Shooting brochures

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Mitch

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Hi, I am a print designer and just about to embark on the task of shooting some brochures, invites and stationery etc (max surface area A3) for my portfolio - on the cheap.

Was thinking of getting 2x 85w 5400k fluorescent bulbs to fit in some existing lamps and maybe make a light tent to diffuse and maximize the light.

The shots will be taken from directly above the and I am limited to a Cannon Ixus.


I would love to know if this would be sufficient to achieve some simple evenly lit shots with decent colour matching?
 
Mitch said:
Hi, I am a print designer and just about to embark on the task of shooting some brochures, invites and stationery etc (max surface area A3) for my portfolio - on the cheap.

Was thinking of getting 2x 85w 5400k fluorescent bulbs to fit in some existing lamps and maybe make a light tent to diffuse and maximize the light.

The shots will be taken from directly above the
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"the . . . " what?

and I am limited to a Cannon Ixus.
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I'm afraid you won't get portfolio quality photos with that gear.

I would love to know if this would be sufficient to achieve some simple evenly lit shots with decent colour matching?
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Matching what with what?
 
Sorry for the confusion, was trying to do too many things at once.

I just really want to know if these bulbs and camera will be ok for the job.


W.Smith said:
"the . . . " what?
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I meant the shots will be basic elevated shots looking down on flat artwork similar to this.

gq-bands-1.1.jpg



W.Smith said:
I'm afraid you won't get portfolio quality photos with that gear.
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Not after highly polished finished shots, just something like the image above will be fine. Just so the concepts of my designs can be fully understood at an interview.


W.Smith said:
Matching what with what?
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So the colours in digital photos will be fairly consistant to the colours in the designs.

I just want to make sure the colours won't be a million miles off and have horrible blue casts that I will have to sort in photoshop and therefore changing the colours within the artwork being shot.

Thanks for your time. Much appreciated.
 
Well I didn't need the second post as I new where you were coming from with the first. ;)

It may be trial and error, just have a go and see what you get, you know what the colours are like on the original artwork, so have a play around, if your camera has sufficient MP, then I can't see a problem. Might be useful if you can set your white balance on the camera.

Try shooting onto white backgrounds as you might find it easier to cut them out if need be.

A simple light box will work, you can pick these up from Maplins etc for less than £20, stick a couple of lights either side and bobs your aunt fanny. :D
 
Mitch said:
I meant the shots will be basic elevated shots looking down on flat artwork similar to this.

[...]

Not after highly polished finished shots, just something like the image above will be fine. Just so the concepts of my designs can be fully understood at an interview.
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Well Mitch, you need a scanner, m8! Not a camera with light tent and complicated lighting.

So the colours in digital photos will be fairly consistant to the colours in the designs.

I just want to make sure the colours won't be a million miles off and have horrible blue casts that I will have to sort in photoshop and therefore changing the colours within the artwork being shot.
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So you MAKE the colours consistent in PP. Massage them any which way you please.
 
Cheers for the replies.

I realise I will have to have a playaround and use some kind of diffusion to evenly light it, have a homemade light tent sorted.

Just really wanted to know if the bulbs(linked to below) will give me much of a colour cast? I appreciated I can set the white point on the camera, also I don't want to mess around too much in photoshop, I want to get the closest colour as poss from source.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320181011531&ssPageName=ADME:X:RTQ:GB:1123



As for scanning - it is already digital, gone are the cut and paste days...
 
Mitch

Had a look at the lamps you mentioned on Ebay.
These look like low energy flourecent lamps, and to be honest I've never tried photographing using these as a light source.

My only concern would be that they do not produce a continuous spectrum. This would affect they way your art work is reproduced. Although they say 5,400K this does not give the whole story. Whilst a colour cast can be removed in software illumination "spikes" may not.

If the lamps were only a few pounds I'd say go ahead and try, but they are nearly £30 each.

I don't know if you can still get them in this age of flash,but you may want to try some good old fashioned tungsten Photoflood bulbs. These are tungsten balanced at about 3,200K and are ( were available ) in 275W and 500W.

The other problem you may have with the Ixus is the length of exposure. I would suspect it'll be longer than a 1/25 second so a tripod will be in order. Also you'll need to stop the flash going off.

To be honest, this is not the combination I would be using to do coping of flat copy artwork, but if that's all you've got .

Good luck
 
Chappers you da ma. Thanks mate.

