Help Needed

Lee0204

Lee0204

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Lee
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Hi All

I’m after some help with studio lighting I don’t have allot of experience in photography and after the wife keeps going to Debenhams to get pics taken of the baby every few weeks at £300 a time I decided to buy a camera (cannon G10) and a studio lighting kit off eBay http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/540w-Studio-Flash-Lighting-Kit-Softbox-Barndoor-Bag_W0QQitemZ400102056484QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Photography_StudioEquipment_RL?hash=item5d27f0e224
it may be a load of rubbish but like I said I don’t have allot of experience and didn’t really know what I was buying, ok been trying for a few weeks now trying to take pics on a plain white background, ive tried different lights in different places tried using umbrellas/sofbox, light on half power, full power and in the middle and I cant seem to get any good pics :thumbsdown:
I either get the background showing up with creases or the subject washed out:'(

What am I doing wrong have I got the lights in the wrong places? Have I got the light setting to high/low?

Any help would be greatful:thumbs:

Thanks Lee
 
Shame you are in Plymouth Lee or I'd offer to do it for you every few weeks for £250 a time :thumbs:

That's one seriously cheap lighting kit :eek:

How much space have you got to work with Lee? You need to consider the subject lighting and background lighting as two separate things, and I mean separate. Give yourself a good 5ft of space between the background and the subject or the background light will swamp the subject lighting as you need to hit the background with a reasonable amount of light. Do you have a light meter? If you do it's much easier, but if not you can mess around until you've got it.
If I were you I'd leave the background lights off to start with and get the subject lights set to give you a good exposure of the subject only (the background will look grey at this point) Camera on manual at or under its sync shutter speed (say 1/125sec) and at f/8 iso 100. Then when you've got that right turn on the background lights and adjust them until the background is white (or as close as, you can dodge the nasty grey bits in photoshop).

Hope that helps a bit :)

Edit:
Here is always a good place to start... work your way through this http://www.zarias.com/?p=71
 
if you're about in exe when I have some studio stuff set up I'll walk ya through it but 90% of the time I just have speedlights and rent studio stuff when needed :D
 
That particular kit is sold by a lot of different people under different names. It isn't great and there's a real danger that you'll find it limiting, once you have some experience. The main limitations are the very slow recycling (frustrating when you're photographing kids) and inconsistent colour temperature and inconsistent power.
But it will work, and if that's your budget then I suggest that you buy the kit from a UK seller with a good reputation such as Stable Imaging, they charge less money and will give you support if it goes wrong, and support from a Hong Kong seller can be difficult/expensive...

Once you have some lighting, you can learn by experimenting. Personally I'd start out without trying to shoot against a white background - which is doable but can be difficult without the right equipment, the right amount of space and some knowledge
 
As V8 burble said...

You want to use 2 lights pointing at the background (White bedsheet etc)...
and one light using the softbox pointing at the subject...

Start with the front light first then adjust the background lights after.
1/125,F8 and Iso 100 is your camera settings to start...

You can adjust the power by turning it up or down or moving the light closer or further away....

Check out http://www.lastoliteschoolofphotography.com for some ideas and tips...

:thumbs:
 
kennysarmy said:
I think you need to give her less house-keeping ;)
Click to expand...

Dunno - that's less than I charge for babies. They are harder than they look ;)

About 1 in 20 babies freak out when you try to put them on a white b/g. Plus there's a low limit to the number of cheap Chinese flashheads I'm comfortable putting within flailing distance of a baby. But I bet a really big shooting table would be cool for this. Light it from beneath and behind and do something clever with a softbox.

Is there some reason you don't want to take more lifestyle pictures? I bet Debenhams would if they could.
 
That's some thread revival! lol
 
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