|
Forums >
Photography Talk >
Poor man's Studio lighting?
So am I the only bum using home depot clamp lights for studio lighting? What kind of rigged up tools do you use for your shoots? Here is a picture I took just now after 3 hours of getting pissed off with these things. haha I was laying down in my bed half alseep while I was taking these.   May 22 05 03:18 am Link Oh by the way that little model geek of mine was coming up with her own poses for the first time ever. That was a little weird for me to see being her father in all. May 22 05 03:20 am Link home depot lights work great, if you use them correctly. May 22 05 04:12 am Link Posted by * Visual Mindscapes *: Would you say I did? I'm a pretty hard critic on my own work so I want to hear what other people think. May 22 05 04:21 am Link You can get by with work lamps just take off the safety grill from the front and be careful because they get very hot. Old school ghetto lighting, clamp lights with paper reflectors taped on. May 22 05 05:16 am Link A good,cheap (possibly free) source of reflectors is a TV shop. When those old rear projection big screens are ready for the landfill, talk the TV guy into a couple of the rear mirrors. Some are actually glass, but the one I have is foam covered with foil. Huge and only weighs in at a coupla pounds. May 22 05 05:42 am Link I use a reallt cheap Smith and Vector lighting it (costs about $200) and also some clamp lights from home depot for fill. I shoot mostly outdoors but when I do do indoors work, I use them, some homemade reflectors and softboxes, and I have made my own backdrop stand that works wonderfully. One day I'll be able to afford the good stuff but for now these all work. Need any advice on how to make some of these things, message me and I'll let you know how. I think you did a good job with the lights though, if you don't want that orange hue, buy UV light bulbs, used for plants. May 22 05 07:35 am Link A window is also very nice... May 22 05 08:14 am Link A great studio lighting package for a great price is the JTL Basic Flash Kit. It cost $399; but you get a lot for that price! Plus, it's portable! I got mine at www.porters.com a few years ago and I still use it for all of my work! --Eric May 22 05 11:53 am Link My lighting rig is based off one of the $50 halogen worklight setups Home Depot sells. I made some brackets to mount umbrellas to the stands and have seperated one of the 500 watt x 2 kits into two separate 500 watt lights. Typically I use one of the 500 watt x 2 sets for fill using a 60' white umbrella, use one of the 500 watt lights with a silver umbrella for key, and sometimes use the other 500 watt light as a hair light. The biggest caveat of course is that as with any continuous lighting setup you're generating a lot of heat, and it is a genuine fire and burn hazard. The other caveat is that the stands they give you aren't tall enough for standing full-body shots. May 22 05 11:59 am Link Another alternative, especially for portrait and beauty shots, is the "Home Depot Kinoflo." A Kinoflo is a multi-thousand-dollar lighting setup made of special fluorescent bulbs. You can replicate it with about $150.00 worth of stuff from Home Depot and a couple hours work. Do a Google on the phrase to find plans. In summary, you take four 48inch shoplight fluorescent fixtures, attach them to a 4'x4' (actually it'll probably be more like 4'x4'8" by the time you overlap the lights) piece of plywood with the center cut out. Put GE Chroma50's or other good 5000K tubes in the fixture - that's most of the money, 8 Chroma50's will run you about a hundred bucks - and shoot through the middle. Voila, instant shadowless, color-balanced light. Look at the covers of magazines with beauty shots: any time you see a rectangular catchlight in the model's eye, it was shot with a setup just like this. M M May 22 05 12:51 pm Link Posted by StMarc: Well I've used Kino flos in movie work primarily because they are (1) daylight color balanced and (2) flicker Free (which is important if you're using a movie camera with a 24 fps shutter. That's why they're so expensive. Also they are lightweight and easy to move around (one of the benefits of a professional rig that's made out of aluminum and custom plastic parts). I like the idea of a homemade flourescent box but they don't put out much light compared to a bank of strobes or 1K tungsten hotlights. May 22 05 01:32 pm Link Posted by F.Y. Hamada: You have just become my hero. May 22 05 01:49 pm Link Just wanted to thank everyone who has contributed to this thread thus far...and give it a bump at the same time! Hope more people contribute...this is excellent information! May 22 05 02:21 pm Link Posted by Matthew Grogan: You beat me to the thank you! But yeah I personaly would love it if some of you would post a picture of some of your home grown lighting tools and share with us how you made them. I don't know about everyone else but even if I had top $ lighting equipment I would still be over here making stuff just because it gives a different look. May 22 05 02:42 pm Link I'm not that big on the home grown stuff but here's one small project I did recently: 