Lighting for still-life product studio

[Sarawoot Chittratanawat]

Hi friends,
I'm not sure this is a right group or not. But I think I can find only
2 newsgroups that can help me.
My sister and me want to shoot her product, e.g., handbags, purse. As I
asked newsgroup before about the lighting for my friend -now it's my turn.
:(
I have 2 Nikon SB-28, SU-4(wireless control for macro photo that I
like), SC-17 TTL flash cord. I surely have many lenses, tripod, ballhead,
cameras (F100). But my field is mostly outdoor or natures. I have never
setup studio before. When I worked long time ago, we had studio and I just
arrange those things around.
Let say I start from "nothing" (with those on-camera flashes). What
do I have to have. I can invest to study studio-photo too -I hope. I have
budget about $1,000... no more. Can you guy please help me spend some money
on the studio lighting ? I really appreciate your help. Thank you very
much in advance.

Your Sincerely,
Sarawoot

[zeitgeist]

Handbags and purses are often leather, black or dark brown
leather, but even cloth requires accurate highlight
control.

I recommend you start with window light and a large
reflector, and several other cards with easel backs with
either white or silver surface, maybe even some mirrors.
place your window light like a softbox or umbrella, either
at a 45' or 90' angle and move them around till the light
skims across the surface of the objects.

It is from product photographers that I developed most of my
concepts of lighting, especially portrait lighting.
Highlights are very important, glossy dark objects are very
difficult to capture nicely. By using a very large diffuse
light source you can place a very large diffuse highlight
across the surface of say a black leather purse.
What you want is the effect of glare on eyeglasses on a
cloudy day, not the glare off glasses on a sunny day. Hard
glare is a solid white (blocked) spectral that shows NO
detail, soft glare will still reveal detail and etch any
texture.

If your objects are textile, then the same lighting will
work, add some mirrors to skim across the texture to pick up
highlights from a oblique direction for a sharper looking
product and more sense of shape.

with your shoe flash you could bounce your light, either off
the ceiling or my preference, the sidewall, but you would be
shooting in hte dark so to speak and that technique requires
a lot of light or faster film. direct flash from small
light sources are harsh and spectral.

[Brian Kosoff]

    First off do not shoot them dead straight on as this really limits your lighting options.  Shoot them at an angle, and at the exact opposite angle place a very large, much larger than the bags,  clean and neutral white card.  Aim your flash at the white card, low flash power if the bags are glossy, higher power if they are more matte. This will give you a controlled reflection on the face of the bag.  If you make the light on the card gradate, so will the highlight on the bag. Then you'll need to use a softbox type light, coming in from the front upper corner, opposite the white card, to give you general illumination and some highlights. Move the softbox around until you get the desired effect, but really watch what the light does.  You will also need to add some white or silver reflector cards, also bigger than the bag as fill light for the shadows, smaller white or silver cards can be used to give highlight details.
    For equipment I suggest you rent a polaroid back for your camera so you can see what your light is really doing.
Quite frankly this type of shot takes some experience and your sister is probably going to be happier hiring a real still life photographer.
Brian
    my website is at www.kosoff.com

[Stanley K. Patz]

Sarawoot Chittratanawat wrote:

>
> My sister and me want to shoot her product, e.g., handbags, purse. As I
> asked newsgroup before about the lighting for my friend -now it's my turn.
> :(
> I have 2 Nikon SB-28, SU-4(wireless control for macro photo that I
> like), SC-17 TTL flash cord. I surely have many lenses, tripod, ballhead,

> cameras (F100). I have

> budget about $1,000... no more. Can you guy please help me spend some money

Dear Sarawoot,

Making decent still-life photos is not necessarily about spending money.

Forget the on-camera flash. Buy some inexpensive flood lights with color correct
3200K bulbs. Make a few small diffusers (3'x3'?) from bed sheets or shower
curtain material. Use "indoor" color film - film balanced for "tungsten" light
(3200k) - or BW film.

Mount your camera on a tripod and Illuminate the subject with the floods
shinning through the diffusers. Explore sidelight for some nice modeling or rig
an overhead diffuser for topflight. Keep the diffusers close to the subject-
just out of the frame.

When you get familiar with that stuff, add a small spotlight to add more "punch"
to your subject or make an accent spot on your background.

Stan Patz New York City

[Frank Calidonna]

I have to add some advice and a warning to Mr. Patz' answer. He is very
right that you do not have to spend a great deal of money to do this,
but I must add a warning. NEVER NEVER shoot hot lights through bed
sheets or shower curtain material unless your fire insurance is paid up
and you have an understanding insurance company. Go to the Calumet or
other website or to a camera store and purchase some Rosco spun fiber
diffusion material. It is made for hot lights, diffuses wonderfully, and
is COMPLETELY FIREPROOF.

Another thing to rememeber is that white sheets and clothing fabric are
almost universally made with ultra-violet flourescers added to make
whites whiter. To diffuse your light through these materials would
grossly alter the color of your photographs and the items you are
shooting. So even if they were fireproof they still are not good to use.
If you are using a flash you can diffuse through rip-stop nylon - the
same thing commercial diffusers are made from, but this is not fireproof
for use with hot lights. By the way a two foot square of Rosco material
is probably less than ten bucks. Far less that the replacement cost of
your home I am sure.

You might want to go to your local library or book store and get a book
on simple product lighting. As long as you are not photographing shiny
objects you should be able to do a decent job with a little care. If you
are not doing this for a living you do not have to spend much money, but
you still need to know how to properly light a subject and you should
not light products the same as portraits. One of the Dean Collin's books
might be good. I don't have any other book names right at hand, but
there are many. Take care.

Frank Rome,NY

[Stanley K. Patz]

Frank Calidonna wrote:

> I have to add some advice and a warning to Mr. Patz' answer. He is very
> right that you do not have to spend a great deal of money to do this,
> but I must add a warning. NEVER NEVER shoot hot lights through bed
> sheets or shower curtain material unless your fire insurance is paid up
> and you have an understanding insurance company.

Dear Mr. Calidonna,

We are all well advised to heed your warnings about the dangers of using floodlights
and bed sheets indoors; there is the possibility of fire and many of these materials
lower the color temperature of the lights producing warm-toned photos.

In my few short sentences, I was just trying to make the point that you don’t need a
lot of expensive stuff to make nice pictures. It's the technique that is important,
not the equipment. While I have no problem getting $100+ rolls of Rosco diffusion
material from a local supplier, that is an unnecessarily high price for people to pay
when they are just exploring new areas of photography.

Stan Patz NYC