product lighting using graduated background & softbox

[larry_page]

Has anyone had experience or can offer advice on using a graduated (white to

Dark grey) background and use a photoflex softbox for lighting.. The products

will be Necklaces , group shots of many items in a one foot circle, and product

that is two feet long x 18" wide....All shots will be taken looking down on the

products.....I'm using a D70s and have various lens....Is Photflex softbox the

best lighting?.....Should I use a white card to pre-set white Balance?....As

always, your help is greatly appreciated...Thank You,

Larry Page

[garry edwards]

Look under 'Lighting Themes' in this forum and read through them. You might like to start with 'Diffused specular highlights' which details the type of lighting that you seem to be describing.

 

Different people have different equipment preferences, but I don't think that the make of softbox is the most important consideration here. What is important is where you place it and it's relevant size. If your largest product is 24" long and you need diffused specular highlights then it needs to be pretty big, say at least 6'x4'.

 

I've never used one of these graduated backgrounds. I suppose that some people must, or nobody would make them, but it's very easy to graduate the background simply by feathering the light from a softbox.

[ellis_vener_photography]

Put softbox on a boom to get the light over the set.

 

Place a large translucent scrim between the softbox and the set itself.

 

Lay black cards (mat board, velvet, fome core, it doesn't matter) on back half of the scrim.

 

Adjust the position (fore and aft, up or down, left or right) and tilt angle of light until it looks

basically right.

Add fill cards to front or sides of product as needed.

[primeimages]

I don't have any experience shooting in graduated background though I know they're now readily available. Depending on the color of the jewelry, my preference has always been the use of black (or white) acrylic. Softbox is a must and if you can mount it on a boom as Ellis suggested, that would be great. The closer the better....and white foamcore for fill on the front. For necklaces/bracelets, I use a Nikon 60mm f2.8D Micro lens and I try to always shoot it at a 45-50 degree angle for depth.<div></div>

[primeimages]

Ooops...let me try that again...

[primeimages]

Ooops...let me try that again...<div></div>

[larry_page]

Thanks for everyone's help so far....Is there any recommendation on size of softbox & how many to use for this application......How about white balance and the best way to balance it..Thanks everyone again.

Larry

[primeimages]

As for size, I would say anything that's large enough to flood your shooting table/area. I use a 32" octa shape box but its practically 12" away from the items I'm shooting.

 

BTW, the softbox I'm using are those cheap Amvona ones which I got from Craigslist for $250...2 sets of lighting complete with stands, 32" octa boxes, and a rolling soft case. Since it came only with 500 watt bulbs, I replaced it with Chimera 1000 watt bulbs. Its cheap and it does the job for me as far as tabletop product photography is concerned.

[garry edwards]

*Is there any recommendation on size of softbox & how many to use for this application......How about white balance and the best way to balance it*

 

As I said in my first post, for your largest item you'll need something like 6' x 4'. As a very general rule, if you can get the softbox really close it will need to be at least 3 times the size of your subject if you want the specular highlights (reflections of the light) to be properly diffused and 'see through'. Bigger is better. If the softbox is further away it will need to be bigger. You need one softbox for most situations, a white or silver card reflector may be needed for fill, or you may want to use a honeycomb grid as a kicker light.

 

Ellis's suggestion of using a smaller softbox with a large scrim is also a good method, although the light will be a little less controlled and you may find it more difficult to feather it to graduate the background

[ellis_vener_photography]

I 'd go with a a 48" (long dimension) or larger softbox.

[ellis_vener_photography]

If colro fidelity is important to you oand your client, shoot raw, work on a calibrated and

profiled monitor (I recommend the Eye-one Display 2 for this purpose) and use an X-Rite

Color Checker each time you change the lighting:

 

http://www.xrite.com/product_overview.aspx?Industry=1&Segment=12&ID=820

 

for white balance use the third lightest square.

[desmond_kidman]

I recently tried Flotone graduated backgrounds with good results. I did not want the gloss of acrylic or the texture of paper. The product shown is 18" wide so it's in your ballpark. BH has them, price is reasonable given that they are sturdier than paper so are reusable many times if you take care of them. They do offer white to grey.<div></div>

[desmond_kidman]

I'll try again...<div></div>

[desmond_kidman]

I'll try again...<div></div>

[desmond_kidman]

Smaller file.<div></div>

[desmond_kidman]

Small file.<div></div>

[larry_page]

Armando, Thank you & everyone for their contribution....Could you explain your lighting setup(type of lights, shooting tent,) and any other techniques you used.....the picture looks great....As always, Thank you in advance.

Larry

[desmond_kidman]

I used a large overhead softbox which wrapped the product in light, due to its large size, 6 feet x 4 feet, while it also lit the background.

 

Front camera left is snooted flash to light the logo and place highlights on some of the aluminum parts.

 

Softbox is Chimera, I have a smaller one that has been perfect for 14 years, so when it came time to get a larger one my choice was clear.

[larry_page]

Armando, thanks again for your support.....What type of lighting do you use for the Chimera softbox.....As I mentioned, I mostly shoot jewelry, which I have to shoot straight down....Would the graduated backgrounds work for this application.....Also having problems with white background, coming out white ( alot of the jewelry is light in color)....Would shooting in raw take care of this.....I'm using a Nikon D70s w/ 60mm, f2.8 macro lens....I have tried to preset white balance and my monitor has been calibrated...As Always, Thank You for your support and advise.

Larry Page

[desmond_kidman]

Hi Larry,

 

I use Speedotron, it has never let me down. But for quality of light from a softbox the exact brand should not be important.

 

As far as white, if there is detail in the white areas then you are not looking at blown highlights so shooting in raw won't help if that's the case. You are probably looking at the reflection of your softbox. You'll have to angle the softbox to get it out of the reflection. Or you can flag/scrim it to control it and to place what you want as the reflection. From the camera position watch while you have someone move around a black card so that you can see what direction the reflection(s) is (are) coming from. Then decide what colors you would like the reflections to be. You can leave some white reflection while having a black streak across them, there are many combinations of course. Now that you see what the refelction looks like, go through some jewelry catalogs and you'll now recognize what they are doing in terms of controlling reflections and adding deliberate reflections.

 

As far as shooting raw, I am pretty computer averse (witness my above attempts to adding images to this thread) yet shooting raw and converting the images is easy, even for me. The converters are easier to use than Photoshop image manipulation in my opinion. You gain so much more control, and will have so much more dynamic range to work with you'll never wish to shoot jpeg again.