Product Photography Strobe vs Continuous lights

<p>I was thinking about getting into small product photography but I'm not sure whether I should invest in continuous lights or use the strobes I have available. I have a couple of handle mount Metz flash units that are collecting dust that might do fine in that situation.</p>

<p>I'm not sure how steep the learning curve is using strobes, but I do remember that using continuous lights was not a piece of cake either. Most of the problems dealt with the background and reflections.</p>

<p>I have an Tent that I purchased years ago, but I did not like using it too much that's why it's still sitting in my closet . The Tent was too cramped and not flexible enough. I felt more comfortable using diffusers over the lights and plain old seamless background paper on stands.</p>

<p>I did run into these 2 very interesting websites while I was searching for DIY material to make my own small product portable studio. One of them sells continuous lights and the other sells unusually cheap and portable table-top studio kits, check it out.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.alzodigital.com/online_store/Alzo_100_macro_studio.htm">http://www.alzodigital.com/online_store/Alzo_100_macro_studio.htm</a> <br /><a href="http://www.modahaus.com/">http://www.modahaus.com/</a></p>

<p>What sort of product photography are you trying to do?</p>

<p>The Metz hammers are fine for eBay sort of work, but not really useful for anything beyond that. The number one thing in product work is controlling the light, and that means a light with a good pattern that can be used on its own or can properly feed a variety of soft boxes, snoots, spots, etc. and that gives you light you can see with to compose. Strobes are wonderful light, if they have powerful, well designed modeling lights. Speedlights, hammers, etc. have neither good patterns or good modeling lights. (they're typically also the wrong shape for propping stuff or weighting it down, so the Metz's are, literally, less useful than a couple of bricks or rocks).</p>

<p>Look for a strobe with at least a 150W halogen modeling light, where the center of the modeling light filament is in the center (on all three axises) of the flash tube. Some flashes have their modeling lights far forward of the plane of the tube, so when you use reflectors, snoots, or diffusers, etc. the pattern of the light in the final flash photograph is different than what you see setting up the lights. Nothing like painstakingly setting up everything, getting rid of the last bit of glare or ugly shadow, and then taking a shot with glare spots and shadows. A large range of power settings is good, because you'll often find yourself mixing power-hungry modifiers like gridded snoots with efficient ones like reflectors. That's another advantage of strobes over hot lights, range of adjustment.</p>

<p>Neither of the kits you linked, in my opinion, is worth bothering with. They don't give you versatility in adjusting light intensity or placement, and they don't permit a wide range of light modifiers. If you want to start cheap, get some no-name 24 inch softboxes, with grids, light stands with boom arms, and you'll be able to position things to light them interestingly. </p>

<p>You remember that discussion the the other day where you confused the things you have to add to any movie camera (DSLR, camcorder, digital cine camera, movie camera) with the camera itself? That's sort of like product photography. You'll deploy so much equipment around the table that you'll hardly notice the camera. It's incidental, compared to the stuff that gets you to where you need to be to shoot.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Thanks Joseph for the advise, I happen to have strobes with 150W modeling lights and they can handle accessories such as softboxes and grids, but I was thinking about small product photography jewlery, watches things of that nature that do not require allot of elaborate lighting set ups and that could be portable. </p>

<p>Actually, Harry, jewelry and watches are some of the most demanding things to shoot, and frequently <em>do</em> call for larger, complex sets/lighting with scrims, gobos, reflectors, multiple light sources, and the grip gear to position it all around what you're shooting. <br /><br />This all depends on what you're trying to achieve, obviously. If it's a snapshot for eBay, that's a lot different than something that's intended to really show off the item.</p>

<p>If you have studio strobes, then I'd say that's the end of the discussion. Use them. If you want portability, you have to compromise a bit but you can obviously use speedlights in umbrellas/softboxes. Modeling lights are certainly useful, but with digital you can check the lighting on the LCD a second after you shoot, so it's less of an issue than it used to be. IMHO, the Metz units might not be what I would go out and buy but since you already have them they could be useful if you're trying to set up a portable rig. Stroboframe makes (or at least used to make) a bracket for handlemount strobes that will mount on a lightstand and accept an umbrella. If it will accept an umbrella it will also accept the Apollo series of softboxes that mount like an umbrella instead of with speedrings. </p>

<p>"<em>Actually, Harry, jewelry and watches are some of the most demanding things to shoot</em>"</p>

<p>You are right I just downlaoded an eBook on Small Product Lighting. There is allot more to it than I thought. I think I'll start off small with one of these cheap kits and work my way fropm there. At leat I wont get any back-talk and bored looks from my products while I build my skills.</p>

<p>I suggest you buy "Light - Science & Magic" by Hunter, Fils et al. It shows why you need all that stuff.</p>

<p><Chas><br /><br /></p>

Matt and Charles are correct in their answers. Still life product lighting especially of small finely detailed highly reflective

objects is extremely tedious and demands a great deal of concentrated attention to fine, minute details in both the subject

, lighting and staging over long stretches to do right. By "right" I mean doing it at the level where you add value to your

clent's work. Anything less than that is a waste of your time and their money.

<p>Nearly all the "curly-whirly" CF lamps I've seen have an absolutely hideous light pattern. The reflectors are generally large dimple-silvered affairs designed with efficiency in mind rather than a controllable pattern. Personally I wouldn't touch them. And hot lights are just - well - hot!</p>

<p>I received my Modahus Kit today, <a href="http://www.modahaus.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.modahaus.com/</a> FREE 3 day shipping all the way from England. Seems to work as advertised unfortunately there is no Black backdrop ? I think I can make one by cutting out some seamless black paper and taping it to one of the back drops.<br>

The kit comes with 4 colored translucent back drops, a translucent white and an opaque white back drop. I have an old Norman P202 power pack 200WS that can be powered down to 25WS. It uses LH2 lampheads that can take barn doors, grids, softboxes and colored & ND filters. The only problem with this Modahus kit is if you shoot from the front you might get reflections. <br>

I also got (3 ) 12X12" Lexan sheets (black grey and white) @ 10 bucks a piece from USP plastics for added effect. <a href="http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=80940&catid=704&clickid=emailrecommended">http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=80940&catid=704&clickid=emailrecommended</a></p>