Lighting help please

[FiestaRed]

As a bonsai enthusiast, I have been asked to take shots of other peoples bonsai and plants, unfortunately I'm a 99.5% landscape/weather photographer and have no studio kit at all. I would like to buy something simple to help light the shots. I had thought of buying a basic white roller blind to fix up over my workshop bench and would like a couple of lights to place either side of the bonsai once they're sat on the roller blind.

Can anyone recommend something simple and preferably cheap I could place either side of the plants that would give enough light to take a shot? The shots do not need to be brilliant, just something good enough for people to keep a decent record of their trees as they progress. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Phil V]

I’m struggling with 2 of your assumptions (I’ll do another post with some thoughts):
1 why as a landscape photographer do you see photographing a natural object to require artificial light?
I mean, any time is a good time to expand your skill set, but jumping to the conclusion you’ll need to buy lighting is a weird reason to do it, you’ve loads of options.

2 why is it that people who’ve never used lighting always assume the default position is 2 lights, one either side of the subject? Most lighting is used to mimic or improve on natural light. In nature there’s one light source and it’s above us.

 

[swanseamale47]

As Phil says above.
That said theres plenty of cheap continous lighting about link something like this should be plenty for a small "still life" type shot, I'm assuming you have a tripod and your subject isn't moving so power shouldn't be a problem, and with this lighting what you see is what you get, some people find flash tricky to visulize.

 

[Phil V]

So, do you need a uniform white bg? Or could you be more creative?

For a bonsai sized object, you don’t need a full size backdrop system, but I’d be looking at oof vegetation or something like stone.

Secondly, if you can’t use window light or even the outdoors due to practical reasons, for that sized object as a still life, you could use any artificial light source, I’d normally only recommend flash, but that’s cos I’m normally talking about lighting people where the power is needed cos people move.

Now to the lighting, if you shoot landscapes, you’re generally using a single point light source (the sun) with added softening (clouds / sky) and reflectors in the shape of other objects.

So the minimum would be an angle poise lamp, some translucent material home made frames and crocodile clips, and some white and black card to manage the shadows.

Next up is a speedlight, transmitter, stand and a pop up Godox softbox, some black and white reflectors.

Or you can buy a pair of proper studio heads, brollies, reflectors, background poles etc etc.

Just a caveat on the anglepoise, unless you use tungsten (which you’ll need to change the WB for), any other bulb will be ‘discontinuous’ meaning you’ll not be able to get a full spectrum of colours, which might be important for some of your subjects, meaning the colours will never be perfect.

 

[Phil V]

Just to reiterate, whether we use one light or 14, there’s only one key light, that’s taking the place of the sun, anything else is a fill (to fill a shadow) or a kicker (to add an interesting light accent)

 

[FiestaRed]

Thanks for all the help and thanks for the link Wayne really appreciated.

I’m struggling with 2 of your assumptions (I’ll do another post with some thoughts):
1 why as a landscape photographer do you see photographing a natural object to require artificial light?
I mean, any time is a good time to expand your skill set, but jumping to the conclusion you’ll need to buy lighting is a weird reason to do it, you’ve loads of options.

2 why is it that people who’ve never used lighting always assume the default position is 2 lights, one either side of the subject? Most lighting is used to mimic or improve on natural light. In nature there’s one light source and it’s above us.

The first point Phil is that whenever I've tried to shoot any form of still life outdoors with an added background it's either been windy or wet or both. So using the workshop bench with added lighting was my alternative, giving me a chance to shoot whatever the conditions.

The second point just shows my ignorance of lighting.

 

[Phil V]

Thanks for all the help and thanks for the link Wayne really appreciated.

The first point Phil is that whenever I've tried to shoot any form of still life outdoors with an added background it's either been windy or wet or both. So using the workshop bench with added lighting was my alternative, giving me a chance to shoot whatever the conditions.

The second point just shows my ignorance of lighting.

I suppose it leads to the question, if you’re free to shoot whenever you want, then using the lighting you’re used to should be the first choice.
Second choice definitely window light, unless you have to shoot in the dark.
But for still life, whatever your light source you’re gonna want lots of bits of wire and blu tax and black silver and white reflectors.

Have you got a speedlight?

 

[Phil V]

The good news is, flash is cheap nowadays, and there’s nothing less stressful than lighting a still subject.