advice on portable lighting please

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Hi

I'm looking for advice on what would suit my needs. I mainly do car photos (love cars, love my camera, makes sense lol :)) and been messing around at night with torches and leds etc but I'm wanting to move myself on now. I've done some research and looked at handheld flashes and portable strobes and I think strobes will fit my bill (I may be wrong tho) whatever I get must be portable and I plan to light cars so bright but with no hot spots. I watched a video of someone using an alien bees strobe but these aren't in the UK but I think this is what I'm after.
What is your advice and please share recommended brands or your photos to guide me. My budget is small perhaps a few hundred pounds max but I'm happy for second hand products :)
Thanks so much!
 
For 'a few hundred pounds max' your option is speedlights.

But don't be disheartened by that, because unless your budget is huuuuge, you'll end up making use of some of the techniques below, which will save you money on gear.

A scrim will create a large light source (a plain shower curtain stretched over a DIY frame will do)

Light sections of the car at a time and merge the images in post

Shoot at darker times of the day so you don't need to overpower the bright sun*

*This can also help with interesting backgrounds.

You can get manual flashguns for less than £50, buy a couple, some triggers and the softbox I suggested in the 'first softbox' thread. If you want more details of any of this, just ask. The downside of flashguns for this, is the trial end error, without modelling lights, you'll not be able to see the highlights to control them.

The alternative for a huge budget would be to set up a bank of Safari2's in large softboxes, I'd guess you'd need maybe 4? So maybe £3000 including the softboxes. Alternatively if you really want to push the boat out, the Profoto B1 would be great for this at 3x the cost of the Lencarta Safari2.
 
Thanks so much for the detailed reply phil. Please could you elaborate on the manual flash gun scenario...
:)
 
ejm said:
Hi

I'm looking for advice on what would suit my needs. I mainly do car photos (love cars, love my camera, makes sense lol :)) and been messing around at night with torches and leds etc but I'm wanting to move myself on now. I've done some research and looked at handheld flashes and portable strobes and I think strobes will fit my bill (I may be wrong tho) whatever I get must be portable and I plan to light cars so bright but with no hot spots. I watched a video of someone using an alien bees strobe but these aren't in the UK but I think this is what I'm after.
What is your advice and please share recommended brands or your photos to guide me. My budget is small perhaps a few hundred pounds max but I'm happy for second hand products :)
Thanks so much!
Click to expand...

Need to be more specific, 'car photos' is too vague and covers a vast range of potential equipment. Can you post a link to an example image or two? We can probably work out how that was done and point you in the right direction.

Welcome to TP :)
 
Ok, here's one that I wish I could have lit better, please excuse the watermark I'm not trying to be pretentious I've had a few friends try to pass off my photos as theirs... I love messing around at night and light painting but torches just don't light the car enough and leave hot spots in the reflections
ps this was taken with a fish eye I really do love to experiment lol
 
This is another one... As you can see the rear end hasn't got much light at all because no matter how I tried to light it it glowed white with torch brightness :(
Altho it looks kinda cool like it's emerging from darkness it wasn't really the desired outcome :p
 
You've two options really - flashes, as mentioned, or light painting.

I can see you've done light painting before with the M3 above, but based on the writing it looks like your light source is too small. Get hold of an 120 LED panel video light like this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111244260955.

Some other tips:
  • Camera on a tripod, do multiple 6-15 second exposures and light a bit of the car at a time, then blend in Photoshop.
  • Make sure it's pitch black, your long exposures will amplify any stray light.
  • Point your light at the car, focus then switch to manual so it doesn't try focusing in the dark for each shot.
  • Take an ambient light exposure for the background before you start, otherwise most of the bg will be black.
  • A remote trigger (or a mate) will save walking between the camera and the car for each shot.

That should give you a results something like this:


Lotus Elise S1 Type-R by AdrianFRST, on Flickr

The hardest bit is getting good highlights along the shoulder of the car (I failed above) and balancing the lighting of the car and the background, especially the ground underneath the car, so it looks right.

The two most common errors I've seen when people try this is 1) not enough light on the top of the car and 2) not a bright enough light source, some you can barely tell are light painted.


As for flashes, these are more expensive(unless you only buy one, reposition it and merge the exposures . You'll need three to do a car, plus light stands, sandbags to weight the stands down so they don't fall over and a way of triggering them.

Advantages are:
  • Doesn't need to be pitch black, if you stop down the aperture enough you can use them in the day when the sun's out.
  • Quicker (once they are set up) you can just move them to another car or move the car into position.

Disadvantages:
  • Take a while to get set up - putting the stands up, syncing etc.
  • You'll get hotspots, but you can clone these out, see below.

Original and processed (hotspots removed)

ash-v6-original-1024x853-528a808863ae6.jpg



Ash's RenaulSport Clio V6 by AdrianFRST, on Flickr


Flashes will give you a different looks compared to light painting. Here's a couple of examples.

3x Canon Speedlight 600s:

focus-lane-strobed-1140x641-51e2f42b94b53.jpg


Then light painted with an LED video light:

focus-lane-lightpainted-1140x641-51e2f429353ba.jpg


These two have the exact same raw conversion settings, except saturation on the sky on the second, the green of the car is the same - it's mad how much the light painting makes the colour pop!
 
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AdrianFRST said:
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Flashes will give you a different looks compared to light painting. Here's a couple of examples.

3x Canon Speedlight 600s:

focus-lane-strobed-1140x641-51e2f42b94b53.jpg


Then light painted with an LED video light:

focus-lane-lightpainted-1140x641-51e2f429353ba.jpg


These two have the exact same raw conversion settings, except saturation on the sky on the second, the green of the car is the same - it's mad how much the light painting makes the colour pop!
Click to expand...
Some great shots BTW.
Whilst both options are acceeptable, personally I prefer the flash shot, due to the more 'realistic' modelling, and the lack of distracting reflections. As far as the colour 'popping' it's down to the colour of the light, these 2 cars are clearly different colours rather than one 'popping'. It'd be interesting to see them both next to the actual car.

