Recommendations for "studio" lighting....

[Gammble]

I'll try to keep this brief.

A friend of mine is in the middle of expanding his retail shop to the internet. Therefore he wants to take pictures of his stock to put on the site.

I think he's done a bit of research but seems to be getting mixed opinions on what he should be using.

I have a cheap & cheerful "light studio" that i bought from ebay that's pretty much identicle to this one:



Which i used along with basic lamps & an older model compact camera.

I achieved results that i was more than happy with (for the purposes of ebay), which is why i advised him against spending £500 on a "lighting studio" & buying a state of the art SLR.

So in essence.... would anybody have any recommendations on what he should / consider buying from scratch to cater for a small home studio? Lighting / Camera / Tripod etc

The biggest item he'll be photographing is perhaps the size of a 2 litre carton of milk & they will all be static objects.

Apologies if this post doesn't contain enough information or the wrong information - just trying to help him out and asking the knowledgable folks on here makes more sense than trawling google!

Edited by Gammble on Friday 26th February 15:26

Edited by Gammble on Friday 26th February 15:27

Edited by Gammble on Friday 26th February 15:28

[Simpo Two]

Gammble said:

A friend of mine is in the middle of expanding his retail shop to the internet. Therefore he wants to take pictures of his stock to put on the site.

I started my studio with a bucket of white paint, a three head Elinchrom kit + Wein IR trigger bought s/h from eBay and half a softbox. Since then it's evolved as my needs have varied and grown - principally more modifiers, wall-mounted support, heads I can control down to 12W and an infinity cove. Small objects go on a trestle table with backing roll.

Now if he's going to do all that he's not going to have much time to run his business, and there's a chunk of cost involved, and getting nice lighting and white backgrounds taking a bit of practice. So I think he'd be best off either doing it quickly with a cheap light tent as you suggest, or farming it out to someone who's already got the gear and expertise (tax-deductible too)

[Gammble]

Yeah that was my thinking, i think he just wanted reassurance that a "cheap" light tent would do the trick with some good lighting. But depending where you research, there are lots of different bulds, colour temps etc to consider, which is where we both get a bit lost.

His primary concern i suppose is the picking of a camera.

His budget is somewhat large, but it'd be nice if he bought one that satisfied his needs without going overkill.

[Simpo Two]

Gammble said:

i think he just wanted reassurance that a "cheap" light tent would do the trick with some good lighting. But depending where you research, there are lots of different bulds, colour temps etc to consider, which is where we both get a bit lost.

I don't think that 'cheap' goes with 'good lighting'. For eBay a simple light tent is fine, it all depends how posh he wants to get - at the other end, Rolex etc don't take their own product photos in a £50 light tent

Colour temperature/white balance is easy. If you shoot RAW you can adjust it in processing, or spend some time setting it manually before you shoot. Even with JPGs you can make the whites white in Photoshop if necessary.

Gammble said:

His primary concern i suppose is the picking of a camera. His budget is somewhat large, but it'd be nice if he bought one that satisfied his needs without going overkill.

I'd say the camera is the least important thing - lighting comes first.

Edited by Simpo Two on Friday 26th February 17:08

[Gammble]

Thanks for the replies so far.

The stock he will be taking photo's of will probably take the best part of a week to go through. But once the initial photos are taken, there will still be a need for photographing new stock on probably a monthly basis, albeit in much less volumes (perhaps 3/4 things) but this is why he would prefer his own "in house" studio.

I agree that a cheap light tent obviously isn't the ideal scenario but I was worried as he had been recommended kits such as the following:

http://www.techlamps.co.uk/mini-photo-studios-c-82...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2400W-Redhead-Studio-Continu...

For quite substantial money - and I wasn't sure if these would be worth it.

He's happy to pay whatever it takes really, I'd just rather he spends it on a recommendation of quality.

Edited by Gammble on Friday 26th February 17:31

[Simpo Two]

As budget doesn't seem to be a factor, it might be better to start at the other end - ie what does he want to photograph and what kind of 'look' does he want to get? If you can post a few examples that he likes, perhaps we can reverse engineer it from there.

[Gammble]

Well 80%+ will be the likes of Jar Candles:



With some other accessories and smaller items such as candle tarts:



Burners / Car Freshners etc too.

The problem therein lies that there is a selection of perhaps 100+ items in the same category, different scents etc, so he is after continuity with the images.

[S. Gonzales Esq.]

A light tent may not be the best option for the jar candles - as you can see in the image above, control of the highlights is difficult when the object is surrounded by light. Perhaps a softbox and some reflectors might be better.

[Gammble]

Yeah i'm not afraid to admit i'm completely out of my depth here, not even a novice.

Thanks again for the help thus far

[Andy888]

Your light box/tent looks perfectly adequate to me.

But here is some lighting gear at good prices, especially the wireless triggers http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread...

[Simpo Two]

Hmm, well that's quite similar to things I've done. There are many ways to light things but I'd use:

Table
White background roll
1 x 100W flash head (controllable power)
60cm or larger softbox
Radio flash trigger

You'll also need some way of holding the softbox over the subject - I use a wall mounted arm.

That's about it really - quite simple. Set the camera to manual (we're talking DSLR), ISO to lowest, shutter speed to camera's synch speed (usually about 1/200th sec), then juggle aperture and flash power until you get the right exposure. Judge the results as you go using the monitor and adjust lighting and exposure as required. Others may of course have other ways to do it!

It gets much more complex with reflective objects as you then have to worry about the ceiling and room behind you - which is why a completely white room is a good start.