White background photos

ellemonke · Dec 3, 2012

Hi,

I'd like to shoot clothing product photos with a model on a white background on a regular basis. I'm on a low budget and have a small 10' x 14' usable space to use as a "studio". The model and I will be standing stationary, about 12' apart.

The equipment I've got so far is:

- Nikon D5000 DSLR, on a tripod
- 2 Profoto Compact 600r lights, on stands & with umbrella reflectors
- 9'x15' white muslin background attached to 8'x4' white board on the floor

I've been told I need PocketWizard MiniTT1 & FlexTT5 to trigger the lights when I shoot. Since I'll be stationary, could I just use a cable? Is there anything else I absolutely should have? Every time I walk into the photo store I can't tell if their upselling me or if this really is the bare minimum I should buy. I'm already late and way over budget. I need to get this thing crack-a-lackin'!!

Any tips you could give me would be much appreciated!! Thank you!

CCericola · Dec 3, 2012

I use 4 lights. They are strobes that have a built in slave. So all I need it one chord from my main light to the camera and all the other lights go off when the main light goes off. No need for radio slaves like pocket wizards. Now, if your lights do not have a built in slave then you do need something to hook to the lights to make them fire. There are cheap yoguno(sp) slaves on amazon for cheap. So you will need a main light and a fill light for the model and then you need to light the background. I use two lights one on each side behind the model with barndoors to light the background evenly. If you only have two lights you can over expose the background and adjust the main and fill light on the model. You may need to do some clean up in post, but not much.

2WheelPhoto · Dec 3, 2012

2 Profoto Compact 600r lights, on stands & with umbrella reflectors

FYI I've used my profoto lighting with umbrellas, but found Octoboxes gives a MUCH softer and controlled light. This smaller Octobox I like as key most of the time.

Also the beauty dish is well worth looking into for obvious reasons