Cheap way to get directional light for small items

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plymman

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I'm totally new to the world of lighting but want to take some photo's of my watch collection and my wife's craft/baking products. What is a good way to get cheap side and back lighting? I have crudely constructed a light tent with some very thin white cotton and I have a good size piece of white card (this really is just getting started in the cheapest way!)

What would you suggest I side and backlight with without spending a fortune as natural light just isn't strong enough?
 
Anglepoise lamps, mount card for flags and reflectors in both black and white, bulldog clips to hold said card in place.
 
i've seen a lot of cheapie setups on amazon, ebay etc... that look like very cheap plastic torches, I don't know why I didn't consider anglepoise lamps!? Two of those would probably be perfect, thanks for the idea.
 
and pick up a copy of light, science and magic with the money you saved :) THE definitive textbook on photo lighting, especially for product stuff
 
I'll try and pick up a copy, I just picked up two anglepoise lamps from town so I can try some practice shots over the weekend, handy really as I needed a desk lamp anyway!
 
This was taken using a white plastic storage box, two 500w worklamps from B&Q and a Nikon 8700 bridge camera....

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^ very nice shot, here is my pretty lame attempt, done with paper for the watch to sit on and my laptop on a white screen for attempt at some lighting. Then with my phone's flash light on through paper :P Cant get much cheaper setup than that :P

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The set up? Thin, cheap flexible chopping boards - lit by two speed lights (but could just have easily been anglepoise lights etc.). On a D70 too if we want to talk old school!
 
Anyone else got any ideas on this, as i'm looking myself, maybe 2 or 3 small cheap desktop lamps ? which would be best halogen or other ? and how powerful ? i seen these HERE in argos, are they any good ? is 50w enough ?
 
I would think 50w is nowhere near powerful enough unless the object you're shooting is tiny and/or you don't mind fairly long exposures (especially if you use diffusers).
 
muscleflex said:
would have loved to see the setup shot for this!
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It's basically one of those plastic storage crates you get in B&Q or the pound shop, turned on it's side with a 500w B&Q work lamp (the big yellow ones) on either side and an A4 print out of the Panerai blueprints for a background.

Camera on a tripod (probably in P mode :lol:), hideously long exposure and Bob's your uncle...
 
Ozei said:
I would think 50w is nowhere near powerful enough unless the object you're shooting is tiny and/or you don't mind fairly long exposures (especially if you use diffusers).
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yeah, you'll be using long exposures (don't forget mirror lockup and cable release) but even 50w is quite a bit of light when it's that close to the subject.
 
Ozei said:
I would think 50w is nowhere near powerful enough unless the object you're shooting is tiny
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I'm going to be shooting jewelry, i do have more powerful lights smart-flash 200's but I'm guessing this is overkill.
 
TG. said:
I'm going to be shooting jewelry, i do have more powerful lights smart-flash 200's but I'm guessing this is overkill.
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modelling lights of the smartflashes will be fine too. Colour temperatures should all match up. Just don't ever put energy saving bulbs in the angle-poise lamps
 
Cheng said:
3638713761_f90b6c1903_z.jpg


The set up? Thin, cheap flexible chopping boards - lit by two speed lights (but could just have easily been anglepoise lights etc.). On a D70 too if we want to talk old school!
Click to expand...
This is quite a nice shot - OK, not perfect but a good example of what can be done WITHOUT a lot of diffusion.

The other examples in this thread are all suffering from light reflected from the 'glass' and some are suffering from flare too. In each case it's caused by light bouncing around in an uncontrolled way from reflector boards, light tents or other diffusers, hitting the 'glass' at the wrong angle and being reflected into the lens. The trick here is to do what Cheng has done and have CONTROLLED light.
I'm going to be shooting jewelry, i do have more powerful lights smart-flash 200's but I'm guessing this is overkill.
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Not overkill at all, in fact it's exactly what I would use. If you want the lights to be smaller, just move them further away.

For shots like these, you need controlled lighting and a bit of drama. Within reason, it doesn't matter what sort of lights you use as long as you can control the direction and placement of the light and as long as you don't b****r it up by diffusing it too much.
 
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