2 yards of ripstop nylon from dazian.com. Few dolars worth of PVC (sprinkler) pipe from Home Depot Fusible tape, elastic, needle and thread. Cut the nylon to size, fold the edges over make a hem and fix them with the fusible tape (it's a heat activated tape, put it between to layers and iron it and they stick, faster than sewing unless you have a sewing machine). Sew the elastic on to the corners. Make a frame out of the PVC. There you have it, a 6'x4' diffusion panel for about 25 bucks. All the ones I've seen were at least 100 bucks. You can experiment with different fabrics from Dazian, silks, different reflectors etc. Some cost more than others. May 22 05 03:02 pm Link Posted by Matthew Grogan: yes, me too! i am taking notes May 22 05 04:17 pm Link Posted by Eric Muss-Barnes: Posted by F.Y. Hamada: You have just become my hero. Gee thanks (beaming) Now the brown paper bag with the cash is in the slot behind the dumpster..... May 22 05 05:09 pm Link Posted by F.Y. Hamada: The sad truth is that many middle-management corporate folks have that attitude. They are clueless, mindless nitwits but they are the ones who make those decisions. Most VPs and CEOs I've dealt with are sharp, intelligent folks who "get it" and understand things. Most "Executive Directors of Horsecrap" are total idiots. And I guarantee that if they have a choice between hiring you and hiring the guy with the $20,000 lighting setup, and you bid the same amount of money, and your work was slightly better than his ... HE would get the job. Because he "looks the part" a lot more. May 22 05 05:26 pm Link Personally I am ALWAYS interested in seeing the creative lighting solutions people come up with. Pretty much anyone can go out and buy studio lights. But creating a set up is what takes ingenuity. May 22 05 09:05 pm Link Posted by DJ Foothill: It also shows that the photographer has a firm understanding of lighting to be able to build something that performs as well as a product that they would have to spend twice as much than it took you to build it or more. I personally would hire the guy the built his equipment just because it shows drive and skill. But personally if someone likes my work but doesn't hire me cause they don't like that I built my equipment then Fuck them. I don't want to work for some asshole that can't see that it make no difference to the people looking at the pictures. And if it did they would have allot more respect for the picture because I built my equipment. Maybe I'm just a stubborn asshole but if it takes for me to spend $20,000 on lighting just to get a job then I'll be in the employment line. I do this for the art anyway and if I get paid for it, great and if I don't I'm still happy cause I was able to create something that I enjoyed. lol George Lucas said it the best, "I don't care what the critics think I didn't make this movie for them or the money, I made it for me." May 22 05 09:43 pm Link Posted by Eric Muss-Barnes: Posted by F.Y. Hamada: The sad truth is that many middle-management corporate folks have that attitude. They are clueless, mindless nitwits but they are the ones who make those decisions. Most VPs and CEOs I've dealt with are sharp, intelligent folks who "get it" and understand things. Most "Executive Directors of Horsecrap" are total idiots. And I guarantee that if they have a choice between hiring you and hiring the guy with the $20,000 lighting setup, and you bid the same amount of money, and your work was slightly better than his ... HE would get the job. Because he "looks the part" a lot more. One of the best pieces of advice I ever got for wedding work was a teacher of mine who said buy an L-bracket. He said it won't make a big differance in shooting but that it looks so impressive the clients will think you are a real pro, May 23 05 12:42 am Link Posted by Star: LOL May 23 05 12:53 am Link Nobody has mentioned using "auto shades" as reflectors. They are cheap, light and seem to work well. Mike May 23 05 09:46 am Link Posted by Mike Cummings: Great tip. I was thinking of that recently myself. Never tried it. May 23 05 09:57 am Link I use shop lights for my shoots all the time. My style is more for hard shadows and such, so they work great for me. I actually like the yellow color that I get from mine - it warms up my models and adds a bit of vibrancy to my images. Though this definately does not work with all skin tones. Another suggestion for a reflector - space blankets. They are cheap and can be cut easily to any size/shape you want, and mounted to pretty mucha anything with spray adhesive. Saryn MM #7374 May 23 05 10:07 am Link I've made a softbox out of a cardboard box with aluminum foil taped inside. You bounce your flash into there and you get a really nice soft light back. May 23 05 10:13 am Link If you need a BIG reflector (like for full length shots) if you go to Home Depot you can find white styrofoam insulation in 4x8 sheets for about $5. It's kind of flimsy, but it will stand if you lean it on something. Works pretty well. It's also real easy to cut if you need a smaller reflector. Also, take a sheet and cut it in half lengthwise, then stand the two pieces