Clothing photos questions

[gregr]

Hi all-

I've been asked to take some photos of vintage clothing. Clothes will be on a

form/mannekin. The photos will be used in a Powerpoint presentation and I want

the pictures to look as professional as possible even though they won't

actually be used to sell a product. I'm doing this as a favor for a friend, I

am getting paid... but the friend knows this isn't my forte. So even though he

doesn't expect full on professional quality, I want to impress them because it

could lead to more work in the future.

 

I do a fair amount of photography with flashes but am very new to strobes. I

just got a Hensel Integra kit- two lights, two umbrellas or one umbrella and

one softbox. I'd be grateful for some advice on how to set up the strobes to

make this look good. Background will be off-white or gray seamless. I was told

the bg will be cut out in Photoshop. I have extra light stands and some

foamcore I could use to bounce light, and I have a 550ex and 420ex to go with

the strobes- camera is 1D MarkII. For lenses I've got just about everything

between 14mm and 400, including 50 and 100mm macro lenses. I was planning on

using an 80-200L unless they put me in a small room.

Would a clamshell configuration work-- umbrella on top, softbox from under?

With the umbrella on top I was hoping it would spill enough light onto the

seamless to avoid hard shadows. If I set the umbrella head to full output and

the slave to a couple stops under, and then experimented with apertures and

shutter speeds til it looked good... would that be in the ballpark? I'd be

grateful for some pointers.

Greg

[garry edwards]

Greg,

 

There's no point in experimenting with the shutter speeds, in practical terms it won't make any difference. Just set the shutter speed to whatever will synchronise with the flash on your camera.

 

I don't know why you're worried about not getting light spill on to the background if it's going to be cut out - but if you're using a SHOOT THROUGH umbrella then using this as the higher light may help because some light will bounce off the ceiling if it's low enough.

 

Try the idea you already have, but nobody can really tell you where to put your lights - you need to place them where they will show the clothing at its best, and that will depend on the clothing. Painting by numbers doesn't work with painting, and it doesn't work with lighting either....

[gregr]

Thanks for responding. I was looking for help not criticism though.

Greg

[garry edwards]

Greg,

 

My response was intended to be helpful. I'm sorry if you didn't find it so.