Lighting setup advice for clothing photoshoot please

[chameleondesign]

Hi
New to this forum so appologies if a similar message has been posted.

I have been photographing clothing for a client for a few years now but am wanting to improve my setup as I struggle with lighting, please see below

I use a Canon EOS 10D and have a 550EX Flash, Manfrotto 475 Tripod
My office hase normal office tube lights in the area I use for photography
I shoot all clothing placed flat on a sheet of white card
I normally use aperture priority and set at 6.7, then vary the exposure.

Really need advice on whats the best setup to improve the quality and colour accuracy of my photos, at the moment I have to correct every image in photoshop.

Common problems I have are:
Often images have a yellow tinge (tubes?)
Struggle with certain colours of products and combination product shots.
White products always come out grey, even when I expose for longer.
etc etc

In general I'm on a learning curve and looking for any advice, ie setp, lighting, what lights to buy etc etc.

Many Thanks, James

[wolf]

The yellow tinge is from ambient light from the office lights (slow shutter speed) and the grey (white objects)is from not enough overall light on the subject. If you are on a budget buy yourself 3 - 500 watt halogen work lights ($15-20 each).

http://www.wolverineenterprises.com/istock/worklight.jpg

Place one light on each side of the item you are shooting and suspend one light above. Do a custom white balance using an 18% grey card. Use the manual setting on the camera and overexpose the shot by maybe 1/2 stop (experiment between 1/2 to 1 full stop). Don't use the flash.

If you want softer light make a rectanglular frame (like a box) that you can drape a white translucent shower curtain over (to diffuse the lights). Place a worklight on each side of the shower curtain/frame and suspend one light above.

This poorman's studio should cost you under a $100.

[chameleondesign]

Thanks 4 your reply, I not particularly on a budget but also don't want to go over the top on costs. Can you advise of what the professional choice of lighting would be as I would like to get it right first time as I also photograph a lot of musical instruments? Thanks, James

[chameleondesign]

Quick note.. I did try photographing once with 1 x 500 watt halogen work light but found the results to be very yellow, could this be due to just using the one and so in general not enough light? J

[SkipD]

Check out alienbees.com. Their equipment is very moderately priced and quite good for the money. It won't tolerate a lot of daily banging around like a travelling pro might subject it to, but is in fact quite well made.

The advantage of using something like the studio flash units is that your color balance will be much more predictable than mixing a variety of light sources.

[chameleondesign]

Thanks, I'm in the UK so will have to source over here. So is a flash box an alternative to a soft light box for example. How does a flash box work with long exposures (is it a series of flashes?)
James