Helpful hints for wig photo shoot

[Bluepic]

I'm going to be doing a photo shoot of wigs on mannequin heads. Any tips on how to light this so I won't have a shadow in the background?

With the amount of space I have in the location, I'm just using my flash.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Big Mike]

Welcome to the forum.

Any tips on how to light this so I won't have a shadow in the background?

Put more light on the background than on the subject.

Have the background be far enough away that the light will fall of by that point.

Have your light hit the subject from the same direction/angle as the camera, the shadow will fall behind the subject (although this will give you flat lighting).

 

[Bluepic]

Thanks for the welcome Big Mike!

I need the white background though to show. I'm looking into getting a peanut slave so that will take care of the backdrop - Flash is my only option as for lighting unfortunately due to the space allowed for this shoot.

This is still new to me as I usually shoot fires and news types of photos, so it's a first! Learn as I go I guess.

 

[Big Mike]

If you want your background to be white, then you will need to put more light on it. Otherwise it will turn out grey (with a properly exposed subject).

 

[Bluepic]

Yup, you're right. I hope it's easy to set up and use!

I will admit I'm not too great with flash, I rarely use it and now I'm gonna suffer because of that! It's SB-600 Nikon flash. (I am reading the manual as of today.)

 

[Big Mike]

Well, practice make perfect.

If you really want to take your flash lighting to the next level, do some reading on THIS SITE. The 'lighting 101' section would be a good place to start.

 

[Hooligan Dan]

If possible(depending on the height of the ceiling) Turn the flash power up pretty high and angle it towards the ceiling so that the angle from the the flash(on the camera) to the ceiling, and down to the head is apprx 45 degrees. This angle can be changed easliy, but 45 is what most people use. Then place something below the head, a white board preferably, to bounce some fill up onto the head to counter the raccoon eyes from the above flash. You won't get a perfectly white background, but from above the flash will spread enough to make it white enough to easily fix in photoshop and no shadow will be cast from the head.

If there are high or oddly angled ceilings, I'm not sure what to tell ya. Since the SB-6oo has a rotating head, maybe turn it to the side 45 degrees, bounce it of a white board to get your main light and have another white board on the other side to bounc in some fill. That will also solve the problem of the shadow you want to avoid, but then you might have issues with a gray backdrop.