Small Tattoo Removal Studio. More light needed

dan.j

dan.j

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Hi all

Seems like you have a great forum here so thought I would seek out some valuable advice from the pros :)

I have a small beauty type room which i operate my tattoo removal business from. Photography was a bit of an after thought when i first set up the room but after 2 years i think its time.

All pics are currently shot using my iPhone 6s and in terms of light there is 6 spotlights which give off more of an orange light and a massive fluorescent strip light with daylight bulb as the main source. It is pretty bright in there but clearly not enough or the phone is the issue.

I have also recently purchased a spotlight from Maplins which is clamped to table that has the tattoo removal machine on. It is reasonably effective not quite enough. The room has one large window but unfortunately the sun shines through it all day so the blind is down all the time. Hence the reason for more light.

As I do tattoo removal the exact shade for before and after progress pics is essential. You can see some of my progress shots on my website but not allowed to post links yet but you can search Zero ink Tattoo Removal. I am not sure if i should just buy a new camera and stick with the light i have, keep the iPhone and upgrade the light or upgrade both.

Space is issue as its only a small room otherwise I would of brought a couple of soft boxes from eBay but i don't have the floor space or the wall space to hang them so im thinking the ceiling is the best option but searching on a electrical wholesales site is hard. TLC direct is around the corner from me and can purchase some items from there and get a sparky friend to fit. Its just what to get?

Any advice will be appreciated and sorry for the life story just realised how much i wrote.
 
Guess my long post put everyone off :(

I don't mind spending some decent money on obtaining the light i need. Its more of what will work. What about a ceiling strip with strong bulbs? Will lights with a soft box type cover be too harsh?
 
Is that you in Totton?

Your biggest issue is one of total control of the light and camera, a light alone will not solve this - due to the nature of the work i.e. size etc. I would have thought that a ring flash might be the answer, an alternative may be this http://www.wexphotographic.com/buy-...ljpdeifqtmvtsiu_umfbw3kounsg9k21pfrocmexw_wcb and all you need is a low end camera - personally I would have looked at this as an option https://www.dreamkart.co.uk/yongnuo...9qflQIjerjYfwCYpRyBolKhdCY__qFcbj2hoCHd3w_wcB - sure there will be so older, bolder and wiser suggestions

Mike
 
Assuming the image quality from your iPhone 6s is good enough, and with sufficient light I'd guess it might be, then I think it's well suited in many ways. I'd go for the LED option Mike linked above, mainly for WYSIWYG that will allow you to avoid reflections obscuring the work - just hold it in front of the phone and either shoot through it or slightly to one side. It may not be bright enough for best results if you have to move it back for say the whole of someone's back.

Good colour is an issue and for accuracy and consistency you really need to use the same set-up each time and tweak them in post-processing,, with a colour reference grey card included as the first image in each shoot. Like this for £2 https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product...t_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=DX18JYHD6834QCFSH1T3
 
Thanks for the replies. Mike im actually based in Woolston. Wasn't aware there was a tattoo removal place in Totton.

So I would need to buy a SLR camera for the ring flash or can I just hold it on its own? Now obviously my photography knowledge is limited but I always thought flash photos turned out a lot worse than without especially on tattoos. Does this work differently to a normal flash on a camera or iPhone.

I thought I would just need more continuous light somehow.

I was going to buy a new bridge camera as a slight upgrade to the iPhone. I am getting by currently with ok light and an iPhone and not post editing. I want to keep it that way. For a Photographer the best pics mean more money but my money is made in treatments. I need to use my time on marketing and treating rather than editing.
 
So could i go for upgrading the ceiling slightly by changing my strip light from 1 bulb to 2 bulbs and then just get a handheld device like mentioned above and that would be good enough?

Or maybe a different light all together for the ceiling or many lights and flood the room with light. My basic set ups seem to comprise of a backdrop and a few softboxs of continuous light so surely flooding the room with light will be a good easy option but then again your the pros and any advice you give will be better than my knowledge.
 
As Richard and Mike have said, it's all about the quality of the light - the coloured lights that you currently have can't produce good photos for your purpose. The ring light is about as good as you're going to get at a budget price and will do the job, not only is the colour going to be OK for your purpose, the design of the light is such that the lighting will be almost shadowless, which is what you need.

The image quality from your iphone 6 is surprisingly good, there's no need to buy a DSLR just for this.
 
Having looked at your website, and assuming you don't want big poster-size prints for the wall, I think you could get much better and more consistent results with a) a simple selfie light, eg https://www.amazon.co.uk/Outdoor-We...8266003&sr=1-1&keywords=led+ring+light+mobile, and b) an app to control exposure (brightness) and white balance (colour), and enhance other aspects of the image.

More info here http://www.tomsguide.com/us/iphone-6-camera-fixes,news-19820.html

For consistent results, experiment with manual camera settings and the set-up. A lot of your problems are down to a mixture of poor quality and inconsistent lighting, it's not just about brightness (though that may be part of it) and without getting technical, all those different lights you have might look fine to the eye but not to the camera. Turn them down or off. When you've got good settings in manual they will be locked - auto will change whenever the subject changes. Try to keep everything the same.

