Need Help with Poor-Man's Studio Lighting

[Baadil]

Hi,

I am looking for recommendations for setting up some lighting for home studio portraits. Here is what I have:

1 Canon Powershot Pro 1
1 each Filter UV/PL/F-DL
White Fabric Background
Blue Fabric Background
1 500W Twin Work Light (250 Watt each)
1 Floor Lamp
1 Table Lamp
1 White Cardboard
1 Kitchen Bar Stoool (Backless, Black)

With the ingredients above, can anyone tell me of any good recipes that I can use for good/decent lighting?

Thank you.

[robertwgross]

You may have some trouble with that double-light stand. I have some doubles and also some singles.

You probably want to have your main light to one side of the camera, and have your fill light to the other side. I doubt that you are going to set your camera between the two parts of the double light. You may end up getting another one or getting a single, or else maybe detaching one lamp head from the stand. But then the whole rig gets out of balance.

---Bob Gross---

[mjordan]

I know a number of people on here have used those work lights, but they really aren't very good for learning lighting. They are too harsh, too hot, and way over kill in most cases. You need a way to soften the light and with these a light panel or a very big reflective surface is the best way. The problem is that you can't get them very close to anything that is flamable or it will set them on fire.

A better choice for lights, if you are trying to go cheap is the aluminum reflector lights and either normal softwhite light bulbs (don't forget to color balance with your camera) or even the soft floresent lights. Even better is spend about the same amount of money as the work lights and get some actual photoflood lights and reflectors at B&H or other large photo shoes. The aluminum reflectors are bigger (the bigger the better) and the photoflood bulbs are made to give off even lighting. Put these behind a light panel and you will have some excellent light. You can make a light panel fairly easy using white translucent material and a window screen kit. I've made number of these from the screen kits and they give me about a 4'x4' light panel. You can double them up for more diffused light or use heavier material. You still have to watch getting them too close, but they work better with the aluminum reflector lights than they will with the work lights.

I'm surprised nobody has put together a bank of 9 (3x3) of the 60 watt power saver floresent lights. 9 of these (or even 2x2 or 2x3) in a bank will produce a lot of light, it's cool and realetively cheap to run for a long time.

What ever lights you use though, remember to color balance each time you start shooting.

Mike

[Baadil]

Thank you everyone for the reply.

Mike,
Thanks for the suggestions. I checked out and it seems cheapest lights that I could find at B&H website were around $200 each. I will, for sure, check other sites.

In the mean while, is it possible for you to post a few images of your reflecters etc that you made yourself? I really liked your idea of 3x3 or 2x3 light bank. I think I just might try it :-).

Thanks.

[Baadil]

I forgot to add that so far I have not had much luck with getting decent shots with work lights. They do tend to be very harsh and somehow I get yellow tint to most of my images taken with it. (Now you guys can tell how new and green I am with this photography things :-) )

[robertwgross]

I forgot to add that so far I have not had much luck with getting decent shots with work lights. They do tend to be very harsh and somehow I get yellow tint to most of my images taken with it. (Now you guys can tell how new and green I am with this photography things :-) )

You probably need to set a custom white balance for those lights. That should get rid of the yellow.

---Bob Gross---

[mjordan]

You probably didn't use the right search words for the reflectors. Try this link:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?ci=1&sb=ps&pn=1&sq=desc&InitialSearch=yes&O=SearchBar&A=search&Q=*&shs=reflector+with+socket&image.x=0&image.y=0

Or put in the serach the words: reflector with socket

This will bring up a number of photo reflectors that are a lot cheaper. I have a couple of the SP System SPTE12RS and photo floods ($17) but I see they are out of stock on the single ones but they do have the 10" dual kits for about $70. They even have diffusers for the 10" lights.

Hope this helps.

Mike

[mjordan]

Oh, you asked for some pictures of the light panels...

Here is a 6' x 4' light panel I made from PVC (the white is the diffusion panel the black blocks light from hitting the camera)

http://www.sitnprettyphoto.com/display/backside.jpg

Here is the frame with the panel made from the screen kit hanging from it:
http://www.sitnprettyphoto.com/display/d-panel1.jpg
http://www.sitnprettyphoto.com/display/d-panel4.jpg

The 6' light panel cost about $35 to make and that included buying enough hardware to just about build two of them. This light panel produced really soft diffused light. The material is sport nylon (I like it better than ripstop nylon as it is smoother and doesn't have the rip stop threads in it).

Mike

[Baadil]

Thank you Mike for the pics. I think I just might do something like that myself for my home studio.

Just to understand your setup properly, could you please take a look at the attached image and see if I am understanding your setup correctly?

Thanks.

[mjordan]

That's almost how I used them. I actually had the dark panel going the other direction so the light was behind it and shinning through the white panel. That way would work, but would block the light from spreading out... which is ok if that is the way you wanted to do it.

The hinges I used on the two panels so they could open and close was the double C clamp that is used on chain link fence panels. The C clamps look like a figure 8 with a bolt in the middle. You put one PVC upright from the white panel in on side and the upright from the black panel in the other side and hand tighten the bold. You now have a good hinge. I used two, one on top and one on the bottem but one might work just as well and save a couple of dollars. There are a number of ways to hook the nylon to the pvc frame. I sewed around all the edges and used a gromet punch to put metal gromets on the corners and in the middle of each side and then used plastic wire ties. Velcrop would work as would clamps. I didn't glue any of the pvc pipes together, they fit tight enough in the end pieces and that made it easy to tear down to save room.

Mike

[Baadil]

Thank you Mike, Double C clamps seems like a really good idea.
Now I have got to find nylon that is a bit heat resistent... :-)

[Curtis N]

You can make a light panel fairly easy using white translucent material and a window screen kit.
Sounds like if you made big enough panels this way, you could even use one to cover a south facing window on a sunny day and shoot with the diffused sunshine.
I'v made screens from these kits before, but what exactly do I ask for at the fabric store?

[mjordan]

Curtis, look at the sport nylon. JoAnn's carries it and it's with the ripstop nylon. I like the sport nylon because it doesn't have the lines running through it that make up the ripstop pattern. Sport nylon makes a pretty good diffuser. You could also use a white polyester type material, but most polyester isn't as thick as nylon, so you won't get the same diffusion effect.

You are right about putting it in a window. I have set my 4x4 sceen version in my south facing window a number of times.

Mike

[Curtis N]

look at the sport nylon. JoAnn's carries it ...
Thanks, Mike.

And to think, JoAnn's Fabrics is one store I never thought I'd have a reason to shop in!

[mjordan]

Hey, I go there all the time... I've even gone a few times when I couldn't talk my wife into going with me. :D I like looking at the different materials and other things they carry with the idea of using them for backgrounds or as props to a scene. I paticularly like some of the bold color cloths they have been coming out with. You never know what you will find there. :D

Mike

[Mannytkd]

Lets see some results with these panels, i'm fascinated.........?

Oh, you asked for some pictures of the light panels...

Here is a 6' x 4' light panel I made from PVC (the white is the diffusion panel the black blocks light from hitting the camera)

http://www.sitnprettyphoto.com/display/backside.jpg

Here is the frame with the panel made from the screen kit hanging from it:
http://www.sitnprettyphoto.com/display/d-panel1.jpg
http://www.sitnprettyphoto.com/display/d-panel4.jpg

The 6' light panel cost about $35 to make and that included buying enough hardware to just about build two of them. This light panel produced really soft diffused light. The material is sport nylon (I like it better than ripstop nylon as it is smoother and doesn't have the rip stop threads in it).

Mike