Softlight or Bounce Flash?

[GhillieSkins]

Hi everyone,
Can you please tell me if the effects of dedicated softlight vs a bounced flash setup provides drastically different results? In a nutshell I am trying to achieve the quality pictures (with a pure white background) as the images portrayed by my dealer at www.lightfighter.com

If any of you guys/gals browse the majority of the photos, you will see that the product are perfectly clear, hardly any shadows and a pure white background. THIS IS THE LOOK I NEED TO ACHIEVE. He tells me he is using a cheapo sony digital and no fancy lighting setup, and I know he is not editing all these photos in photoshop to achieve this consistent look throughout his product line.

I'm eyeballing these two products on ebay which is what started my question, and I am eager to buy and get started. Do you think either of these will be what I need? I am learning more and more from this forum but I'm also jumpy to achieve realtivly quick solutions to get my products up and running with my dealers, as most of them expect me as a manufacturer to provide them with quality product shots in which they can advertise.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=30087&item=2943675077
(do I need anything else besides this kit?)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3860&item=2959117834

My equipment to supplement the lighting is a 10d, standard onboard flash and an Canon 28-90 F4 / 5.6 lense.

Please help, thanks

[justme_dc]

Both of those light kits are under featured and overpriced in my opinion. You'd be better served with a Canon 550EX for the money. Or, you could just go down to the local hardware store and buy a couple of $20 halogen work lights and you'll be in business.

Here's a setup that will cost you under $100. and will get the lighting effect you are looking for.

3 halogen work lights 100-500watts
3 pieces of white foam core poster board 36"X48"
1 roll of white butcher paper or white seamless paper
3 or more clamps

hang the seamless paper from a wall, let is sweep onto the floor making a smooth transition, aim one halogen light at the seamless paper lighting the whole sweep.

place product and use the other two lights to get it lit the way you want, you may need to use the pieces of foam core a bounces to wrap the light around the product in a way that is pleasing to the eye. The foamcore bounces will also help you elminate shadows. Move them around see what works and what doesn't.

Take a picture of the white background, use it for the custom white balance. put the camera on a tripod and shoot til your hearts content. You may want to bracket the exposures by a stop of so to insure that you are getting a completely white background.

I hope you find this useful to you. If you take my advice please share some pictures. I am sure there are others here looking for inexpensive ways to light their photo projects.


Good luck.

[GhillieSkins]

Justme,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts w/me concerning this. I concur with all except the halogen light. I've experimented with halogen quite extensivly and have always gotten yellow results. I've never tried tungsten lights.......do you think your setup using tungsten would be a real winner here? or is there something about halogen that I dont know about?

thanks

[robertwgross]

To a certain extent, it doesn't matter whether your lights are halogen, tungsten, Speedlite, or candlelight. If you know how to set up custom white balance, then you can get rid of any color shifts.

Although I have other lighting, I set up a small demo with hot lights. To be specific, they are 500-watt quartz halogen worklights. Each one came on a folding five-foot steel tripod stand, and they cost only $10 each.

The good news:
They put out a serious blanket of light.

The bad news:
They are really hot and must be ventilated. If you enclose them in an aluminum reflector too tightly, then they overheat and blow the element. Replacement of the element costs almost as much as the entire initial cost.

I was concerned that they might shift in color temperature over a time period, but so far I don't detect that.

---Bob Gross---

[Webster]

Each one came on a folding five-foot steel tripod stand, and they cost only $10 each.

Bob, it looks like you got your money's worth just from the stand. Where did you get such a deal?

[robertwgross]

webster wrote:
Bob, it looks like you got your money's worth just from the stand. Where did you get such a deal?


You have to promise that you won't laugh.

Kragen Auto Parts.

---Bob Gross---

[justme_dc]

ghillieskins wrote:
Justme,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts w/me concerning this.
you're very welcome!
I concur with all except the halogen light. I've experimented with halogen quite extensivly and have always gotten yellow results. I've never tried tungsten lights.......do you think your setup using tungsten would be a real winner here? or is there something about halogen that I dont know about?

As I said in the earlier post and as Robert agreed, It's really all about setting a custom White Balance. You can defeat just about any color cast with a well done custom white balance. Tugsten or halogen your results will be about the same. Try experimenting with white balances and various light sources and see what works best for you.

Good luck and have fun!

[robertwgross]

Exactly.

When I set up five quartz halogen lamps and then shot the first white card image (set for AWB), I got a distinctly warm brown color cast, as I would expect.

Then I set the custom white balance to specify that that one is actually white. Then I set the white balance to custom. Then I shot the same white card image again, and VOILA, it looked pure white.

If you want to use mercury vapor lights or sodium vapor lights or fluorescent lights, it uses the same principle and the same technique, but then it uses a different custom white point.

You can do all sorts of screwy things with white balance if you want to experiment. On a bright daylight scene, set it to cloudy, or vice versa.

---Bob Gross---