Lighting advice for HUGE Furniture

I have been shooting portraits for a long time with my A7R2 and Batis 25mm and 85mm f1.8, and was recently approached to shoot large furniture for an e-commerce website. As such, I will need to achieve 100% consistency from shot to shot. Here are some queries that I have:

1. Does it matter whether I use a PVC / Cloth / Canvas / Paper Pure white backdrop? I am more inclined to use PVC as it is washable. It will be used in a VERY dusty environment .
2. Is there a classic lighting setup for large furniture? For example, how would you light a 2m x 2m king size, walnut wood bed frame? Or a Marble dining set with tables and chairs?
3. Should I simply buy the largest shoot-through umbrellas I can find to light large furniture evenly?
4. Lighting position wise – should it be 2 x 45 degree downward facing at the furniture? I saw some with a boom pole to center, directly pointing down at the furniture too.
5. Lighting equipment wise – will it be sufficient to have 2 x YN560iv (GN58)?
a. Is it powerful enough to light 2m x 2m furniture in a dark warehouse?
b. As there is a built in transmitter, does it mean both flashes can be triggered remotely (none on camera) without an additional transmitter/receiver?
c. Just to confirm this model can support my Sony A7Rii? All the listings only mention Canon/Nikon, but I presume it should work since it’s just a manual flash with TX/RX functions.
d. Otherwise, what is the next best budget alternative? Godox TT600?
e. I see that the Phottix Juno is very similar to YN560iv, but with the same features. Why is it double the price?

I have not shot large furniture, so please take this with a grain of salt, but, my first thought just reading the title was that a few little umbrellas are not big enough and two speedlites probably not sufficient for a single shot method for something large (assuming you want light for ambient, fill, and key, etc), as you'd have to use one to light up the ambient in the warehouse, and one to then light the furniture. You could probably have them both bouncing off the roof, and that might work, but greatly depends on the warehouse. My first thought was to get some PVC and make a huge frame with a white bed sheet framed over it to make a massive reflector and then hit that with a light, hah.

Very best,

I'm unable to bounce up the roof, as it is double volume and over 15 metres high. A GN58 flash probably won't cut it and getting a studio flash will 1. reduce portability and 2. increase the budget required..

what kind of backdrop are you trying to set up? Are you trying to make a portable cyclone wall and have the backdrop drape down on the floor to place the furniture on? If so paper and pvc/vinyl will get you the smoothest wrinkle free look. If you use cloth, you will battle wrinkles unless you don't mind that. Also if doing large furniture, I don't think your standard 9-10 feet wide backdrops will be wide enough. Might have to spend more on an extra wide roll or go side by side with two backdrops.

the.forumer wrote in post #18501060
I'm unable to bounce up the roof, as it is double volume and over 15 metres high. A GN58 flash probably won't cut it and getting a studio flash will 1. reduce portability and 2. increase the budget required..

If you build a big PVC frame, large enough to take on any large furniture, line it with white bed sheets, you could make a big light box basically and then just hit the top and sides with speedlites. Kind of like how some cars are done. Cheap materials.

Very best,

If budget is an issue, you "could" get constant lights instead and do a long exposure since the subject will be stationary. Our company has done that for product shots back in the day.

I do not think two speedlights will be anywhere close to enough light.

Back in the day I used to haul around 1200 w/s packs and heads for these kinds of shoots. Often doing multiple pops with the largest room scenes.

With higher ISO values possible in today's world you might do better, but unless you just need the shot and don't really have to make it awesome, I think you will want much more light.

You don't necessarily need huge light sources, rather 3 large softboxes placed very high. Humans expect light to come from above in most scenes, and regular room lights are pretty darn hard.

If your goal is to have the furniture on a white background expect to do that in post. Cyc wall and more lights would be required for SOOC white walls.

Left Handed Brisket wrote in post #18501406
I do not think two speedlights will be anywhere close to enough light.

I'd go along with this. Two speedlites can be seriously stretched in a large living room. I don't see how they are going to properly light large pieces of furniture in a typical warehouse setting.

What about the suggestion earlier in this thread of using constant lights with long exposures? On the face of it, this might be a more practicable/affordable solution than buying a set of higher powered strobes and a matching controller/triggers.

here are my thoughts.

1. study samples of what is expected by the client, have them pick out images they want you to match.
2. google and study product photography.

For lighting:

4 or 5 of these:
https://www.adorama.co​m/fplfs400b.html
and then the transmitter to fire them.

Would be much better than 2 flashes. The issue you will get into, even with good image quality at high iso, the depth of field needed is far more than what you are use to for portraits. f8 is where you need to live to get everything in focus, and sharp, and not be distorting the couch by too much wide angle. The working distance to evenly light the couch is much greater than for portraits as well. Personally, I would be using large white sheets in a frame to shoot thru or bounce off off to produce the even look you need to light such a large object. Some objects will require double diffusion to tone down the glare and reflections.. you may also need lots of black material to create a 'tent' to control reflections... a polarizer may come in handy.

Product photography is its own very special genre, and there is a learning curve, certainly you will have a ton of new knowledge when you are done.

No studio, no budget, no experience: sorry to be harsh, but this will end in tears. If shots for eBay is the goal, then anything works, but 100% consistency for ecommerce sounds at least two grades higher quality.

RicoTudor wrote in post #18502006
No studio, no budget, no experience: sorry to be harsh, but this will end in tears. If shots for eBay is the goal, then anything works, but 100% consistency for ecommerce sounds at least two grades higher quality.

Having done this sort of large object photography decades ago in a studio with hot lights. This is definitely beyond speedlites etc. A furniture photograph studio will have flats that are larger than the furniture for lighting either with bounce or shoot through. As Rico says. If its down and dirty eBay then shoot it available light and pray. Otherwise it's a big job with lots of equipment and planning.

The studio we built for doing this sort of thing had a 30 by 30 foot coved corner shooting area with 20 foot walls. 10 foot diameter coved corner between walls, and also between walls and floor. painted white with flat paint between jobs. 8 by 12 foot large overhead light panel with 500 watt photo floods every 2 feet it was positioned via ropes and pulleys.

Using this setup we shot numerous lawn furniture catalogs as well as other furniture and large products.