Shooting room scene - recommendations

[bmv82]

Hi All,

I'm using a Canon Rebel Xsi. I have a requirement where I need to go to some houses and shoot rooms of 200-500 sq ft to feature the flooring in the rooms. The floors have anywhere between 30-55% gloss on them, so reflections are an issue even with polarized filters.

I've dabbled with photography for a while but I've never needed any type of lighting for a project. Can somebody give suggestions for the best bang for buck lighting setup for this type of situation - I'm on a relatively slim budget. I'm leaning towards a strobe vs continuous, but I'm not sure how many, what wattage, etc. I've tried using natural lighting but it's just not bright enough.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[benhasajeep]

If the floors are that glossy you could do a couple things to lessen the effect. First is if the ceiling is a nice neutral color can bounce the light off the ceilings. If not, simple dome covers over the flashes to difuse the light will be enough. Having more than 1 flash on the hot shoe is almost a must to get even lighting. Most flashes will not cover the very wide angle lenses very well. We do some houses (wife mainly) and we typically use 2 - 3 flashes with wireless transmitters to light most larger rooms. Deppending on the room, most of the time we have sto-fen difusers on the flashes. Really dark rooms we will run straight flashes (dark materials / colors).

 

[Dao]

I think this youtube video pop up here before and may help.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OfzlIxzU7A]YouTube - Lighting Hotel Rooms pt 1[/ame]

 

[LearnMyShot]

rent some strobe and bounce the light off of white cards....some reflection on the floor is good to show it's glossy qualities.