Lighting for Bathroom Photography

[don_doyle]

Hi,

 

I am a bathroom remodeling contractor and I would like to take some nice shots

of my work for my website and portfolio. To this point I have only used the

built in flash on my Nikon D70. Lousy, shadows everywhere, results!!

 

My question is this...without spending an arm and a leg, can I get a system that

would allow me to take nice shots of my work? Should I use tungsten lights or

other flash type lighting? How many lights do I need? I am willing to spend

around $600-$1000 since a pro-photog would cost me that for one shoot. Please

let me know if you need more details to help with an answer.

 

Thanks,

Don

[johnmarkpainter]

Get an SB600 and a Lightsphere (total of less than $250)

 

http://store.garyfonginc.com/liiido.html

 

Just aim the Lightsphere up...Light will bounce off of the walls,ceiling, Mirrors etc...It

works especially well in small spaces like that. Shoot at f8 in TTL mode with a Wide Lens

 

jmp

[michaelmowery]

i am one of those photographers who charge a thousand dollars to take the bathroom

pictures. My approach has been using tugstun film or digital tugstun and a tripod using

available light only. This is your best result.

[elliot_n]

Buy a tripod and forget about lights. That's assuming that your remodelling work includes

installing aesthetically pleasing lighting systems. Never use on-camera flash for this type of

work. If you want to add light, bounce a little off the ceiling or the wall behind you for fill.

This could be flash or tungsten.

[mike_earussi1]

Elliot is correct. Mount your camera on a tripod, turn on the bathroom lights so it's normally lit, do a white balance and you're all set. You'll also need a wide angle lens, of course, if you don't already have one.

[brooks short]

I'm also one of those guys who charges $1000 to photograph bathrooms. #8^) The smaller the bathroom, harder it is to photograph and light properly.

 

You could use available light and a tripod if you don't mind blowing out the light fixtures that are in the shot.

 

Or you could use some tungsten light, a tungsten color balance or film and totalight bounced into the ceiling, which will add some additional light and help a bit with not overexposing the bathroom light fixtures quite as much. Unless there are windows and daylight in the shot.

 

Or if the bathroom is large enough and you want to control the lighting you could use a couple of strobes, one bounced in the ceiling, maybe a small softbox or grid to light the far corner etc.

 

By using daylight strobes you can balance the ambient light from the existing fixtures so they record with the proper level of detail and illumination and, by shooting at dusk you can obtain the proper exposure for the window light as well.

 

If I was paying $1000 for a shot of my bathroom that's what I would want.

[james_c._turner]

Put the D70 on a tripod, put it in Aperture mode, with plenty of depth in focus you want, pop up the flash for fill, and it will take a good picture with Ambient lighting with some fill flash. Good luck.

[george_bourke]

This is in response to Brooks' response:

 

Can't you just use a tripod and PS's HDR feature to extend the dynamic range such that you DON'T blow out the light fixtures?

 

George

[robert lee]

Have you tried using your contractor's halogen lighting as hot lights? I suspect spectral consistency should be pretty good as long as you let the lights warm up and run them at equal power. Position however many you need, where you need. Shoot a gray card for color balancing later, and take exposures in RAW.

 

Pretty much what you get should be what you see. Just be mindful unless you're after a specific effect, don't mix lighting types.

[brooks short]

George,

 

You can use Photoshops HDR feature to get back some of the lost shadow and highlight detail but I've never preferred that to actually lighting and controlling the contrast and exposure during the shoot. The results from HDR are just not the same.

 

In an outdoor landscape situation of course there may be no other choice but to use HDR to control the contrast if you're shooting digitally.

 

In a small-scale architectural shot it's always better to do proper lighting, just as it's always better to use the correct exposure at the time of the shoot, rather than trying to repair a poorly exposed shot in Photoshop.

 

If you spend the time to learn lighting and spend the money to buy some useful lighting equipment, you can not only correct lighting deficencies present in a room or scene but you can create additional effects such as sunlight streaming through a window when the sun is on the wrong side of the building. Or enhance the effects of existing ambient light fixtures while keeping their light output at an acceptable level.

 

For example, how are you going to lighten a dark shower/tub area in a large bathroom that isn't lit just by using HDR in post processing?

 

Some things just need to be lit. Not everything looks right with just an available light exposure.

[steve_roark]

The SB600/lightspere sounds like the most practical idea for someone stepping up from on-camera flash. Bouncing the light off a WHITE ceiling generally produces a respectable overhead lighting. You can see the same effect by putting a transluscent bottle/bowl/milk jug over the flash head if you want to experiment before investing $40 for a 'pro' milk jug. I think the SB600 should be enough for a typical sized bathroom, but the SB800 gives you about a stop more power, which tranlates to a slighter wider depth-of-field.

 

One thing you should be aware of is light bouncing off a surface will pick up that surface's color...i.e. a beige ceiling/wall will reflect beige light into your photo. If the bathroom doesn't have a white surface, you can arrange some white foamcor boards where the light will bounce. Also, you can match you flash's color balance to your household lights by using Nikon's color filter kit, SJ-1.

[mgvaughan.com]

I have a D70 also and use HDR for interior shots. Use available lighting, shoot in RAW mode 3 exposures- normal, +2 and -2. Open in Photoshop and apply an action called IDrange. Adjust with Shadow/ Highlights and tweak color.

 

The results are a natural appearance HDR versus synthetic/computer modeled apperance HDR.

 

The shot I have attached uses this HDR workflow. The original shots were taken in full sunlight at noon. Which means blown out highlights and blocked shadows in normal exposures. The HDR approach allowed for the attached photo as a final result.<div></div>

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