What one light setup to buy?

[redbourn]

You could do okay with a single flash, and a home-made 48 x 48 inch frame, made from pieces of PVC pipe and elbow joints, and a couple of pieces of home-made diffusion material attached to the frame. Here is a link. Look down the page to the "download lo-rez" option.... Photoshop Training and Photography Training Tutorials - Software Cinema - Tinkertubes

A flat-faced light source allows you to control the angle of incidence; instead of a curved umbrella or brolly box, a softbox or a diffusing screen creates a light source that has pretty much the same angle of incidence on shiny surfaces, and makes a broader highlight/reflection on many surfaces...it makes the highlights on say a wine bottle more linear, more regular.

Diffusion panels and reflectors made of fabric or of posterboard/foam core board are really pretty common things in the world of photographic lighting, and are very commonly used with both flash lighting, and with natural or ambient light from the sun, sky, or from bulbs of one type or another.

The original article you referenced was basically advocating that one have access to a large, diffused light source, and some type of fill light reflector capability. The diffusion material can be tracing paper,white rip-stop nylon, frosted shower curtain material, etc.. A diffusing panel can be used with any light source.

So you're saying to use a flash instead of a tungsten light?

I'm a real newbie and will check out th link.

Thanks for the reply.

P.S. I don't mind springing for maybe $200 on the lighting. Already bought the Nikon d3300 (which I'm pleased with) two lenses, a tripod and other bibs and bobs.

 

[Designer]

If you only photograph still life, (food) then what light you use probably will not matter much. Some of us use flash because that is what we have. Whatever type of lighting you have, just be sure to get the correct white balance. Using tungsten or fluorescent, or whatever you have, just use ONE type at a time. Don't mix lighting types and colors.

BTW: my flash (a Nikon SB-910) cost more than your lighting budget, so if you get the compact fluorescent (CFL) that you linked to, your investment will be substantially lower.

 

[redbourn]

If you only photograph still life, (food) then what light you use probably will not matter much. Some of us use flash because that is what we have. Whatever type of lighting you have, just be sure to get the correct white balance. Using tungsten or fluorescent, or whatever you have, just use ONE type at a time. Don't mix lighting types and colors.

BTW: my flash (a Nikon SB-910) cost more than your lighting budget, so if you get the compact fluorescent (CFL) that you linked to, your investment will be substantially lower.

At the moment I only intend to do still life because I am focused on my book.

Good that you mentioned about not mixing light sources.

I have only seen very low wattage CFLs. How many watt would you suggest for a one light system.

I'm using a tripod and timer with a Nikon D3300

Thanks

 

[Designer]

I have only seen very low wattage CFLs. How many watt would you suggest for a one light system.

I don't know. How powerful your light needs to be will depend on how large of an area that you want to light, and yours and the camera's tolerance for long shutter openings. If you hold the shutter open too long, it can overheat the sensor and introduce "noise" in the photograph. If all you can find are low-wattage CFLs, then use more of them. Some commercial softboxes have up to six sockets for lightbulbs.

 

[redbourn]

Thanks for the reply.

Not a very large area, maybe the size of 3-4 plates maximum.

Good you told me about the softboxes that hold more than one lamp.

I have no shop in this town where I can go and get help.

A very beautiful place to live but lacking in availability of many things that I used to take for granted.

Lovely people and weather too.

Very inexpensive and very low level of violence.

goo.gl/t1HJer

Michael

 

[redbourn]

I have only seen very low wattage CFLs. How many watt would you suggest for a one light system.

I don't know. How powerful your light needs to be will depend on how large of an area that you want to light, and yours and the camera's tolerance for long shutter openings. If you hold the shutter open too long, it can overheat the sensor and introduce "noise" in the photograph. If all you can find are low-wattage CFLs, then use more of them. Some commercial softboxes have up to six sockets for lightbulbs.

I found this.


PhotoSEL LS21E51 Softbox Studio Lighting Kit - 1 x 85W 5000lm 5500K 90+ CRI Bulb 40x60cm Softbox

Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.
Want it delivered to Portugal by Wednesday, 30 Sep.?
5500K 85W 5000lm pure white daylight bulb
90+ general colour rendering index (CRI)
40 x 60cm softbox with removable inner and front diffuser
Flicker Free
For still photo or video

What do you think?

Sorry to be a nag ;-)

 

[Designer]

What was wrong with the first one you showed me yesterday? I seem to remember you showed a "brollybox" that was less expensive than the two more recent finds.

BTW: please make your links "hot links" by using the "link" tool in the header, thanks. Makes it easier for us.

