light tent lighting

hi all -
i am helping my neice take catalogue type pictures of her art works for college applications and I was planning on putting them in a light tent (all of them can fit in a 1X1X1m light tent.

i was wondering....in doing this type of shoot - would you rather use flashes as lights or constant lights? I have both.... but not a lot of time to goof off with to experiment with this.

The works are both flat (sketches, paintings, etc) as well as 3-d (sculptures etc). There is nothing shiny like jewelry, metals etc. I have some time in post processing. I shoot in raw. I was planning to shoot with either to 50 1.8 or the 100 2.8 at this point - though that is not for sure. Flash wise... I have at least 2 430 exii s and possible one 600 ex rt as well.... or halogen bulbs. no sunlight.

thanks for any ideas and or directions.

If I had a choice I would opt for the flash. More power, tripod not required, less issue with color temps. The only downside is that you need to chimp to check the reflections/highlights​.

ceriltheblade wrote in post #15579755
hi all -
i am helping my neice take catalogue type pictures of her art works for college applications and I was planning on putting them in a light tent (all of them can fit in a 1X1X1m light tent.

i was wondering....in doing this type of shoot - would you rather use flashes as lights or constant lights? I have both.... but not a lot of time to goof off with to experiment with this.

The works are both flat (sketches, paintings, etc) as well as 3-d (sculptures etc). There is nothing shiny like jewelry, metals etc. I have some time in post processing. I shoot in raw. I was planning to shoot with either to 50 1.8 or the 100 2.8 at this point - though that is not for sure. Flash wise... I have at least 2 430 exii s and possible one 600 ex rt as well.... or halogen bulbs. no sunlight.

thanks for any ideas and or directions.

My advice is if possible shoot tethered to a computer with something like EOS utility. Set up your preferences to write the files to your hard drive and you get to see each shot immediately on a larger screen. Tweak your shot/lighting and shoot again.

The immediate feedback is very helpful.

I prefer strobes with some sort of modelling light to help with setting white cards, etc.

It can be done with continuous lights, but you'll be dealing with slow shutter speeds so you'll need a tripod, cable release, and maybe mirror lockup.

With flash, you can hold the camera, move quickly to get the best angle & composition, take your shot and drive on.

By the way, I think light tents are overrated. With a setup like the one below, you can surround your subject with light, yet still have room to work.

Caveat: I'm not sure this (or a light tent) is the best approach for artwork. If it's sculpture you probably want to capture texture and form with directional light of some sort. If it's a flat painting or drawing, you need an entirely different approach.

gonzogolf wrote in post #15579780
If I had a choice I would opt for the flash. More power, tripod not required, less issue with color temps. The only downside is that you need to chimp to check the reflections/highlights​.

thanks. that seems indeed the way that I will be going, now.

Turning wrote in post #15581441
My advice is if possible shoot tethered to a computer with something like EOS utility. Set up your preferences to write the files to your hard drive and you get to see each shot immediately on a larger screen. Tweak your shot/lighting and shoot again.

The immediate feedback is very helpful.

I prefer strobes with some sort of modelling light to help with setting white cards, etc.

good ideas. i hadn't considered shooting tethered. I will have to look into that. I have never done that.

Curtis N wrote in post #15581647
It can be done with continuous lights, but you'll be dealing with slow shutter speeds so you'll need a tripod, cable release, and maybe mirror lockup.

With flash, you can hold the camera, move quickly to get the best angle & composition, take your shot and drive on.

By the way, I think light tents are overrated. With a setup like the one below, you can surround your subject with light, yet still have room to work.

Caveat: I'm not sure this (or a light tent) is the best approach for artwork. If it's sculpture you probably want to capture texture and form with directional light of some sort. If it's a flat painting or drawing, you need an entirely different approach.

thanks. a work, the system doesn't let me see what I am guessing that you added a picture, so I cannot respond at this second. I will look again at home. I am interested in hearing your opinion about the flat scketches etc. I have works that are the size of A5, A4 and A3 approx. I do not have mre detail in regards to colors, materials, depth etc a this point in time, except what i noted above.

jonathanlord31 wrote in post #15581720
wow ....... Gun was awe some

It's pretty neat. It's a Mauser, belongs to a relative whose father acquired it from a German soldier in WWII. Here's a few more.

and would i be correct in understanding the "flattness" of the light being dependent on the ratio/direction of the light produced by the flashes? i would expect flat light in the case of 1:1 light output at a equal distance from the lightcube/light tent .... but if there is a differential...wouldn'​t that allow a neutral background and lighting with at least some shadows/differences in lighting?

"Flat" lighting is the result of the light source very near the lens axis. Example: flashed snapshot from a P&S camera. However, this is not the way to light a flat piece of art.

Two lights, off-axis in opposite directions, won't produce "flat" lighting on a three dimensional object. They will produce two sets of shadows, each partially filled in by the other light. However, this is sort of the approach most often used to light flat works of art.

You don't need a large, diffuse light source to light a flat object. You do need to worry about direct reflections and even illumination. It's all about angles. This is the time to ditch the light tent, umbrellas and other diffusers, aim the lights at the flat subject, and concentrate on distance and angle.

Curtis N wrote in post #15581647
It can be done with continuous lights, but you'll be dealing with slow shutter speeds so you'll need a tripod, cable release, and maybe mirror lockup.

With flash, you can hold the camera, move quickly to get the best angle & composition, take your shot and drive on.

By the way, I think light tents are overrated. With a setup like the one below, you can surround your subject with light, yet still have room to work.

Caveat: I'm not sure this (or a light tent) is the best approach for artwork. If it's sculpture you probably want to capture texture and form with directional light of some sort. If it's a flat painting or drawing, you need an entirely different approach.

I had started using tents to shoot objects / art in the beginning, (and used only continuous lighting) but had many difficulties obtaining "flat" light, and was dealing with excessive reflection from any objects that were the least bit reflective. I agree, that a tent isn't always the best way to go.

Then I went out and bought a 622c to use with my 565Ex and began getting much, much better results without the tent. The I found some new uses for my smaller tents...

Result...
(Sorry about the small images due to board restrictions)

More...

Another...

As of now, I'm just using the single overhead flash, and obviously that does leave shadow underneath the subject. I will soon likely purchase an additional flash and then locate each flash within the two tents, which should solve any shadow issues. That said, I do think a properly placed shadow does give the image a nice, dramatic element.