Horses for courses though.
 
Thanks for the replies... Adrian especially that's a really detailed reply and full of so many useful tips!
I've got a selection of torches i use atm but non powerful as I want so I think judging by your images a flash is what I need. I'm currently making say half a dozen shots lighting each panel and merging in photoshop but again torch hot spots are chronic and I'm having to paint the whole panel because a quick flash just isn't enough to bring the colour out, which I'm hoping a flashgun will cure. Love the clio shot it's amazing what a bit of cloning can do!
What flashguns can be used in your hands and offer a flash but also say a "torch" mode? My other big problem has been getting the camera to focus to begin with as non of my light sources have been strong enough to light the focus point of the car so a flashgun that stays on long enough to set that up would be ace!
 
Great post from Adrian and excellent examples :thumbs:

I'd just say to ejm, that if you're new to photography then this is quite advanced stuff and you'll need to build a good level of general expertise to get reliable results. Basically, shoot lots - and not just cars. Alien Bees are nothing special, plenty of other good makes available here.
 
Thanks hoppy.
I've used my camera for years, and often out shooting various things, I love to experiment and play with aperture, shutter speed, various lens filters etc, but I kinda feel I've hit a wall with my car work and ready to take the next step up.

Below are some examples of other photos I take but my favourite genre by far are the cars, I guess it's because they are a lot less hassle to take, unlike babies and animals that fidget and get bored lol ;)

However lighting wise I am new too, I've done a couple of studio shoots but these places use really high end pricey equipment, alien bees was just an idea as the video looked like it did everything I needed and trying to Google equivalent products was coming up with nothing of any use to me so I thought I'd plague you guys :D









 
Alien Bees have a great rep because they are fantastic performers for the price. If you're in the US that is, the shipping costs, VAT and import duty to get them to the UK means they are no longer the bargain they are in The States.

Given that you've already started light painting, for now I would concentrate on mastering that - get a decent LED panel like the one I linked and see how you get on. Plenty of dark nights ahead so the perfect time of year for it!

Come Spring, when it's too light to light paint at sociable times, get a trio of flashes and then crack that.

For single exposure shots you'll need three flashes, plus the stands etc. Position them at the three visible corners of the car like this:

orange-elise-runcorn-setup.jpg


One thing I missed is that it's easier to balance ambient light and the flash. If you get it right it can look pretty good:


Chrome Orange Elise S1 by AdrianFRST, on Flickr
 
Ok I'll try the light panel first just gotta try find one in the UK so I can play before Christmas lol! Then I'll defo be trying that trio set up the elise looks fab!!
The UK ones don't seem to include a power source will it eat through aa batteries?
 
Thanks! :D

I bought my LED panel from Hong Kong. It came with a battery and charger with a US plug. Couple of quid on eBay for a UK to US adaptor and you're good to go.
 
ejm said:
Thanks hoppy.
I've used my camera for years, and often out shooting various things, I love to experiment and play with aperture, shutter speed, various lens filters etc, but I kinda feel I've hit a wall with my car work and ready to take the next step up.

Below are some examples of other photos I take but my favourite genre by far are the cars, I guess it's because they are a lot less hassle to take, unlike babies and animals that fidget and get bored lol ;)

However lighting wise I am new too, I've done a couple of studio shoots but these places use really high end pricey equipment, alien bees was just an idea as the video looked like it did everything I needed and trying to Google equivalent products was coming up with nothing of any use to me so I thought I'd plague you guys :D

<snip>
Click to expand...

(y)



Adrian, that Lotus shot is really top class bud (y) The colour helps!

Good of you to share shooting info, too. A lot of folks are very precious about that kind of thing; not sure why as it's not easy even when you've got a good car in a great location, when the light's right and you know what you're doing ;)
 
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^^ Yeh Adrian, hoppy makes a damn good point and I'm very appreciative of not only the advice but the visual too! Once I've mastered lighting something else on my bucket list is rigs and that seems to be something people stay tight lipped about too.
Because I'm impatient I'm gonna find a UK seller and invest in some more aa batteries lol :)
Very grateful for both your replies this should keep me busy for now and come spring I'll be back nagging about moving onto a flashgun set up :)
 
I'm just starting with lighting as well and have played around with lighting a car.

I found flashes gave me a result that was preferable to torches but I still used a light painting type technique. Long exposure as normal but walk around the car manually firing the flash in the hand. That said I haven't tried a big light source like the video lights.

Remember that you don't need a set of high end Nikon or Canon speedlights either. A few Yongnuo manual speedlight and radio triggers would do - you could get three with triggers for comfortably under £150 and stands are under a tenner each.
 
Wow as cheap as that?! I wasn't sure what brands were compatible but it's a relief not knowing I have to stick with nikon ones, a few sb910s would make my bank account cry :p didn't realise stands were so cheap as well!!
 
The Yongnuo at that price is manual rather than TTL but to be honest with cars TTL probably isn't going to work.
 
Still a lot more money though? And with a YN560-TX you get remote control of the 560-III flashes. If you have no existing equipment, compatibility with SB910 isn't an issue.
 
xraymtb said:
Still a lot more money though? And with a YN560-TX you get remote control of the 560-III flashes. If you have no existing equipment, compatibility with SB910 isn't an issue.
Click to expand...

Yes :thumbs:

In just the last few years, Yongnuo has pretty much single-handedly opened up the strobist market to a whole new sector of photographers with good quality and amazingly affordable flash guns and triggers.
 
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