Whats the best way to light up a product for a photo shoot?

Question

I work for a small company and I have multiple light stands with two 500 watt lights, more for lighting an area than photo shoots. We have a white product with black background but the photos looked yellow. Taking off the protective grill was a good step, but there are also strange shadows that 1000 watts isn't strong enough to fully remove.

Long question short, how do I whiten the picture or at least cheaply cover the lights with keeping in mind the lights are hot!!!

Answer 1

Get a copy of the Oct. 2007 issue of Shutterbug Magazine. Its their annual lighting issue. You can also read it at shutterbug.com.

The yellow tint sounds like a white balance problem unless you're using film. For indoor work your film should be tungsten balanced. Using daylight film indoors will result in color shifts to the yellow/orange range.

If using a digital camera check your WB settings - refer to your Owner's Manual for directions. There is a product called an ExpoDisc (expoimaging.net) to set WB under mixed lighting conditions. It was reviewed in Shutterbug a couple of months ago.

Answer 2

Lighting can be tricky!

You can try setting your camera to the correct type of lighting. The yellow caste may be because you are using tungston lighting and the camera is on flourescent. Correct the white balance if this is a digital shot.

To double your lighting without lights you can use mirrors to reflect the light back. Silver or white boards can help as well. The secret is not to lose light but to reflect it on your subject.

If your product is small and you have others to do in the future you may want to consider a Studio Cubelite Kit:
"The Studio Cubelite kits includes everything you need to take great prodcut shots. You get the Cubelite, 2 Tungsten lights with 500w bulbs and reflectors, one light stand, one backlight light stand, and a soft box."
Link : http://www.warehouseexpress.com/?photo/studio_lighting/lastolite.html#cubelitelight

Answer 3

The yellow color sounds like a mismatch between the color temperature of the film, if using film, or the incorrect white balance setting for a digital camera.

From what you have said, it sounds like you are using something like quartz halogen work lights for lighting. Tungsten film is approximately balanced for these lights, but you should use a CC (color correction) filter for the most accurate color rendition. Check with a pro photography shop. They can tell you exactly what you need. Just tell them you want to 'gel' your lights and what lights you are using.

If you need to vary the intensity of your lights on the subject, do it by changing the distance between the lights and the subject. Don't use any kind of light dimmer. It will throw your color correction off. The light you dim will get much 'warmer' and this creates a mixed lighting situation. To get a handle on the distances to move your lights, or distances to place them, look up 'Inverse Square Law' as it relates to lighting.

In digital, you can manually set your white balance with most decent cameras, which gets you past needing to filter your lights. Again, if you need to change the lighting intensity, vary the distance from the light to the subject. Again, you don't want a mixed lighting situation.

Your shadow problem is basically not knowing how to light. Without a picture of what you are shooting, it's hard to say anything about how it should be best lit, but the answer isn't to throw more light at it. For smaller products, say up to about 2 feet in size, the most often used method is to 'tent' the subject. There are commercially available products for just this situation made by various companies. They're easy to find, search 'product photography lighting tent'.

What a tent does is produce very soft to no shadows. This is very good for many products, but not good at all for others.

For products that you can't use a tent for, hire a professional photographer (something you may want to do anyway). Good lighting is a very subtle art and you simply aren't going to be able to do it well.

Good luck.

Vance

Answer 4

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