mini studio, photo shooting curtains

Awsum · Feb 14, 2010

Hello.

I was wondering if you could help me out.

I have to take some photos of curtains, curtain rails ect.
So, we were discussing at home, how could we get best shots....

I come to an idea, that we should build a mini studio, such as this two:

www.shrani.si/f/3s/P0/4vgWx8OZ/22.jpg
www.countryliving.com/cm/countryliving/images/Curtain-Pan...

just a corner, then we could change colors of background and add some table, armchair, chair, vase...

the real question here is how to put lights (where there will be no natural light), what do i need, probably tripod, camera is d90, anything else?

i would appreciate any advice

Derrel · Feb 14, 2010

Create fake sunlight by shooting two flashes through a white nylon fabric stretched tightly over a frame larger than the windows on the set. Build a frame using wood or PVC pipes and shoot the flashes through that on the back side of the set. Put the diffusion panel far enough back from the window and curtains so that it is out of focus. You want it to look bright--like it does in your sample image. The eye will accept bright, detail-less window lighting...we see it a lot in catalogs.

For the "inside" of the room, light it however you want to light it. The interior lighting needs to be dimmer, less bright, than the "fake daylight" coming in from the window. That is the preferred simulated way to shoot this--it is always brighter outside than inside, right???

If you are on a budget, you could shine 2 tungsten lamps thru the diffusion panel on the back side of the set, use an orange CTO gel on the speedlight flash, set the D90 to Tungsten White Balance, and mix the tungsten light and filtered flash with a slow-ish shutter speed to make the windows look brighter or less bright. The "fake window light" would be made brighter or darker by changing the camera's shutter speed. The interior of the room would be lighted mostly by the flash, but would also get some tungsten light too. THat's how I would approach this.