Continuous Lighting

System

I have the Finepix s6500fd, its a SLR like camera so I cant use mount on flashes or strobes. But I do use a slave flash that seems to be working.



I have a reflector and a white background as well but I have nothing to light that background. I'm looking for a continuous light that's fairly cheap (under £100 if possible) to stop shadows. I have tried lamps but there not strong enough to do the job. Any ideas?

Don Kondra

Greetings,

If you are interested in using continuous lighting I would recommend you check out Alzo Digital for 5500k bulbs.

When installed in clip on work light reflectors they can be quite cost effective.

Cheers, Don

ziggy53

The bare-bones cheapest method is probably aluminum reflector clamp lights with "daylight" compact fluorescent (CF) bulbs with a CRI of 95 or so for best match with flash lighting.

The clamp lights should be available on most lumber yards and many hardware stores:

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/uimages/sf/1-14-clamp%20light.jpg

It would be nice to have some barndoors for the lights, to control light spill, but you could use cardboard/stiff paper "flags" in a pinch.

http://alzodigital.com/images/equipment/500w_barndoors.jpg
http://alzodigital.com/online_store/continuous_accessories.htm

The lights could be clamped onto a "stick in a can" support, which is just a paint can (typically although a bucket works fine too) with a 1"x2" wood piece stuck in and secured with concrete or sand.

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2008/04/can-do-approach-to-cheap-lighting.html

System

cheers guys, the pro photo life video really helped me aswell from the site you gave me.

System

I have just bought two 500w work lights to light the background from each side. But im still getting shadows from my flash, any ideas?

Don Kondra

Andy123 wrote:

I have just bought two 500w work lights to light the background from each side. But im still getting shadows from my flash, any ideas?

The first problem is you are mixing light color temperatures..

Are you using the flash "on camera"? And just the one? And what is your sync speed set at?

Cheers, Don

System

Don Kondra wrote:

The first problem is you are mixing light color temperatures..

Are you using the flash "on camera"? And just the one? And what is your sync speed set at?

Cheers, Don

Im using the flash on my camera to trigger my slave flash, so im not sync'ing anything with wires.

This the lights im using,



Clear glass shade. Metal shields. Suitable for outdoor use.

• Supplied with 1 x 500W Halogen Lamp
• Supplied with 1.75m Cable
• IP44
• Height: 320mm
• 500W
• 110V

what bulb should i get to help.

Don Kondra

Try not using the flash

Set your camera to aperture mode, ~f8, set a custom WB and let the camera set the exposure.

If you still have shadows, add another clip on light with CF bulb above the object pointing more towards the backdrop.

And with the work lights, I think the best you can do is a quartz tungsten bulb with a color temp of 3000k.

Cheers, Don

Art Scott

Andy123 wrote:

Im using the flash on my camera to trigger my slave flash, so im not sync'ing anything with wires.

you may not have sync cords...but you are syncing the flash output to the shutter speed......your shutter speed is your sync speed......you camera has a top sync speed of..........(some where from 1/60th to 1/250th)......the faster you can sync the less the shadow should be.....if your shooting at below 1/60 then move it to the top sync speed for your camera and see the results.....also if your flash and cam can be set at HIGH SYC SPEED(HSS setting) the ndo that and try shooting in the 1/250 to 1/500 range and see what your results are.

System

Art Scott wrote:

you may not have sync cords...but you are syncing the flash output to the shutter speed......your shutter speed is your sync speed......you camera has a top sync speed of..........(some where from 1/60th to 1/250th)......the faster you can sync the less the shadow should be.....if your shooting at below 1/60 then move it to the top sync speed for your camera and see the results.....also if your flash and cam can be set at HIGH SYC SPEED(HSS setting) the ndo that and try shooting in the 1/250 to 1/500 range and see what your results are.

cheers don ,ill try them settings when my batterys charge up,

i think my camera goes up to 1/2000, btw scott, ill try 1/500 though

if that doesnt work ill take them back

System

I used aperture mode, f8, without the slave flash, that kicked out the shadow. So it looks like its the flash.

Then I tried manual mode, f8 with 1/250 shutter speed without the flashgun and that works a treat as well.

Thanks for help guys