Let us know how you get on :)
 
Hi all
Just like to say I'm sorry for now replying on the thread. Was never my intention to be a new member who takes advice and leaves as I know as a member of other forums it can be highly frustrating.

I had the news I have Crohns disease right after posting and its fair to say it came as a shock and my life has been turned upside down.

In the time since my original post i decided to buy a camera to try it out in my room. I went with a Panasonic FZ72 after reading great reviews. Although a great camera I used it for a couple of hours with a few clients and as the majority of my client photos are taken Portrait its just too awkward to hold the camera sideways every time.

I have decided to stick with the iPhone and my iPhone 6s has been having problems and after complaining Vodafone decided to give me the new iPhone 7 plus and let me upgrade early. The camera on the plus is a lot better than the normal 7 so hopefully that will sort out all my issues.

I am upgrading my lighting in the room next 3 week from 1 5ft flourescent tubelight to 3 LED 600mm panel lights which should spread the light and stop any shadows. I have purchased a cheapy ringlight as suggested on here but havent tried it out yet as only arrived yesterday. Will keep everyone posted of how they are.

I have started editing photos within the standard Photos app alot after taking the pictures of my clients tattoos. Doing this helps me match up the shade a lot better but hopefully this will be cut down with the new lighting. Gonna give the Camera + app a go and lock the settings in for my studio and only use that app for business.

I really appreciate everyones input in November and you really helped me figure it all out.

*For anyone that edits photos in the Iphone app i discovered that once you export them to your computer all changes are lost. Terrible design i know. Unless you email them or use icloud shared libary it wont work but I discovered an app after some research. PhotoTransfer App, its £3.99 for the full version but you can export whilst keeping all the changes and auto delete after. Great app highly recommended. I actually send them automatically to my dropbox. So much easier than plugging my phone in to laptop.
 
Sorry didn't see this before but I was going to ask how you lit the room for the tattoo removal work.
I've just bought 2400 lumens 600mm square led panels for the garage. Blimey are they bright! I bought the cool white
https://www.wholesaleledlights.co.u...urface-mount-led-panel-light-2400-lumens.html

I bought two as a test, so bright I have taken out 6 pairs of fluorescent lights to be replaced with 4 of these (just bought some more). Sealed, thin, very easy to wire and put up, put each one up in 15 mins tops.
When the other 2 are up I'm going to see what they look like for photography, but they are brilliant for working on vehicles

Can you not transfer the images to the pc and edit on there on the larger screen?
 
Firstly, really sorry to hear about your diagnosis.

Secondly - this is probably a stupid question but... Could you not open the blind? Daylight is always a great option if you can use it! Otherwise it sounds like you have so many disparate light sources that colour balance is always going to be a pain, unless you turn them all off and use one reasonably powerful LED type light.
 
Byker28i said:
Sorry didn't see this before but I was going to ask how you lit the room for the tattoo removal work.
I've just bought 2400 lumens 600mm square led panels for the garage. Blimey are they bright! I bought the cool white
https://www.wholesaleledlights.co.u...urface-mount-led-panel-light-2400-lumens.html

I bought two as a test, so bright I have taken out 6 pairs of fluorescent lights to be replaced with 4 of these (just bought some more). Sealed, thin, very easy to wire and put up, put each one up in 15 mins tops.
When the other 2 are up I'm going to see what they look like for photography, but they are brilliant for working on vehicles

Can you not transfer the images to the pc and edit on there on the larger screen?
Click to expand...

Currently i light it with a 5ft Florescent light but that is going to be removed for 3 of these https://www.lightrabbit.co.uk/sky-tile-led-40-watt-ultra-slim-led-panel-light-595-x-595-mm.html
3200 Lumens per light so will fill the space up quite well I think.

I could post edit after the photos are on my computer but its just way too time consuming. I actually love the post editing on the iPhone app now. It is really intelligent. Glad i found the app i mentioned. Editing an image whilst I am with the client and getting the shade spot on and then uploading straight to my Dropbox which is linked with my computer.

flyingmonkeycorp said:
Firstly, really sorry to hear about your diagnosis.

Secondly - this is probably a stupid question but... Could you not open the blind? Daylight is always a great option if you can use it! Otherwise it sounds like you have so many disparate light sources that colour balance is always going to be a pain, unless you turn them all off and use one reasonably powerful LED type light.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately the sun shines in my room directly all day. I tried getting a tint on the window to take away some of the harshness but it just ruins the photos so i leave the blind drawn all day. I would rather set up almost like a photographic studio where the light stays consistent every time i take a picture
 
Those panels are a great price and really bright. I looked at similar ones but the drop wire mounting for the garage didn't work for me. It'll be really interesting how they work. I do love the instant on that you don't get with tubes.
 
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