Need advice: Ordinary Lamps as Studio Lights

[rateeg]

Hi.
i'm gonna experiment tomorrow on shooting a 3 year old child holding an mini electric guitar with amplifier at his side.

my improvised materials are:
two lamps with long stand with both 100w bulbs (continous light)
diffuser to cover the bulb (tracing paper)
silver paper to bounce the light
black flat sheet bedsheet as backdrop

questions:
will it work?
am i suppose to use yellow warm bulbs or the white flourescent ones?
where will i position the lamps?


thanks

 

[John Mc]

position the lamps 45 Degree's from the camera,and it should work no problems, Just boost iso for hand held shot's,you'll need the shutter speed high for children.

 

[rateeg]

thanks.
i cant get exactly what you mean 45deg?
can you illustrate?

 

[oldmacman]

Hi.
i'm gonna experiment tomorrow on shooting a 3 year old child holding an mini electric guitar with amplifier at his side.

my improvised materials are:
two lamps with long stand with both 100w bulbs (continous light)
diffuser to cover the bulb (tracing paper)
silver paper to bounce the light
black flat sheet bedsheet as backdrop

questions:
will it work?
am i suppose to use yellow warm bulbs or the white flourescent ones?
where will i position the lamps?


thanks

A 100 watt bulb won't throw much light and may be difficult to capture a young child who is likely to move about. Using incandescent or fluorescent
lights won't matter as both will require white balance. Just don't mix the light types. As for position. it depends on the kind of mood you are creating. A typical two light set up would have the main light at 45/45: 45 degrees from the subject with the lamp head angled 45 degrees down. The problem will be your fill light. As you cannot control the output of the lights, it might be better to use a reflector. You could use the second light as a hair light, which would be positioned opposite of the main light. If you could use a lower wattage bulb, that might help. The hair light will help create separation from the background.

Here is a diagram to help:

 

[rateeg]

wow thanks for the illustration.
thanks also for the tips.
will keep this in mind!

 

[gsgary]

As above but i would use a black background, the white sheet will look crinckled and grey