Booshanky
13th of September 2006 (Wed), 11:12
I work in a hair surgeons office where we routinely take pictures of patients, but the rooms that we take the pictures in have HORRIBLE lighting in them. Just a couple of overhead flourescent lights above that don't even fill the whole room.
We take the pictures to document progression in hair growth so the pictures need to be fairly detailed, but we're having a hard time getting good photos. When I first started working here I made the suggestion that he get a digital rebel and a 430ex and try bouncing the flash off the celing to get decent shots, but for some reason the pictures turn out really bad most of the time and I think it's because of the way the room is set up. The celing is really low and I think the flash is getting dispersed by the overhead plastic covers on the flourscent lights. And on top of that, the room is painted this tan color so I think it screws up the white balance.
I think the biggest problem though is that it's the 65 year old doctor who is taking the photos. Since he knows virtually nothing about photography I've got to find a way for him to take good pictures where he has to nothing but press a shutter button. And to add to the problem, he doesn't take the pictures from one angle, he takes pictures from the top, the side, and then he likes to get really close up to get detailed shots of the hairs.
I was thinking about getting some strobes, but he uses multiple cameras (a digital rebel and an elph) and unless i'm mistaken there's no way to make them flash without a sync cord leaving the elph useless. So the only other option would be to get some continuous flourescent lighting. But either way, it seems like any lighting would be a problem because when he takes the really close up pictures he'd probably get in the way of any light he was taking the pictures with.
I guess my question is this. What sort of lighting would you use in my situation, how would you set it up, and if you know of any good kits you can think of, let me know that as well.
Thanks a bunch.
We take the pictures to document progression in hair growth so the pictures need to be fairly detailed, but we're having a hard time getting good photos. When I first started working here I made the suggestion that he get a digital rebel and a 430ex and try bouncing the flash off the celing to get decent shots, but for some reason the pictures turn out really bad most of the time and I think it's because of the way the room is set up. The celing is really low and I think the flash is getting dispersed by the overhead plastic covers on the flourscent lights. And on top of that, the room is painted this tan color so I think it screws up the white balance.
I think the biggest problem though is that it's the 65 year old doctor who is taking the photos. Since he knows virtually nothing about photography I've got to find a way for him to take good pictures where he has to nothing but press a shutter button. And to add to the problem, he doesn't take the pictures from one angle, he takes pictures from the top, the side, and then he likes to get really close up to get detailed shots of the hairs.
I was thinking about getting some strobes, but he uses multiple cameras (a digital rebel and an elph) and unless i'm mistaken there's no way to make them flash without a sync cord leaving the elph useless. So the only other option would be to get some continuous flourescent lighting. But either way, it seems like any lighting would be a problem because when he takes the really close up pictures he'd probably get in the way of any light he was taking the pictures with.
I guess my question is this. What sort of lighting would you use in my situation, how would you set it up, and if you know of any good kits you can think of, let me know that as well.
Thanks a bunch.