Topic: Room for photo's

Hey all, i'm thinking of setting up a room to take photo's of, at the moment i try take photo's outside in overcast conditions as they seem to come out best, not too much shadowing etc. I used to take a couple inside but i noticed the colouring was ruined by the standard light globes i had in the room, the colours were much more yellow then should be.

Its a bit annoying however setting stuff up outside, and i like to leave the camera in a fixed position to always get the same angle etc, most photo's i take are of single items, aluminium parts etc.

Anyhow i was wondering what is the best way to set up a room like this, should i get some natural colour light globes etc? My wall are brick, so that is bound to add an orange colour overall which is apain. Could anyone offer any suggestions on lights to use etc, thanks all.

Oh im just using a ixus digital camera, i dont have an slr or anything yet unfortunately..

read this through for some great advice

Jason

Sounds like you're after hot lights. I've still got some reflecotrs and bulbs and stuff around somewhere.. the attic I think. Most any decent camera store should stock them. Nice thing is that you can get them balanced for daylight film and they won't break the bank. On the downside, they get really really hot and won't get you a real quick shutter speed either. As I recall the average bulb lasted something like 10 hours.

Another thing you might consider is a color correcting filter for your cam. Wait a minute.. can't you set a custom white point? Sorry, I'm not familiar with the camera. Any decent camera store should be able to solve your color blues one way or another.

Thanks for that guys, great link Jason.

I think your right cyoung i need some decent lighting, my camera is ok, nothing special tho but it will have to do for now. I can only adjust a few things on my camera such as exposure and white balance, which may allow me to compensate enough for it. From that link Jason gave me might be worth doing a little setup with that white bristol board etc.

A cheap way to do it is with Sylvania daylight bulbs or Reveal bulbs from your local hardware store. I found I can get great color with little adjustment in photoshop. Example, for this shot I had a 60watt bulb overhead and one coming from the left. I used a reflector to fill in the right side. I bought a roll canvas from Michaels for the back drop. This yoda is only 4 inches tall. Later I plan on getting some "real lights", but for learning these are great for now.

Frank

Hmm that might be an idea temporarily, the lights dont matter too much as long as they are natural light do they? or is that just a myth

I use Reveal bulbs as they are pretty close to natural light. I have reflector lights from WalMart. I also use the big work lights from there on the yellow stands and bounce them off walls and such. I would much rather use outdoor natural light. If you are only shooting outside on overcast days (which that's a great light) then you are still missing some great outside light. Try early morning and late afternoon. You might want to get a polarizer lens, which is just like sunglasses for your camera. That will make a world of difference on sunny days !

oh one more tip....get a wooden embroidery hoop from the craft dept. at Walmart or Micheals and put cloth or paper in it and put that in front of your light as a filter. It will cut glare for you. Don't forget to use ceilings and walls to bounce light. If you use 3 lights, one to light the subject, one on each side, kinda behind them, then you won't have shadows. See if your camera has a whitebalance setting, which will help with indoor lighting.

Hmm temporarily i went out and bought some cheap compact fluourecents, the ones i got were COOL DAYLIGHT rather than the WARM LIGHT ones, so the light seems quite good and not yellow.. Unfortunately i only had 2 bnc sockets so i had to get some normal fluorecents also which are a bit too yellow =/... Kinda havnt got much to work with really..

this is the camera im shooting with: http://www.cameras.co.uk/specs/canonixus300.cfm

I'm going to try get away with setting up a white box thing, with 2 lights, dont know if it will be enough tho and dont know if those lights are sufficient. They are 13W i think, equivalent to 75W incandecent.

Sorry for being a bit stupid but what are reflector lights, and are they pretty easily available? Good idea on the light filter ill have to give that a go

Here is the part im taking photo's of at the moment, i'm finding aluminium pretty hard to photograph
http://gotbajingo.net/photos/photo.jpg

yep, you need a filter there. In that thread Steve mentioned making them with some long dowel rods for a frame and stretching vellum across the frame. I did just that but couldn't find vellum so I used a cloudy, almost transparent, plastic trashbag instead. Made a few of those frame/filters and contructed a crude but workable tent around the pieces I was shooting. That looks to be about all that you're lacking as you just have a few hot spots. You just can't get a piece like that to not reflect whatever light you use without some kind of diffuser.

Looks like if you tent them as described you'll have to let some more light in, slower shutter speed and a tripod.

I actually had a photograph of the setup that I took to show Steve but I can't for the life of me find it. I'll keep looking around as I'm sure the description sucked =)

Jason

Bugger would be great too see.. I managed to find another lamp so i put one of the fluro's in there, now i have two closer sources, i just need to go buy one more now and should have enough light. But yeh i do need the filters thats for sure, what exactly is vellum and what kind of shop would have it just out of interest?

Actually i have a fair idea what it is, well if it is what i think anyhow ;P might try the local shops tomorow..

What do you think the effect is we are looking for when we photograph things like aluminium/steels etc. I mean when we see the product with our eyes its bound to have hotspots etc, so why when we take the photo do we try to eliminate them? Same for shadows ithink can give some depth to the images..

Having said that im a complete noob when it comes to photography, just curious as to what we are aiming at when taking photo's.

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Bugger would be great too see

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not the photo I was looking for but here's some stuff to look at on the subject.

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I mean when we see the product with our eyes its bound to have hotspots etc, so why when we take the photo do we try to eliminate them?

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the 2 test folders, before and after taking Steve's advice should answer your questions there. The "after" shots in those examples are not all that good but I was just trying out the diffusion. Even with the crappy results on those tests it looked hella better than without. Those hotspots are too hot, glaring even, and the "after" tests could be cleaned up with levels and or curves and look pretty good (if the pieces weren't so ugly to begin with).

Jason

Thats good too look at Jason, u can definately see some difference there. I might go make a filter up today if i can find some vellum.

Oh i was wondering if you could give us a hand with my ligh/camera layout. Lets say i have 3 equivalent 75W light sources, and a table about 500 x 500mm set up with the two back corners having white walls. Where is it best to position the lights and the camera? I might have to sketch a plan view so i can show a bit better when i get home later.

Would you place the lights at equal angles from the source at equal distances? Or do you use one light as a focus on the object and the other two to remove shadows. OBviously the reflections off other surfaces will effect distances of the sources also..

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Oh i was wondering if you could give us a hand with my ligh/camera layout.

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Sorry, No. =D I'm still a big big fat n00b with the photography. I'm inclined to say tho, if you're shooting metal I'd concentrate more on filtering the light out rather than placing it. Either scenario you've mentioned sound plausible, I'd personally just be monkeying around with it till something struck me right

Jason

Yeh sounds good to mee hehe.. i probably guess that there is no "ONE RIGHT SOLUTION" anyhow, obviously you can acheieve the photo you want in many different ways

A circular polarizer would let you reduce the highlights at any one angle. It can make a big difference when you've got one bad surface.