Good choice for make-shift studio lighting?

[machineman9]

I'm doing more and more studio photography and as a result of not having a lot of money to hand, I am looking for make-shift ways to get the parts I may require for my studio type photos.

Today I am looking at lighting, and I had a quick look on Amazon and I found these rather interesting lights which to me look like they could provide some fairly decent lighting and produce some soft (and bounced) shadows.

I could probably modify aspects if the lights were too close, or would not angle properly, but does it look alright?


A single light (12W power saving bulb to give lighting effect of a conventional 60W bulb) is giving me some alright lighting on the walls so far and would allow for some decent photos, but requires a shutter speed of below 1/20th, and I assume having more lighting will allow me to raise this so I can get some even clearer photos.


Cheers

[BAW0343]

The only problems I would see with what you linked is how short they are, and the possibility of un-even light.

The height issue can be fixed via a stool, so what remains to be seen is if the lights produce an even light over the entire subject.  And Tungsten lights often have an odd color cast that you would have to fix in Post processing.

They could work 

[61_OTU]

Hi,

these look like they could be a false economy. Show us some examples of what you have done so far and I'll tell you what my experience has been

Steve

edit: include the full info of shutter, aperture, iso and a diagram/description of how the lights were set up

[machineman9]

I'm afraid I have no current photos where I have used controlled lighting. I have been on set of 2 shoots helping out with the lighting, however, so I have seen some interesting ways of getting the right sorts of shadows.

Up until now I have been using day time ambient lighting, which although has produced some really nice photos on occasion, is unreliable and I can't always get the exact look I am going for. Are you still interested in seeing those photos or does it not really apply so much knowing that I've not used proper lighting in my work so far?



Also, at places such as B&Q, they have work lights going up to 500W, which is a lot brighter than the previous lights I showed you, and cheaper. But I do worry about the condition of my model's eyes as they might have to be switched on all/most of the time in order for it to work. I presume there is no get around to allow me to get those lights to flash as if they were a camera's lights, is there?

[machineman9]

By the way, is it possible to buy a blank hot shoe for my EOS 1000D? What I mean is, the hot shoe attachment, then unused leads coming off of that so I could develop my own attachments?

Is that even possible? Is there is guide to the pin outputs of the hotshoes? Am I just crazy?

[61_OTU]

AAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!! Too many questions, brain hurts!!!!

Deep breaths......ok.

I've been around this loop myself, and it is perfectly possible to use constant lights for photography. Initially I used some large video lights my brother used for video production. These were big, and hot, and gave a Tungsten (orange) colour cast. They worked quite well, but were essentially on or off, and blazed away in the faces of the subjects for the whole time they were in front of the camera.

The lights you have suggested will work in the same way, and may be cooler, but I think that you will find that you will need to use a larger aperture, a higher ISO, and a longer shutter speed in order to get enough light into the camera than you would with a strobe. I don't know of any way to trigger constant lights to make them work like strobes.

Strobes give much stronger and more controlled light, enabling you to use lower ISO (better quality), faster shutter speeds (less blur) and smaller apertures (greater depth of field).

For [url=http://www.fotosense.co.uk/interfit-int182-ex150-mkii-home-studio-twin-head-kit.html?gclid=COmV0tTH0Z4CFU0A4wodF1p6rA]

[machineman9]

No my head isn't hurting at all actually and that's some pretty nice advice, so thank you.

My brother in law was suggesting I look at hot lights, such as the construction light I mentioned in my second post - the 500W one.

I've used the 430EXII (two of them seperate to the camera, then IR fired) and I must admit it is very nice to use, but it is expensive.

I set myself a little project to try and build a studio for under

[61_OTU]

Fair enough. I'm pretty sure that most halogens have warning labels to say how close they should be positioned to the nearest surface, which may help, and if you can bounce these lights then it will negate the impact of the heat/brightness being directly aimed at the subject.

However as you bounce the light you dramatically reduce the amount of light that reaches the subject, have a look at the inverse square law . So a low powered constant light bounced so as not to cook your subject will become even more low powered......

If you're either set or stuck on using constant lights then the best bet may be to up the ISO and concentrate on using the lights to eliminate shadows. Depending on whether they are tungsten or CFL lights you will need to set your white balance accordingly to counteract the colour cast.

Steve

[machineman9]

I think we did the inverse light rule in physics. It was more to do with sources of light diffracting, but the same rules seem to apply. Having a poor reflector won't help either.

I think I should probably see the actual lights as I can't quite visualise how bright it would have to be. 60W conventional bulb seems to only require 1/20th shutter when I am shooting at a white wall (similar to the shoot I would do), so a 500W bulb should be alright. I don't quite know how much the shutter speed could go to for that set up, but it seems like it might be enough.

I really am just stuck between going down the cheapy road, or looking to make a real investment here. I don't currently do a lot of photo shoots.

[The Ruptured Duck]

Buy an external flash and make it a slave unit with a tent.  Another technique I use for makeshift studio is to set the camera on a tripod with the flash and bounce it off foil, a blank piece of paper or place a low-thread count cloth over the strobe and shoot through it.

While having studio lighting is nice its big, bulky and usually requires more space in order to diffuse the light.  A flash may be more expensive but its a NICE tool to have in the camera bag

[eno]

Just my two pennies worth....

Save yourself some money by buying the cheap construction lighting. On top of that don't bother with expensive diffusers when you can buy lighting gels which will do the same job, you can even get colour correction gels.