Simple photograhy technique

[john lucas]

I've been working on new lighting for my teaching demo's. I'm not using CFL bulbs. they are very close to daylight so many cameras will work in Auto mode so you don't have to carry the manual to find the white balance settings.
I used a 45 watt reflector lamp from ALZO http://www.alzodigital.com/online_store/cfl-reflector-light-bulb.htm
It spreads to much and is hard to control the light so I built a grid from cardboard tubes. I cut the tubes to 2" lengths. You could use toilet paper tubes but I bought some cheap wrapping paper and took the tubes out I painted them black and hot glued them together.
I put a 4 foot white cloth panel on one side and smaller one on the other side to reflect light back into the shadow side. these were just white translucent fabric and PVC pipe.
The back ground is a gray seamless paper. You could use graduated backgrounds of if you don't mind on color and now fade, poster board.
The light runs about $10 plus shipping. I picked up the light stand at the flea mkt but you can find them pretty cheap online or rig up what we call a stick in a can. Put a 1x2 in a gallon can and fill it with concrete or gravel. Then just rig up a clamping system.
The color is off very slightly so I put a 10 magenta filter on the lens. You could just color correct in photoshop but I wanted to find out exactly how much it was off. My exposure was 2 seconds at F11, ISO 200 daylight white balance.

 

[Owen Lowe]

I'm not using CFL bulbs. ...
I used a 45 watt reflector lamp from ALZO

John, I'm a little confused, aren't the Alzo bulbs CFL?

Thanks for posting their link - they look very attractive price-wise.

 

[john lucas]

Owen They are CFL. I'm using them because Quartz lights are so hot they are dangerous. Photo incandescents are expensive and burn out after just 15 or so hours. The CFL's that I'm going to list are all around 5500K which is close enough to daylight to use those setting on your white balance.
they lie bigtime about the power they put out but if you shoot in a darkened room they will work. The light I mentioned is 45 watt. The adds claim it equals 275 watt incandescent. Well in my tests it doesn't even come close to matching a standard 100 watt light bulb. I would say it's closer to 45 watt's which is what it is.
I'm using the CFL's because we should still be able to get them after the government ruling on light bulbs take affect. And because they are cool enough that you can make cardboard accessories such as barn doors, or grids. You had to make them out of steel with the Quartz lights.
It's going to make it tough to do my lighting demos in places where you can't turn the lights down or off. These lights aren't bright enough to override the house lights.
I've put together a list of the lights that I'm playing with along with backgrounds and other supplies. I can't figure out how to post it here so if anyone is interested send an e-mail to johnclucas@charter.net and I'll send it to you.

 

[Ted Calver]

I'm not using CFL bulbs.

That's why we were confused

 

[john lucas]

Oh I see. Wish everyone could read my mind. Everything is perfect in my head.

 

[Owen Lowe]

Perhaps you could gang 2-4 together to increase the light intensity - but then that opens other issues.

 

[john lucas]

Owen One light I bought has 3 45 watt bulbs in one reflector. It gives about the same output as the one 70 watt bulb in the silver soft box. Neither of them come close to the exposure I get with one 300 watt quartz light. Still they work just fine in a darkened room.
I plan to do several videos showing how to use the lights. I just won't have time for several more weeks. We get snowed under this time of year.

 

[Bob Edwards]

85w

John, I have been looking for a "cool" bulb to get away from halogen. In an inexpensive aluminum clip on reflector, modified with your tubes, what would you think of this bulb?
http://www.jensenbest.com/Fluorescent_Bulb_p/3320.htm
Also would a thin wall white PVC work any better than black tubes? But than the idea is to be directional. That may defeat the purpose.
Bob Edwards

 

[john lucas]

Well first of all I have found that they all lie like crazy concerning the wattage. They claim an 85 watt bulb will be equivelent to 300 watts. So far what I've found is an 85 watt bulb equals about 85 watts when compared to an incandescent bulb. That being said they work pretty well.
The bulbs I've been playing with are listed in the PDF below. There is a 45 watt bulb with reflector for about $20. It works well. I've added a cardboard grid made out of wrapping paper tubes to help control the spread of the light.
Here is a copy of what I put up on Woodcentral.
Here is the new process I'm working on to make shooting your work easier. I bought a 45 watt reflector light from Alzo. I think it was $20. I put it on a cheap lightstand. It is too broad of a light and hard to control so I built a grid out of cardboard tubing. I just used christmas wrapping paper tubes and cut them down to 2" and hot glued them together. I still need to find a way to lock it in the reflector. It sort of stays in there but falls out too easily.
I shined this light into a large 4 foot square panel. I used a smaller panel on the right to bounce light back into that side. These were made from PVC. I just used any white material that will transmit light. Some are white nylon, some are cotton.
I am lucky in my studio to have enough space to move the background quite far back. this makes it fairly easy to get the graduated background look.
This is a fairly reflective piece. Not glossy but a few steps up from satin so it would show a bad reflection if you used the reflector light without the panel.
I will show other ways to do vessels I get the lighting working.
These bulbs aren't very bright and are slightly off daylight color. You could easily correct the color in photoshop. I put a 10 magenta filter on so I would know what to tell people if they want dead on color. You will need a tripod which is a good idea anyway. The exposure at 200 ISO was 2 seconds at f11.

 

[John Torchick]

John, you are using the fabric to "soften" the light? I have a hard time with glare on taking pictures of fishing rods. I'm using an incandescent light. Doesn't work! I'll spend a few bucks and try a setup like yours. Thanks for sharing.

 

[john lucas]

John what "softens" light is the size of the light source. A panel that has been evenly lit by another light appears to the object as a very large light source. Large can be relevant.
What I would use to shoot what your shooting is a styrafoam beer cooler. cut one side out of it. Lay it over your reel and then put a light up above so it lights one side, the top and maybe even the back. Or you could just take it outside and let the sun shine on these areas. It will give you a very even light with little glare.
If I have time after the next shoot that is coming in shortly I'll take a photo with one of my coolers. I have 2. One has the bottom and one side cut out. The other just has one side cut out. I use them to shoot jewelry. it's amazing the shots I can get with virtually no effort with this set up.

 

[Dave Fritz]

Some photographers use vellum as a diffusion screen. It's pretty cheap and can be found at art supply stores or drafting supply stores.

Dave F.

 

[john lucas]

Vellum is really too transparent. At least the kind I tried to use. What you want to do is not only diffuse the light but not see the size of the original light. What I tell people to look for is to hole the fabric up and look at the ceiling light through it. if it passes the light fairly well but you have difficulty seeing what kinds of light are going through it then it will work well.
I've used muslin, cotton, rayon and nylon. The commercial panels are usually rip stop nylon but most of us won't abuse our panels that much.