Product studio lights - beginner guidance

[Pietrach]

Hi
I am interested in a product photography and so far i was doing all using flash guns. Recently i had a break from photography where i sold all equipmnet but i am no comming back to it. However, i would like to start using a continous lighting, starting from the most basic ones there are. This way i feel i will learn its limitations and after a while i will know what features i relly need.
My problem is i have no understanding of studio lighting terminology, light models and features, power etc.
Could someone give me a simple guide explaining the main types of lights, powers and what they do? I am not talking about soft boxes and other accessories, but the light units.
Something that would allow me to understand why, for example, i shouldnt simply buy a desk lamp and fit a day light bulb on it? Or should I?

Thank you

 

[Sir SR]

Have a look at the lencarta site as they have some very useful tutorials on there.

Also light science magic (for me anyway) is a cracking read.

S

 

[Phil V]

Have a look at the lencarta site as they have some very useful tutorials on there.

Also light science magic (for me anyway) is a cracking read.

S

Other than the book and website Shaheed recommended (both solid ideas btw). I'll just ask why do you think continuous lighting is the best option?

 

[Pietrach]

This book does look like a great reference to better understanding of light. I think I will start from this and then re-evaluate my needs.
I thought about the continuous light as it helps to see the effects of lighting set up as you move the lights. But I will be happy to be corrected

Thankyou

 

[Steve-T]

I find this a useful site for product photography https://www.photigy.com/

 

[Phil V]

This book does look like a great reference to better understanding of light. I think I will start from this and then re-evaluate my needs.
I thought about the continuous light as it helps to see the effects of lighting set up as you move the lights. But I will be happy to be corrected

Thankyou

That's why studio flash units have modelling lamps.

In short; continuous light sources (especially cheap ones) don't generally have a very good 'Colour Rendering Index' (CRI) which means that even if you set a custom white balance there'll be a part of the colour spectrum missing, in short you'll struggle to get decent colour accuracy. They're also low in power, which means long shutter speeds and eradicating other light sources. You'll also usually be stuck with the cheap modifiers that come with the kit. That's important because the 'quality' of your light is determined by what's between your light source and subject.

Of course - depending on the results you want, all of that could be either inconsequential or disastrous (depending whether or not you're after high quality images).

 

[Garry Edwards]

We have a very basic guide that can be downloaded from every page that features flash heads or kits, this one for example just click on the download tab, it's called "Getting started with studio flash" It's about as basic as it gets, but may be helpful.. There's some more info too, under the Q%A tab.
And you can go to the Lencarta lighting blog too. If you go to the tutorial section you'll find some pretty detailed info on product photography.

There's nothing actually wrong with using continuous lighting for product shots, as long as the continuous lighting has the same qualities as flash - a common accessory mount to allow different types of light shapers to be fitted to it, a very wide range of power adjustment, enough power to make the ambient light irrelevant and the light source also needs to have a continuous spectrum, otherwise some colours will be rendered wrongly, which of course is totally unacceptable for product photography - the problem is that none of them have all of those qualities, and the ones that come somewhere close cost a fortune in real terms, let alone in comparison to flash.

I've been shooting a video over the last couple of days, of course I had to use continuous lighting for that. The lighting was very simple (compared to most types of product photography) but I was really struggling at times to manage without enough power adjustment.