Buying a light

lake59 · Jul 28, 2007

Hi I am not a photographer per se but use a small digital camera and enjoy using it. For work i sell wood flooring and use my digital camera to take pictures of different types of wood to send to clients. The best luck I have had to get correct color is using sunlight. Unfortunately the sun is not always available and is a huge hastle to set-up outside.

My guess is that i can get some kind of light on a tripod so I can set up shots inside and get close to real color.

What ideas do you have and if i am on the right track, what kind of light should I buy?

Thanks for your help!

Alpha · Jul 28, 2007

This is most likely an issue of not setting the white balance correctly on your camera.

Tom_Tom · Jul 29, 2007

Unless you are really interested in get studio lights to lug out to every photo I would suggest using the light you have on hand.

Instead of buying a light I would by a tripod. Then set your images for longer exposures to get the proper brightness of the wood. It would be best white balance before you do this. That way the colour of the wood should be accurate.

It would also be best to make sure that the light falling on the wood is somewhat even in brightness, I mean don't have half the wood in sunlight and the other half lit with overhead florescents.

lake59 · Aug 14, 2007

Thanks for your advice! I am using a small Kodak 10 megapixel digital camera and will use a tripod. Can I use regular incandescent lights? And for the biggie: how do I balance white?

Sorry the reply tok so long, I don't think I subscribed to this post properly

Big Mike · Aug 14, 2007

Can I use regular incandescent lights? And for the biggie: how do I balance white?

You can use just about any type of light but try to have consistent lighting (don't mix day light and incandescent, for example). They key is setting the correct White Balance. Most digital cameras (that I have seen) have several settings...you could pick the best one...but many cameras also have a custom setting. Check your manual for proper instructions on how to set the custom WB. Usually, what you do is to take something white and place it in your lighting. Then fill the frame with it and take a shot. Then go into the menus and select custom white balance. The camera should ask you to pick a photo for calibration...you would choose the white image.

Of course, most photo editing software should allow you to quickly and easily adjust the color, in case it doesn't come out of the camera accurately.