photographers: cheap "studio" lighting?

[STANG KILLA SS]

looking for a single light to take pics of parts and trucks with.
for larger stuff ive tryed a big 500w yellow shop light, just turned everything yellow, and was still dark and grainy, yet in real life the room was blindly bright.
and flash only just looks unprofessional. shadows, dark background, blown out subject etc.

any ideas on some cheap studio lighting.

[NickRummy]

Cheap? No.

what camera are you using?

[STANG KILLA SS]

point and shoot canon 6.1 mega pixel
good little camera, i just need a light to light up small object with a WHITE light that doesnt require the use of flash.
the camera takes great pics, and INCREDIBLE vids, way better than my digi vid camera

[JasonInAugusta]

I have a two head setup with umbrella type reflectors and stuff.

You really need multiple light sources to get good lighting in studio shots.

[racerx]

Any direct light will wash things out and make them look crappy, try aiming the light source away from the subject and reflecting it back with a white or matte silver cloth (like the inside of the lighting "umbrellas" used by the pro's)


I agree with JIA on that also, two or more is best.

Try these guy's out, My Father in law bought all his equipment here.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/

[NickRummy]

We use a minimum of 2 lights which help get rid of each other's shadows. Both have white diffusers on them and a have a couple different power settings.

[STANG KILLA SS]

i need "always on" lights as they wont be hooked to a fancy camera to tell them when to flash...

[racerx]

Does the flash come off your camera or is it permanently attached?

[_BEN_]

How big is the stuff you want to photograph?
http://www.pbase.com/wlhuber/light_box_light_tent
My girlfriend made one of those to photograph the products for her store.

She uses those clamp lights with the aluminum bell that you can pick up at home depot. With 100w soft white bulbs.

[Offroader5]

I've had good luck with 100 watt equivalent "true white" florescent screw in bulbs. The kind that can take the place of any screw in incandescent and look like spirals. I have 4 of them set up in some aluminum shop light domes in the hobby room with some diffusion cloth over them. The bulbs don't get as hot as an incandescent, so the cloth stays somewhat cool, and there's no risk of fire. Having that many gets rid of alot of the shadows.

[STANG KILLA SS]

now were talking, diffuser cloth? tissue paper work?
ive also got about 300 LEDs those are definatly white light, but probly too pencil beam, even with diffusers.

whats the color temp (K rating) of those bulbs yall are using?

[drumbeater]

Is this foe the Scale Shop? I used a few of those silver clip lights you can buy at any hardware store. They are cheap and worked great for small stuff.

[Offroader5]

This is what mine look like...somewhat. They are not the exact same one, but the same design:


These are the bulbs I use (3000k), but I have also tried some 5000k also from Lowes:
http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?actio...481&lpage=none

And as far as diffusion cloth, I have used old white t-shirts before. Nice place to use those cheap thins one's you always end up with from shows and give-a-ways cause they are thinner material.

[72Blazer]

Use one of these with a 60w or higher Reveal bulb .Use a white 5 gal bucket with a cut out in the front.Put the bulb on top.Works good for small stuff.
Or make a small studio out of white foam board and use 2 Reveal bulbs,one slightly from the front and another on top.There was a post a few years ago on HotWheel.com and this is what one of the admins said they had use to take pic of Hot Wheels.
You could use a few more bulbs depending on how bad the shadows are.