with a diffuser and the bard door setup on the other. I'll avoid the $200 paper roll for now only becuase well - I like the paper traveling above me (mind you - I'll have to get two more hooks and a dowel to stop the paper from drooping).

 

Also - I'm not kidding myself - this hardly gives me a setup for anything remotely pro and certainly is not condusive for creative work, but hey - these are the very first two images I took. I'll work on composition and then better lighting next.<div></div>

Oops - guess that was too big to show - lets try again.

Ok - that's no working.. I give up. Here's one with a wide angle (just so you can see there really is little shadowing going on).<div></div>

Oh Sure - NOW it works ;-)

Trick was to set the size to 499x333 not 500x333

Just can't post that pic.. oh well - here's the budget setup.

Don't laugh too hard ok?<div></div>

Two brief thoughts:

 

1. From the looks of the pictures you posted, you've done a good job of getting the light smoothed out, which is usually the big first challange with a setup like this. In fact, you've smoothed the light out so much that the image now looks flat to me. Unless you like that flat look I would now try to add a bit of directional light to create some shadows that will help define the shape of the objects you are photographing. You may also want to consider whether you want to light the backdrop in way that is less flat as well. The "classic" approach is to let the backdrop fade to black as it goes up, but to do this you will need a lot more depth on your table setup than you have now. I should note that this "fade to black" approach is somewhat "flashy" and has been done a lot, so for fine art purposes you may want to try a different approach to the backdrop.

 

2. If you do decide you want to experiment with some frosted mylar you should be able to get it at any decent supply store. I have also used white ripstop nylon, which should be available from a decent fabric shop.