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FORUMS General Gear Talk Flash and Studio Lighting 
Thread started 19 Sep 2009 (Saturday) 13:30
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Furniture Photography

 
jskwarek
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Sep 19, 2009 13:30 |  #1

I'm at best what you would call a novice photographer but my company has asked me to take on the task of shooting some of the furniture we manufacture to update some catalog images. I've purchased lighting and setup a room with a nice cove on it to shoot in now I'm just trying to figure out how to get the lighting just right. That's where you guys come in. :D

I've got 4 lights with 28" x 28" soft boxes on them and I've been shooting with the lighting in different positions but no matter what I do I keep blowing out the grain in the laminate surface. One suggestion to help remedy this by our advertisement agency was to hang a large black board of some sort about 5-6' above the product and that would help bring all the tones out in the laminate. I've done some research on this and can't seem to find anything useful. Anyone have any recommendations? Here's an example shot of what I've got so far.

TIA
Jason

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Car2n
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Sep 19, 2009 13:45 |  #2

Can't suggest a fix for the problem you are having but one thing I noticed that you may want to keep an eye on is all the shadows from the legs created by the multiple lights. If you can't get rid of them you need to make it look natural


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jskwarek
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Sep 19, 2009 13:48 |  #3

Yea, that's the other thing I'm fighting. I had the two rear lights shooting towards each other behind the furniture to blow out the background and the two lights in front of the furniture lower and shooting towards it. That made the shadows look more natural but didn't help with the laminate color. I'm trying to figure out a way to soften the lighting so the shadows aren't so harsh.


Jason


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Car2n
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Sep 19, 2009 14:01 |  #4

In a case like this you may need to hit some light on the floor just as you would to remove shadows from a background.


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jskwarek
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Sep 19, 2009 14:12 |  #5

Car2n, can you expand a little on your comment? I'm a complete lighting idiot, I've hired a professional to come in and spend a few hours with me giving me a crash course in lighting techniques specific to my needs but I'd like to continue trying different things before he comes in. I've taken a photo from our current catalog and I'm trying to recreate it and match the lighting and shadows and it's been a struggle at best.

Jason


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Car2n
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Sep 19, 2009 14:24 |  #6

Well I'm just one step ahead of you, a lighting dummy. LOL (actually starting Monday, it's lighting101 for me at college)
Try using one of your 4 lights and set it up camera left or right just below the table level without the softbox. I'd leave one light for the background and the remaining 2 to light the table/chairs.


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jskwarek
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Sep 19, 2009 14:26 |  #7

Thanks, I'll give it a shot. The light I've got firing off the background, should I keep that in the softbox and am I better to fire it across the rear of the furniture or more at the cove and wall?

jason


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Sep 19, 2009 18:50 as a reply to  @ jskwarek's post |  #8
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There are 100 different ways to light this shot. The angle and composition is actually really symmetrical. That's good...it's a good angle so there is no reason to change it. Look at the shadows coming from the chairs. The shadows are coming from too many different directions. There is no single dominant direction. This is your number one problem....the light is completely without direction.

Like I said, there are 100 different to light this shot...I can give you one simple idea for a setup that may help. Do you have regular reflectors for the heads? IF so, remove all the softboxe from the heads and replace them with standard reflectors.

Next, take one head with a standard reflector and use it as a mainlight. Put it up high on a stand and point it down towards the table. Move it around the table until you find a position where the direct light coming from the standard reflector shows the texture in the wood grain well while simultaneously creates a pleasing shadow from the table and chairs. When you find the right position for the light, take a meter reading from the table to determine the exposure.

The shadows will of course be deep and dark. So, the next thing to do is fill in the shadows. This is a relatively large set and will probably take the remaining three lights to be used as fill lights.

Is the ceiling a light color and is it at a relatively average height? If so, a smooth fill light can be accomplished by bouncing the remaining 3 heads off of the ceiling. Try setting up the remaining 3 lights high on the stands and pointed up towards the ceiling. Set one of them close to camera position and point it up to bounce off the ceiling and onto the table. Then place one light high on a stand to bounce light into the right side of the table....and place the last remaining light high on a stand to bounce light into the left side of the set.

Set all 3 bounce lights to the same power settings. Try and get it so they all fire at the same time and are about 1 stop to 2 stops less power than the mainlight. This will make a 1:2 or 1:3 ratio between the mainlight and fill.

This will require 2 separate meter readings. One reading will be for the mainlight. It will determine the exposure. The second reading will be for the fill light. The fill lights should be set at about 1-2 stops less exposure than the mainlight.

Basically, one head with a reflector will be the mainlight. This head will determine the direction of the lighting scheme and it will be positioned in such a way that brings out the best texture and detail on the top of the table. The remaining 3 heads will become fill lights. Their only job is to fill in the shadows created by the mainlight. These 3 fill lights have to be positioned on all sides of the set (front, left, right) in order to have the most even coverage of fill light for the entire table and cove. The ratio between the mainlight and fill light should be about 1:2 or 1:3

Hope that my explanation makes sense....Maybe it can help give some ideas. Like I said, there are 100 ways to light this set...so it's all a matter of interpretation. But the number one problem you currently have is a total lack of direction to the lighting.




  
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RichardA
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Sep 19, 2009 19:49 |  #9

I think if you shot a little above the table shooting down that would help the grain loss quite a bit.


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jskwarek
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Sep 21, 2009 07:54 |  #10

Thanks a million guys, I'll try all these options today and post the results. We built a 2' riser over the weekend, that should get me about 8'-9' above the product.

The room is a typical corporate office break room with 9' hanging ceilings of white tiles. There is a partition wall in the room so I opened that up and shoot from the adjoining room. I pulled the tiles from the floor, coved the wall and the painted the floor, cove and wall white. Currently my lighting consists of 4 - Elinchrom BX 500 Ri lights with 28" X 28" soft boxes. I'm going to stop by the store this morning to see if they have the wireless transmitter that will work with the Skyport so I can add my 580 EXII to the mix as well. Attached is a picture of the room, iPhone picture but you can see roughly how the room is setup, there are lights in all four corners in this picture.

Jason

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