What Watt Seconds should Fill Lights have for Product Photography?

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orbit6781

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What Watt Seconds should fill lights have for product photography?

I get confused because some of what I have read is for portrait photography. My question is on product photography.

I also get confused because most books talk about the Ws for main lights, not fill lights.

Should one purchase fill lights with at least 600 Ws? Or at least 1000 Ws? Or at least 300 Ws?

The photography will be taking place indoors in a studio.

Thank you.
 
The only power considerations you have for your fill light are:
What’s the power of the keylight ?
How far away is the fill?

Nowadays for small product photography, you’re hardly likely to need more than 300Ws, but if you’re shooting a car, speedboat etc then much more power will come in handy.

If you’re shooting saucepans you don’t need much power at all.
 
Hi, thank you for all of the replies. I plan on photographing packaged food products that you find in a grocery store. The items range from boxed products such as nutrition bars to fresh fruit and vegetables to bottled products such as juice. The photography will be done very close to the products in a small studio.

My main light is a Paul C Buff White Lightning X3200. It has 1320 Ws. A softbox will be attached to it.

The fill light is a Paul C Buff Einstein. It has 640 Ws. It has less than half the Ws of the X3200.

What affect is this going to have on the product photography since the fill light and main light do not have the same power?

Also is this too much power for the products that I plan on photographing? A softbox will be used on the main light. And a snoot on the fill light.

I want a sharp depth of field. Do you think the above setup can accomplish that?

Thank you.
 
orbit6781 said:
Hi, thank you for all of the replies. I plan on photographing packaged food products that you find in a grocery store. The items range from boxed products such as nutrition bars to fresh fruit and vegetables to bottled products such as juice. The photography will be done very close to the products in a small studio.

My main light is a Paul C Buff White Lightning X3200. It has 1320 Ws. A softbox will be attached to it.

The fill light is a Paul C Buff Einstein. It has 640 Ws. It has less than half the Ws of the X3200.

What affect is this going to have on the product photography since the fill light and main light do not have the same power?

Also is this too much power for the products that I plan on photographing? A softbox will be used on the main light. And a snoot on the fill light.

I want a sharp depth of field. Do you think the above setup can accomplish that?

Thank you.
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Well I’m no product photographer, but a ‘fill’ light is for reducing the shadows created by the keylight, so usually it’s a larger source. A snooted light would usually be added at an angle to show texture, emphasise a small detail.

But back to the power, your lights will have power settings, they’ll turn down. I’m not familiar with the brand (Not generally available in the UK) but I’d be surprised if they won’t turn down low enough to use, the higher power will ensure you have sufficient DoF.
 
It not so much about what Ws' your light are but the ratio between the lights used all around I find you need about 4 or 5 light depending on what the products are. Also you need to think about reflections as well as the shadows. One main point is Colour management I use a colourchecker passport to make sure the colours are as true as possible. Also, you need to check how the printers what the files. many will want TIFF's in CMYK is it's going to press.
Here are some of my products images.
http://chazphotographics.co.uk/product-gallery/nggallery/image/mg_4563
 
I've done quite a bit of product photography over the years - mostly for internet sales - and generally only need 200ws heads, although I do have access to 500 & 900ws ones as well, indeed the only time I felt I needed something else wasn't due to power rating, but to the physical size of the head, to allow me to get it into a tight spot (ended up with an Elinchrom D-Lite One). With modern digital cameras it isn't about the power of the heads, you can easily compensate by upping the ISO on the camera, it's all about understanding the way light works and how to achieve the right results for the job.

Recently I was photographing some military kit from 1951 for a sales add, it wasn't in great condition externally so it was important that the pictures reflected the true condition of the item so potential buyers knew exactly what was on offer, rather than expecting the vendor to go into an endless dialogue about all the issues and condition, much better to take multiple shots from every conceivable angle - the item sold within hours of the advert going online, both vendor and purchaser happy :)
 
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You'll just have to try it and see, but my initial response is that
1. You have far more power than you need (unless you're shooting on large format) and may need to use a ND filter to reduce the energy to a usable level
2. The White Lighnings (which I used when I was working in the USA) don't, from memory, have a vast range of power adjustment, and the colour changes quite dramatically when the power is reduced. The Einstein however, is absolutely fine when used in color mode.
 
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