Low Budget, Big Task

[john_doukas]

Hello. I have been tasked to research putting together a small photo

studio for a company I work for. The budget is a little low, so I need

to use the resources wisely. I?m experienced in basic 35mm photography

but new to studio photography and am in need to learn about what kind

of lighting to use. Below is a list of what I need help in.

 

-- Some of the products to be photographed will be flashlights on long

black guns as well as small components.

 

-- I have been looking into getting ?hot lights? but have also heard

suggestions for strobes.

 

-- I have also bee looking into softboxes for diffused lighting.

 

-- Could someone explain the advantages/disadvantages of flash

lighting, umbrellas, and shooting tents/domes?

 

-- The camera to be used is a Canon D60.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[emjay]

Have a look at the information here. There are a lot of articles that go over your variuos options. Once you have done that you will be able to ask more specific questions that will help you. Have a particular look at the ones related to equipment

 

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-one-category?topic_id=1824&category=Administration

[john_doukas]

Thanks for the link. I'm still not sure of what to look into. It's such a broad subject. We will not be doing any portraits, but taking pictures of still products. I don't which other direct question to ask aside from suggestions as what equipment to lean towards. I know I can buy a small light kit that includes a softbox, stand, light, and speed ring. What i don't know is, if that's a good way to go, or better to put a light system together separatly.

[mlhostetter]

It might be wise to invest in a shoot tent. These are made exclusively for product shots and other small items. They are made of a diffusing material that completely surrounds the item and casts light beautifully. Flash is a completly different animal as I am learning myself. Small portable flashes mounted on hot shoe triggers and placed stratically around the light dome could save you alot of time and money. Some will say that you MUST have the best you can get in order to look professional to your models, however IMHO I don't really think a product is going to say alot about the means you use to show its appeal. There is always more than one way to get it done. Start from the bottom and work your way up if money is an issue. Hope this helps.

 

Happy Shooting,

;> Marylou

[garry edwards]

You've been given an answer, read the articles in the Weekly Lighting Themes.

 

They are not about portrait photography, nor are they about still life or product photography, they are about lighting, which is the question you asked.

 

Another question, which you need to ask yourself, is whether your employers would be better exploying an experienced commercial photographer to produce selling pictures of their products

[mlhostetter]

Just a we bit harsh don't ya think?

 

John,

 

The above could have probably been stated alittle more nicely, but his point, while alittle tacky, is a valid one. But I encourage you to do the research anyway.

 

That is what this forum is here for. To Learn from others. I guess we learn more than just photo tips here also.........hmmmmm.

Take what you can learn here. Use it. FWIW, it might help if you don't post the same question twice on the forum. People tend to get alittle miffed about that.

 

You may think that you are rambling, but in the future... try to be "alot" more specific about what you need to know and what you have, not nessasarily why you want to do it. The why's are irrelavant and sometimes people just want to know so they can tell you thier opinion as to whether or not you can do it.

 

Happy Shootin to you!

 

Marylou

 

"Perfection is sought through perserverance, though never achieved. For one can always do better."

[jim c]

Gee Garry what is your problem. Every time I come across your posts you have an sarcastic answer. Give the guy a break he came here for help from others. Answers like that just make people stop asking and go back lurking and hoping for answers.

Everybody starts out with questions and our understanding helps them to learn.

Good luck John. I hope you got some help here. Garry is right about the tutorial stuff in the admin section but please feel free to ask any questions you might have.

[garry edwards]

If my earlier reply reads as being harsh then my apologies, this was not my intention.

 

Your questions are a little vague and really cover too much ground, but the answers to all of them except shooting tents are contained in the Weekly Lighting Themes, which I hope you will find useful.

 

In most of the themes, still life subjects have been used for convenience but the lighting techniques are also relevant to portraits. Where examples of portraits are given, the techniques are also relevant to still life subjects, although of course some lighting arrangements are more suited to some subjects than to others.

 

John, when I suggested that you should ask yourself whether your employers should consider allocating their product shots to a commercial photographer I did so because most businesses rely very heavily on the quality of their photographs to sell their products. The costs of professional photography form a very low percentage of total marketing costs and although many businesses try the 'do it yourself' approach to product photography they often find that reduced sales end up costing them far more than they save.

 

A good compromise is often to get professional selling shots, and in-house shots for purely illustrative purposes, e.g. for emailing to customers.

 

I did not mean to suggest that your pbotography is inadequate, I simply wondered whether the commercial implications of non-professional photography had been fully considered.

 

Hope this helps.

[Jochen_S]

My personal experience with shooting-dames is they make the light too soft, so they take out any chrome effect, which might been iun the subject.