Hopefully I have sourced a brand spanking new Cannon EOS, and have constructed a diy light tent that can adapt a camera with the help of some velcro. So position/exposure/diffusion wont be a problem.

Gonna have a ring around/research for some tungsten balanced lights ASAP.


Any more help about basic continous lighting bulbs that could be used with desklamps would be much appreciated.




W.Smith said:
If it is already digital, why do you need to take a picture of it?
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Smithy, I am a designer, and I have made conscious decision to place my artwork in the environment that gives my jobs the realism that is needed for an interview. I am not sure if you know, but graphic design stretches further than pretty pictures, and can be a tactile product.

Thank for the posts, but I am not wanting help with my concepts but technical help as Chappers has so kindly done. Cheers for the comments.
 
Mitch said:
Gonna have a ring around/research for some tungsten balanced lights ASAP.
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FYI, Mitch: every bloody household light bulb is tungsten!
You find them by the hundreds at your local supermarket.
 
Not balanced to daylight temperatures they arent.
 
Marcel said:
Not balanced to daylight temperatures they arent.
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FYI, Marcel: every household light bulb is not daylight balanced! But every household light bulb is tungsten! And tungsten bulbs can be used perfectly as light source for a light tent, provided the WB is set accurately.

RobertP, 1) keep your shirt on, and 2) please check that link again yourself, but this time carefully: daylight balanced ≠ tungsten.
 
I didn't say they every household lightbulb was daylight balanced...I said they're not. Read my post again ;)

And FYI, not all household lightbulbs are tungsten.
 
Back on topic ;)

Mitch, I think you'll be fine. Use a tripod and low ISO and self timer to avoid shake. I think leaving the camera on AWB should be OK. As has been said before blubs like that wont provide a full sprectrum of light so if you've got solid blocks of colour on your stationery/brochures you should review the photos carefully to make sure colours haven't shifted. As has already been said a light tent will help a lot. If you can't get one then reflect your light off large white sheets/boards. If you are shooting on a white background and using auto exposure settings you probably want to add +2 stops exposure comp as the white background will fool the metering. The Ixus should provide adequate quality for your needs. If the WB is off a tad then small tweaks in PS should sort it out :)
 
:agree: I have a set of interfit cool lite 5's and all they are are 5 daylight balanced curly bulbs stuck in a soft box. I have a light tent as well but with a bit of imagination you could rig something up. Also I have just bought an ixus camera that has a raw setting 960is 12.1 mp and this would work fine, used as outlined by Mohain.

link to lights:

http://www.karlu.com/product_info.p...cts_id=9756&osCsid=emcgus416n85tsuf88gea9okl1
 
Mr Smith, I know that your average lightbulbs are tungsten, just wanted to find out a little more about the different kalvins/wattage of light they produce without burning my flat down. I appreciate your time, but maybe you need to crack open a beer sunshine. ;)

Thanks to everyone, I appreciate the time you spent posting, Gonna visit a friend of a friend today who has a studio, and see what I can scrounge/borrow/beg.

It's all good. Cheers. Sending some Karma out to you all.
 
Now that you've got an EOS, you can set the white balance (have a look at setting a custom white balance in your quick guide) when taking photos in your light tent and reduce any colour cast.

Good luck and have fun :)
 
Mohain said:
Back on topic ;)

Mitch, I think you'll be fine. Use a tripod and low ISO and self timer to avoid shake.
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I understand camera shake, but why would I use a low ISO? To make it less grainy?
 
Mitch said:
I understand camera shake, but why would I use a low ISO? To make it less grainy?
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Yes.

Also increased ISO can somes make the image look soft and often gives a lower dynamic range.
 
Cheers Mohain, had some pretty pleasing results so far using my flatmates work lights.

Made a cube from plumbing pipes, and have hung tissue paper (to diffuse) and white card (to reflect) with a couple 500w halogen bulbs.

Might not get the SLR, but have had OK results with my old trusty Ixus (at 50 iso). I am poncing a Fuji S6500 fd tonight, so will see if that improves the quality.

The white on white shots are proving a little tricky as I have limited control with the Ixus.

Here is one test shot... (I know it is the same spread twice, but it is just a quick test duplicated in PS to see what the two spreads look like together) As said the subtleties are not quite there with the shadows, but without the control something had to suffer.

i1421014_IMG3114.jpg
 
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