Photographing Clothing on the Cheap

[mattmikulla]

Hello. I need to help a client set up a reliable system to photograph various garments.

 

We need to keep a tight budget and are starting from scratch. I will probably get the canon rebel xti for

the camera.

 

Lighting is another question. Could we uses home depot lights effectively or are we going to have to go

the strobe route? If strobes what modifiers?

 

We have bust manequins and I will be adding seamless, tripod, white balance card, etc to the shopping

list.

 

Any advice would be appreciated.

[Matt Laur]

Make coffee, wait for the right time of day, and use the sun through a window. You can use a piece of foam core as a reflector to help bounce some light back in to fill shadows, and various bits of sheer material to diffuse the light a bit, coming in through the window. It doesn't get cheaper.

 

If that's not logistically viable, then almost any light source will do: you're not shooting moving subjects, so you sure don't need blazing hot lights. Simple CF bulbs in garage-grade clamp-on reflectors, bounced off of some sheets of foam core... and just use a long enough exposure, and the right white balance, to get the look you're after. Strobes are nice if you're going to get humans involved, but those hot worklights are nothing but a fire hazard.

[mattmikulla]

Thanks Matt. Any wattage recommendation on the cf bulbs?

 

Also, I wondering if the bulbs need diffused at if I should use a background light on the

seamless.

[Matt Laur]

More lights (for more control) is always better, but only if you use them in a way that compliments your subject. If you're looking for a totally blown out white background, then you'll certainly need to light it independently of the subject. To avoid hot spots, and/or post production work, that can require a couple of lights. Wattage is a little academic, since you can simply adjust your exposure time to compensate. You need to make sure they're bright enough that you can see well when composing and focusing. Consider a remote control for the camera so that you won't be wiggling it with your hands when actually taking the shots.

[craig_shearman1]

What are the images going to be used for? Catalog? Web site? Shooting clothing is one of the most color-critical jobs in photography because customers buying the clothing are judging what color it is based on the photos they see. Photographers who shooting clothing for a living spend their lives doing careful custom white balances, profiling their monitors every day and learning volumes about color management. If you go into this with Home Depot lights or fluorescent lights in a garage clamp you might as well just go ahead and put a gun to your head -- it will be less painful. At the very least use strobes, but if the budget is tight go look at www.strobist.com to learn how to do get good results on the cheap.

[Matt Laur]

Craig: I didn't really go down that road, here, since once you hear the phrase "on the cheap," it implies a certain understanding that you're not expecting calibrated studio results. You're definitely right to bring it up, though.

[mattmikulla]

The will be used for web. I will do my best to teach her custom white balancing too.

[devon_watson]

hey,

 

I've met a couple people in my own adventures in photography thus far that looooove

talking about just using speedlights... for everything...

 

like setting them up on a cheap stand and using them as a strobe... if you have a like a

600 or an 800 for a nikon, you can set one up (or just tie it to something, who's gonna

know) and use a simple reflector (white posterboard) you can get some very decent

effects...

 

i mean, i saw a guy do it in a studio set up and it looked just like a softbox, you know,

with the soft reflection...

 

there's a whole group based in seattle here thats totally devoted to the virtues of

speedlights...

 

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/02/welcome-to-strobist.html

 

that's their general mantra... anyway, i hope this helps, id be excited to see a project

someone did using this method come to completion so don't be afraid to post some

samples if you decide to go with it..

 

good luck :P