[lbi115l]

Studio photography takes a long time to master, so I would recommend looking into either having a pro do some work for you, or taking a workshop in it - a week-long one at Maine or Santa Fe.

 

For digital, hot lights might be a better option, and are easier to learn with. Just remember - the prices look good, but they don't put out anywhere near as much light as strobes.

 

Be sure to have lots of reflectors. Also, softboxes are good, as you will need lots of diffusion.

 

Look into something called "dulling spray", I believe it's made by 3M, and can be very handy for getting rid of reflections.

[chris m., central florida]

I am sort of an amatuer when it comes to product photography, but I've picked up some information along the way and tried lots of different techniques. So take my advice with a grain of salt - I'm not very experienced in product shooting just yet (I'm a people shooter, trying to move into commercial work). While some of my ideas may sound useless, you have a few options available to you. If your budget is severely limited, have the courage to devise some of your own lighting rigs and experiment. And I'm sure other photo.netters will chime in and help out.

 

First, If you've got a commercial photographer you can bring in for the shoot, watch and observe them and offer to assist. I'm sure your employers recognize the fact that better images are one of the contributing factors to increased sales. It may be more cost effective in the long run to have a commercial photographer come in and shoot your stock inventory images. For the cost of a decent lighting setup, a commercial shooter could probably come in and shoot a ton of inventory/catalog images in one day. Maybe your company can team up with another local company to share the cost of a professional photographer?

 

Now for some practical - probably somewhat amateurish advice.

 

I have recently tried hotlights and I don't like working with them, although their prices are attractive and they're decent for smaller objects. You can buy a cheap set with softboxes or umbrellas (two lights, stands, etc) for under $500, maybe even less. Problem is, you are not going to have a lot of flexibility in light output when you need it. If you don't know a lot about color temperature and white balance management, be prepared for a lot of time spent color correcting your images (and this is not always successful). You are going to find that you need variable power depending on the size of the object, background, reflectance of the object, I could go on and on, there are a lot of variables. But, you don't need a flash meter since you are working with a constant light source (I'd still use a meter anyway). So hotlights would NOT be my first choice.

 

I would highly reccomend a two monolight setup as a starter kit. Monolights are basically self contained strobe/flash units that you plug into a wall. Alien Bees are affordable, and you could probably get by with two AB400 units. I'd also like to suggest a medium softbox with a silver and white liner options for your key light, and another softbox or small umbrella for your fill light. You can also use reflectors to add more fill when needed. You can probably swing this setup for around $800. It will work for small objects, and I'm sure you can illuminate full length guns with barrel mounted flashlights(that's what we're talking about here, right?). Don't forget that you will need a decent flash meter for all strobe/monolight work, which will run you an additional $200-$300. You'll save some money if you can find all this stuff used.

 

An even cheaper alternative is going with smaller battery powered flash units and optical slave triggers. I have a few different types, but I find that something like an inexpensive Vivitar 285 bounced into a small umbrella is a good option for small objects. Two of these setups will be very affordable, portable, and easily stored, but again, very limited.

 

You'll also need to think about shooting surfaces, backgrounds, and small stands or display platforms for your products. My suggestion here is to start leafing through competitor catalogs and hit their websites, and look at how they do it. Please understand that some catalog photographers are operating with extensive lighting setups (3-5 lights, sometimes more) and there's quite a bit of image prepping before you see the final image. You'll see them using everything from very expensive, specially designed product lighting tables and tents to cheap plain frosted plexiglass and fabric covered surfaces with white or black sheets for the backgrounds. Hey, when you have no budget, who cares how you capture the image as long as the end result is attractive and accurate?

 

If you are working for a really small startup company with absolutely NO budget, you can try shooting the stuff outdoors using white sheets as diffusers and tin foil/white sheet covered cardboard as reflectors and a large folding table covered with material as a shooting platform. Don't laugh, I've seen some very creative work done this way for website catalogs. You can experiment with a digital camera until you are satisfied with the results.

 

Last point - lighting placement. Even if you have an extraordinary budget, nothing will help you if you don't know how to effectively place your lights. I've seen photographers work for days on one product shot to get perfect lighting that conveys the visual message the company wants. You'll need an education on how to properly achieve your main and fill light ratios, where to place the lights, and some creative ideas. There is a book out there called The Lighting Cookbook which can help with some of this. Take classes. I tend to visit other photographers to see how they work, and learning their style and hearing about their tips and timesavers is a great way to pick up on lgithing theory and practices.

 

Again, if you can afford it, hire a professional, especially if you don't have the patience to experiment or if you don't like taking risks.

 

Good luck!