Author Topic: Home studio lighting - what?? (Read 5418 times)

bbettina · « **on:** April 14, 2007, 18:02 »

With my newfound microstock enthusiasm (29 dlds in less than 2 days on SS with a portfolio that averaged maybe 15 pics and all of that on a Fri and Sat) and feel ready to invest a little more in stockphotography.
My still lifes and pics of "stuff" actually sell pretty well and are easy to do so I want to buy a some lighting equipment to go with my shooting table.
What do people use and recommend? I need to keep it reasonable pricewise but my attempt to use the hotlights sold at Home Depot/OSH etc failed miserably - too dark, too yellow, too uneven.
Some people here suggested Alien Bee flash units to a related post I put up a week or so ago and I am looking into that - any other suggestions?

Thanks,

Tina

hatman12 · « **Reply #1 on:** April 15, 2007, 03:13 »

Nice to see your rush of enthusiasm Tina. Yes, it's amazing what can happen at SS.

I joined SS only about a month ago at the strong suggestion of Tom from this forum. I've managed to upload about 150 images with only 7 rejections, so all the worries about quality, noise etc simply aren't there (well not for me anyway).

Even more remarkable is that in my first month I have had 734 sales. Yes, I know that sounds ridiculous and I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes.

Someone on the SS forums made the comment 'SS is the only place where a contributor can get an immediate sense of success'. A good and valid comment I think.

Good luck and keep uploading to SS regularly.

litifeta · « **Reply #2 on:** April 15, 2007, 05:56 »

You can buy a light tent on eBay for about $20. Or else if you can find where to buy thin white plastic sheet.

Go to an arts store and buy sheets of thicker plastic sheet to bend and use as a continuous backing.

Then hit the hardware store and buy a cheap set of construction lights. I got a set of 2 x 500watts on a tripod for $25.

I have a Canon, and the Auto white balance is pretty ordinary, so i put the white balance to Tungsten and get better results.

Good luck, and you are doing well

DanielK · « **Reply #3 on:** April 16, 2007, 15:21 »

Quote from: bbettina on April 14, 2007, 18:02

Some people here suggested Alien Bee flash units to a related post I put up a week or so ago and I am looking into that - any other suggestions?

Thanks,

Tina

I love my Alien Bees. I use them with everything from product photography to fashion photography. They are relatively cheap and reliable and have all sorts of light modification add ons.

You might also check out Strobist.com for another less expensive route.

I started with shop lights a long time ago and I'll never go back. If you are serious about photography then get serious tools.

Daniel

cmillc22 · « **Reply #4 on:** September 08, 2007, 23:21 »

i use both hot lights and alien bees. AB's are great but you can make the hot lights work also. With the yellow tone have you tried to change your white balance to the lights? To help with the darkness you need to keep the lights as close as possible and have a good quality lens that will allow f2.8. depending what you shoot the light tents help to spread the light for smoothing coverage. Softbox or a home made light panels work also.