Continuous lighting kits?

emerson · Jun 18, 2007

I've been doing event photography for a few years, but I will be doing product photography at my new job. I am just looking for reasonably priced lighting to shoot their products. Probably between 300-600 for 3 lights with stands and diffusers of some sort.

Does anyone have any suggestions for good continuous lighting kits?
90% of the shots only need to have a white background with no shadows.
I may be building a lightbox to use, and a 4th light to go under it to take care of shadows.

deanimator · Jun 18, 2007

Does it have to be continuous?
HOT work sometimes...and maybe too hot for some products such as food or flowers...!

emerson · Jun 18, 2007

no foods will be shot. It is an electronics company with small to medium sized products... Only a few products will be shot at a time so i'm not so concerned about heat.

John_05 · Jun 18, 2007

theres probably much better kits out there, and definitely more knowledgeable people than me that might be able to help you, but i got a continuous lighting kit from Ebay for under $100 that came with 2 stands, 2 bulbs and fixtures (250 watt eq 5500k fluorescent), and 2 umbrellas.

if you have a look in this thread and scroll down, youll see a shot i took that shows one of the stands with a fixture and bulb on it. at the top of the thread are some pictures i took with those lights. other than a slight contrast adjustment and a little saturation boosst, i didnt do anything to those shots before i posted them.
http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=78825

ill see if i can find the link to the Ebay store where i got my kit if youre interested. like i said, im sure there are better kits out there, but this one isnt bad for the money, and the lights dont get very hot at all.

emerson · Jun 19, 2007

How do you like the light setup so far? Did it come with any diffusers or softbox of some sort?

Is there anyone else that can recommend a good lighting kit?
I need
3 continuous lights
3 stands
1 very short stand to use under the lightbox
light diffusers

John_05 · Jun 19, 2007

emerson said:
How do you like the light setup so far? Did it come with any diffusers or softbox of some sort?

Is there anyone else that can recommend a good lighting kit?
I need
3 continuous lights
3 stands
1 very short stand to use under the lightbox
light diffusers

the only thing it came with other than the lights and stands were 2 white umbrellas.

i bought a set of 5-in-1 reflectors from Ebay that have a diffuser panel in the frame that holds the other reflector. i got 2 round (36 and 48 inch) and one oval (40 by 60 inch) reflectors for about $50. if i need to diffuse the light, i use those because i dont have room to just move the lights.

i havent had any complaints about the set up, but you get what you pay for. for what i got for less than $100, i think it was worth it when compared to better built, but much more expensive gear. i dont think the light fixtures would hold up too well if a good stiff breeze hit the umbrella, but i use them inside, so thats not a concern.

a friend of mine has this exact same set up from Amazon, and she loves it. she lives in another state so i havent seen it, but she says its pretty sturdy and worth the money. the lights get hot and use a LOT of power, but you could probably switch over to the color balanced fluorescents and cut down on heat and power consumption.

[ame]http://www.amazon.com/Smith-Victor-3-Light-1250-Watt-Mini-Boom/dp/B0000AJB80/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-4870473-3987807?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1182280265&sr=8-1[/ame]