Studio lighting for products advice

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CarbonGoodies

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Rick
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Hi guys, I'm wanting to setup an area to take some nicer quality photos of my products.

I sell carbon fibre which most of the time is very reflective.

I am thinking that a continuous lighting system is the way to go as I'm also an absolute novice.

I've seen these, do you guys think they would do the job or would it be a waste of money?

http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/171714236491

http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/151232452757
 
How big are your pieces? Product photography often requires exorbitantly large modifiers... I often light thru 4x6ft scrims. But if the goal is just "nicer quality photos" it may not be very important.

Those kits are definitely on the cheap side but for a fixed setup they might be ok. They will be fairly dim, but because you're photographing static objects that should be ok. Just use a tripod.
 
The products can be as small as a tiny keyring and upto a full bumper or roof.
 
CarbonGoodies said:
The products can be ..... up to a full bumper or roof.
Click to expand...
Definitely on the tiny side for stuff that large. You might be able to push them thru larger scrims (i.e. shower curtains) but you are asking a lot. If the goal is catalog type images you might be better off with a small white room you can light up rather than modifiers (bounce lights off the walls/ceiling).
 
TheBigYin said:
IMO best £25 you can spend if you're getting into product photography is this

buy it, read it, understand it, THEN spend money on some lighting kit.
Click to expand...
Firstly this^
Secondly: Is colour accuracy important to you?
 
Continuous lighting will be no better and no worse than flash in terms of lighting, and neither easier nor harder - it makes no difference.
But, the Colour Rendition index of 'modern' cool running continuous lighting (fluorescent and LED) is nowhere near as good as flash, so you will get very innacurate rendition of colours, especially those at the red end of the colour spectrum, making flash much better.

There's nothing inherently difficult about photographing carbon fibre, and all the principles are clearly explained in this tutorial.
The only real difficulty you'll get is getting light sources that are big enough - in fact you will need a light source that is AT LEAST 3 times the size of the object you're photographing (if it's flat) and many times larger if it is convex. For a car roof, you'll need a softbox or silk at least 45 ft long! Obviously that's not going to happen, so you need to think about limiting yourself to small items. If you can't do that, just photograph a small area of a large item well, rather than photographing the whole item badly.
 
Whilst flashguns will get you something...
managed to post in wrong thread.
 
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