up like a "V" with the opening toward the model (you may need to use some tape). Shine your light or strobe into the "V" and you'll get very soft light back out of it. Kind of like a poor mans full length softbox. I haven't tried this, but I would think you could take a sheet, cut a hole for your lens, then place the stuff between you and your model. If you bounced your lights off the sheet you'd probably get the kino-flow effect some people like. Might be fun to try. May 23 05 10:24 am Link somewhere in this thread, it went from good tips for using homemade and/or less expensive equipment to a feeling that using "pro" and/or more expensive equipment represents some kind of elitism. sorry. i don't buy that. i shoot still and video cameras for a living. if a job calls for using a Hi-Def camera and that camera costs in the neighborhood of $100,000 (and rents for $1000/day), a $2000 miniDV camera or a $5000 mini HD camera is not going to cut it. and it's not about impressing a client. THat's not to say their aren't gigs the $2k miniDV camera isn't perfect for using, but it's all a matter of the right tool for the job. lighting equipment is much the same way. home depot lights can be used effectively with some imagination and skill. but they also represent some difficulties: they're difficult to control and modify and they produce a lot of heat. you can certainly get creative with home-made light modifiers, but they'll sometimes be limiting in their applications: you'll need to work around those limitations and make concessions to those limitations. I'm not an advocate for expensive gear when something less will do. i have a lot of gear and i've workd hard to afford it and, frankly, most of it was used gear when i bought it cuz i couldn't afford new. but there are many things i can do with my professionally manufactured lighting and grip equipment that makes life easier and gives me far greater capabilities. May 23 05 10:51 am Link Posted by F.Y. Hamada: Home built? WOW freaking awesome!!! I am a believer that it's not what one uses that makes the difference but how he/she uses it. You have amazing skills as lighting is key to everything photographically! May 23 05 11:14 am Link When one says tinfoil... would that be wrinkled up tin foil? or smooth tinfoil... I am curious... May 23 05 11:22 am Link refelctors.... I got mine for $15 on ebay and that included shipping. I love grey market materials, Star May 23 05 11:28 am Link Posted by Reese: Try both you might like the effect of the wrinkled up look. We're talkin the cost of tinfoil here I would go crazy with it just to see if you stumble across and new look. If all else fails wrap the model in it and shoot her with some hard lighting. That should look really weird lol. May 23 05 11:30 am Link Ok, now THIS is a good thread. Please keep it going and have others post their homemade projects. I'm new on the scene (7 months) and all of these are great ideas. Definintely going to head out to Home Depot on the first and make a couple of purchases. Thanks for all the good info. The Crazy Army Guy May 23 05 11:50 am Link Found an old home movie screen someone was throwing out. Use it as a large reflector. Works for me. May 23 05 11:57 am Link Posted by Reese: Wrinkled from the chewing! May 23 05 11:57 am Link Posted by jimmyd: I think there's also a big difference between getting up on your feet for a home studio and having a flexible rig that you can take on location, set up quickly and know will work every time. My Home Depot setup works well enough, but it has limitations in portability and any "accesories" (gel holders, etc.) have to be home built by me too. For a hot light setup, this setup's days are numbered. I will be replacing it will a Lowell setup that isn't too much more expensive but much more compact, much easier to setup/breakdown and has a better range of accessories to adapt to different situations quickly. May 23 05 12:21 pm Link Posted by CS-I-PHOTO: Sweet I know where to get one and it never crossed my mind to use it. It even has a stand! May 23 05 01:24 pm Link I am starting to do my own pics out of frustration with some of these photographers that won't let me go out of "the norm" (if someone asks me to do natural look tfp one more time..I am gonna loose it). Anyway, I used a 3 way lamp...used different wattage on each one and kinda experimented with how they were set. I left the flash on my Cannon A80 (please no laughing) and put up overhead lighting. It worked til I ran out of battery juice on my camera and couldn't find adaptor lol. Any hints as to what I can use for gels and where to find seamless colorful backdrops cheaps? This is scary I know, I have no clue and I am just gonna wing it. May 23 05 03:47 pm Link Posted by Naomi: Good for you! You will be an awesome photographer. I worked with a makeup artist that knew exactly how he needed stuff to be lit and he really challenged my skills with his requests. He taught me alot about capturing detail and thanks to him, I am learning to do cosmectic type lighting. May 23 05 04:41 pm Link |
That's why I don't show other photographers my lighting rig, don't want them laughing. 