 

[redbourn]

What was wrong with the first one you showed me yesterday? I seem to remember you showed a "brollybox" that was less expensive than the two more recent finds.

BTW: please make your links "hot links" by using the "link" tool in the header, thanks. Makes it easier for us.

I will recheck the few that I've found and make a note to use hotlinks.

I thought links were most likely banned.

Michael

 

[Designer]

No, links are not banned.

One can become banned by linking the wrong kind of material, but we all use links. Here's something from my wish list: (in case you want to buy me a present)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00K4N4C48...TF8&colid=2LHK8XUJN8MTY&coliid=I3CT7V7BSI1442

 

[redbourn]

No, links are not banned.

One can become banned by linking the wrong kind of material, but we all use links. Here's something from my wish list: (in case you want to buy me a present)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00K4N4C48...TF8&colid=2LHK8XUJN8MTY&coliid=I3CT7V7BSI1442

I knew about the reason for not allowing links, but what would the web be without them.

Just let me have your bank details. Normal stuff including number on bank of card etc. ;-)

I'm actually very pleased with my tripod and can also shoot 180 degrees with it.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00KNJ2QUA/ref=pe_385721_51767431_TE_dp_2

Not all Chinese stuff is junk and they are getting better.

 

[Designer]

A number of members here like the Yongnuo flashes.

 

[redbourn]

A number of members here like the Yongnuo flashes.

I will check them out.

I thought the book would be easy because I have the recipes.

I know Photoshop pretty well but have been learning LightRoom for 3 months.

Wonderful program but a steep learning curve!

 

[Derrel]

I like flash simply because it is very close to daylight in color balance, and thus it's possible to mix flash and daylight in the same photo and not have a big "gap" between the color temperature of the light from the flash and the background light. Using flash makes it possible to control background brightness quite a bit, by slowing down the shutter, or speeding up the shutter, but keeping the exposure on the foreground (the food and tableware) the same. Using flash to light the foreground areas of the photos allows you to make backgrounds brighter or darker, while keeping the lighting on the food the same. Flash has a lot of light output, for very little money spent, which is not the same as continuous lighting.

I really think that if a person is not that familiar with lighting and the many nuances of lighting, that it helps to keep things simple, hence the idea of a flat-faced softbox, or a flat diffusion panel, and simple fill cards, and so on makes a lot of sense. The other thing though is that as a light is moved to different positions in relation to the subject and camera, the lighting effect changes. As a light is moved farther away or closer, the softness of the shadows changes, sometimes quite a bit.

How much the softness of the light changes depends on how big the light is in relation to the subject, and in how close or far the light is placed. That's why I suggested a 48x48 inch light source for working with tabletop sized subject matter for a cookbook...you don't want or need a huge, massive light source and probably do not have the right shooting area or the right light stands and clamps and such to handle a much bigger light source. I want to wish you the best of success with the project.

 

[redbourn]

I read earlier in the thread not to mix light sources but assumed that I could mix any electrical one with natural light.

So if I use CFL or tungsten, I have to make the room as dark as possible?

Thanks for all the info and the encouragement.

I am a hobby chef and the book is really to help beginners or people that believe they will never learn how to cook.

And it will have lots of tips and tricks to help them succeed.

I decided to do the book because so many online recipes have mistakes: wrong portion sizes and timings etc. and they don't have both American and metric measurements.

It's so sad to follow a recipe faithfully only to have some horrible failure and it puts many people off of cooking.

 

[Village Idiot]

I read earlier in the thread not to mix light sources but assumed that I could mix any electrical one with natural light.

So if I use CFL or tungsten, I have to make the room as dark as possible?

Thanks for all the info and the encouragement.

I am a hobby chef and the book is really to help beginners or people that believe they will never learn how to cook.

And it will have lots of tips and tricks to help them succeed.

I decided to do the book because so many online recipes have mistakes: wrong portion sizes and timings etc. and they don't have both American and metric measurements.

It's so sad to follow a recipe faithfully only to have some horrible failure and it puts many people off of cooking.

Well, as dark as you need it to be so that only the continuous light is lighting the food. Continuous is of course WYSIWYG so how you view the lighting through the lens is how it's going to look.

With a flash, you can change the settings so that even though the room is lit up with tungsten, fluorescent, and 5 different light with different colors, it can easily overpower those lights with the right settings.

And then there's the other edge of that blade. If a flash is too bright, it can often be hard to use a wider aperture to get the DOF you're looking for. You may have to result to ND filters or other tricks.

You can find a 200W adorama flash for about $200 IIRC. Also, a monolight like that won't require batteries.