Homeade lighting...is it somewhat possible?

[sugar_babygirli]

Hi!

Well, I'm really just starting to get into doing this and am currently experimenting with still life and food photography. (do any of you shoot food?)
It's incredibly intruiging (sp?) to me to see how they arrange things to keep your eye in the photo and of course make it look delicious.

Anyways to the point. Is there something I could use as a sorta "ghetto" lighting set with items found in my home? Or is there someway to make cheap lighting sets that would illuminate a very small area (not like a whole room or anything) properly?

I've been practicing with holding a mirror to reflect light into the shadows and it works well, but since I'm shooting by myself, I find it difficult to hold it and push buttons at the same time. :lol:

Do you all have just professional lights, or use other things too? Thanks for your replys.

[robertwgross]

The standard for El Cheapo lighting is the Quartz Halogen Work Light from Home Depot. I got some doubles and some singles. Each is on a steel support tripod stand. Each lamp is 500 watts. You'll need to set your camera for Custom White Balance based on that light. Then they work pretty good. Maybe $12.95 for a single or $19.95 for a double. That is the good news.

The bad news is that they are incredibly hot. My garage studio is unheated, so in the winter time, I have four of these 500 watt lamps going, and that heats the place. The other bad news is that if somebody trips over a power cord, the lights fall over and break. So, I ran the AC power cords up into the rafters and plug them in there, so they can't really fall over.

---Bob Gross---

[ajbalazic]

I tried the Quartz Halogen Work Light (2 singles) setup at Christmas. I found them to be VERY bright when directly pointed at my subject (wife and son). I changed the direction of the lamp to reflect off a pure white curtain. This helped but was still pretty bright. Perhaps I overexposed. Maybe difusing the light would help. Anyone have any thoughts? It's fun to play around anyway Sugarbaby. Good luck.

[Digital Prophet]

My concern about using these lights with food is the heat that the food would be exposed to. If you were shooting anything with a low melting point (ice cream, anything buttery, caramel, chocolate) then you would have to work fast.

Maybe a product tent and some lower wattage incandescent lighting (regular 100w bulbs) would be a better choice. I don't know for sure. But it is just a thought.

- Digital Prophet -

[robertwgross]

Maybe difusing the light would help. Anyone have any thoughts?

Yes, hang a thin sheet of white fabric in front of the hot light to act as a diffuser. Then watch it begin to smoke before it bursts into flames.

I got a plastic diffuser panel for fluorescent light fixtures, and then I mounted it more than one foot away from the hot light. As long as there is good air circulation, that will work. If you close down the air circulation, then the hot light's quartz element will burn up.

---Bob Gross---

[digihack]

I have a few articles about lighting up at my mini-site that you might be interseted in. I talk about building your own ring flash and a lightbox for shadowless lighting. All for under $5 or even free if you have all the stuff. check it out- www.digihack.net

-dennison

[OceanRider]

Hey Bob, do you use the HomeDepo stand that has two 500w on it or do you use one 500W for key and a 250w/500w for fill? Up here, each stand has two lights I am wondering if I should buy them or just get single 500W with a clamp to hang on my alumium stand.

Joel

[robertwgross]

Joel, I've purchased it in two versions at Home Depot and also at an auto parts chain store. One version has one 500w head on one stand. The other version has two 500w heads on one stand, with the heads a foot apart. The steel tripod stands are kind of handy as background supports, in case you move the heads off.

If you are trying to do standard portraits, then you'll have a setup something like this:
1. Main light two feet to the left of the camera, and one foot higher.
2. Fill light one foot to the right of the camera, and back a foot or two.
3. (optional) Background light hidden directly behind the subject, or above the subject, and shining on the background.
4. (optional) Hair light, way off to the far right or left, aimed at the hair.

Now, what you want to use for a light will vary with what you are trying to do. Actually, I hide my background light behind the background, and just enough light shines through the background cloth for what I am doing.

Did I say that those lights are hot?

---Bob Gross---

[CaseyScofield]

Yes, hang a thin sheet of white fabric in front of the hot light to act as a diffuser. Then watch it begin to smoke before it bursts into flames.
---Bob Gross---

I'm sorry: I have no advice to give on this thread...but when I came across Bob's comment I burst out laughing! LOL....aaaahhh that's great!....just thought I'd share. :D

[sugar_babygirli]

Lol! I'll be sure not to try that one out Bob! :)

Thanks for your advice and I will certainly look into those lights. Where I'm thinking of putting them in the house, it would be a fairly open space and not a small room so hopefully the heat wouldn't be as much of a problem.
It would make my icecream melt, though, but I usually work pretty fast and pre determine the best camera settings ahead of time so all I have to do is quickly arrange it and shoot.

Now someone mentioned that I'd have to customize my white balance for these lights, but just curious they aren't tungsten are they? What type of light exactly is it? (sorry if someone said and I missed it)

Oh, thanks also for your interesting link digihack!

[OceanRider]

anybody know what wattage u need using these light? Is the 500 w main needed over a 250w. Iam thinking the 250w will work, but.... All I can find is 250w single stands. All the 500w's are two side by side which seems like way to much light. You can't seperate them because they have joined power cord.

[chris.bailey]

I do worry about these hot lamp set-ups as they do get very hot and those halogen bulbs have a habit of going pop. I would certainly not advocate using them near kids.

Another option is to use flourescent tubes mounted in a wooden box with a muslin drape over one side. You can get daylight balanced tubes (though they are not perfect) and come in all sizes to suit what you are tyrying to shoot. The resulting light output is lower but softer.

[chtgrubbs]

You can get heat resistant diffusion material in both sheets and rolls here: http://www.northernsound.net/Sales/Filters/filters/rosco/roscolux.html#Diffusion

These materials are designed for movie and theater lighting. The Tough Rolux gives the softest light but also absorbs the most light. Different materials such as Tough Silk and Tough Spun will give different effects. I use artist's canvas stretcher frames and staple the material to the frame to make a diffusion panel.

Halogen lamps are tungsten light sources, but their color temp can vary from 2800 degrees Kelvin to 3400 Kelvin. You can try the tungsten preset but will probably get better results with custom white balance from a grey card.

[Avalonthas]

HD lights are the best way to go (home Depot) if ur making a fast home setup, although you dont get the whole "professional" look, they can get the job done, but they get hot, so make sure u have a way to cool down the room. If ur doing models, they will get hot, you will get hot, it will be very uncomfortable, ur equipment will get hot (doesnt work as good when its hot), etc etc, so only use them for long periods of time if u got air conditioning.

[Avalonthas]

HD lights are the best way to go (home Depot) if ur making a fast home setup, although you dont get the whole "professional" look, they can get the job done, but they get hot, so make sure u have a way to cool down the room. If ur doing models, they will get hot, you will get hot, it will be very uncomfortable, ur equipment will get hot (doesnt work as good when its hot), etc etc, so only use them for long periods of time if u got air conditioning.

-EDIT: Srry for double Post. Site was down for me for 10 min, so i kept clicking button till it went through lol. Pls delete. thanks.