Lighting Diagram

John Mueller · February 7, 2005

Dont know if this would be the correct place to put this or if anyone cares.
I want to share my lighting diagrams for those who are interested.
Hope this to be one of many.
I would like to see others as well.

Nikolai · February 7, 2005

Thanks for sharing!

MHJS wrote:

Dont know if this would be the correct place to put this or if anyone cares.
I want to share my lighting diagrams for those who are interested.
Hope this to be one of many.
I would like to see others as well.

Very helpful!

Cheers!

Ann McRae · February 7, 2005

Well, I care - this is the kind of info I need to get ahold of.
I have some questions - forgive my naivety -
what does the boom look like?
do you have a photo of your set up?

Can you explain how you meter your lights, and what you mean by combining for f8.

Complete noob wrt lighting!
thanks

ann

blackwaterstudio · February 7, 2005

ANd what about us that can't afford professional setups? Were working with home depot stuff

John Mueller · February 8, 2005

Ann McRae wrote:

Well, I care - this is the kind of info I need to get ahold of.
I have some questions - forgive my naivety -
what does the boom look like?
do you have a photo of your set up?

Can you explain how you meter your lights, and what you mean by combining for f8.

Complete noob wrt lighting!
thanks

ann

Im learning all this stuff also,so my explaination might not be good.
The boom is an arm that attaches to a light stand.
This is for a two light set-up.
Meter each light seperate.Main @ f8 (adjusting power) turn it off and meter the fill @ f5.6.Turn both lights on then meter. F8 is my working number = combined iso 100 1/125s
Both lights (combined) should read f8. Turn down or moved both lights in equal values to get a meter reading of f8.
Hope this helps.

I'll try to get set-up pix this weekend.

John Mueller · February 8, 2005

jdsphotography wrote:

ANd what about us that can't afford professional setups? Were working with home depot stuff

A lot of folks work with less expensive equipment.
They should post their set-ups,diagrams and info as well.
I see that you did that in another thread..
The more people that do,helps others that want to learn all this stuff.
I had no lights 3 weeks ago and have lots to learn,so I thought I would start sharing my progress..

blackwaterstudio · February 8, 2005

MHJS wrote:

A lot of folks work with less expensive equipment.
They should post their set-ups,diagrams and info as well.
I see that you did that in another thread..
The more people that do,helps others that want to learn all this stuff.
I had no lights 3 weeks ago and have lots to learn,so I thought I would start sharing my progress..

I gotcha MHJS, so I'll post my setup here.

Here's a picture of my ghetto setup. Stuff can be bought at home depot.
Two GE Reveal bulbs, two reflector housings, two white sheets of paper.

The end result after alittle tweaking in PC

Nikolai · February 8, 2005

Wtg, Jds!

jdsphotography wrote:

I gotcha MHJS, so I'll post my setup here...

SO far I'm aslo at HD/OSH level. Worked good for me:

Cheers!

blackwaterstudio · February 8, 2005

Nikolai wrote:

SO far I'm aslo at HD/OSH level. Worked good for me:
Cheers!

Looks good, I'm gonna try my hand tonight I belive at some jew shots so we'll see how it goes. Any advice?

Nikolai · February 8, 2005

Shooting Jewelry

jdsphotography wrote:

Looks good, I'm gonna try my hand tonight I belive at some jew shots so we'll see how it goes. Any advice?

The biggest issue for me was to get the (very fine, highly reflective and relatively small) target in focus while not getting all the unwanted "gory" details of the supporting material (like paper of fabrics). It's usually easy to get rid of with the solid stock objects (e.g. your sample), but if you start shooting necklaces and bracelets - forget about it, it'll take hours to clean one shot.

I got the best results from a sheet of very clean (keep the bottle of windex ready:-) glass and a white background (paper, foam, whatever) few inches under it. I used an empty aquarium set on its side on worktable and two halogen worklights from HD:-). Sorry don't have a shot of that setup.

HTH

blackwaterstudio · February 8, 2005

Nikolai wrote:

The biggest issue for me was to get the (very fine, highly reflective and relatively small) target in focus while not getting all the unwanted "gory" details of the supporting material (like paper of fabrics). It's usually easy to get rid of with the solid stock objects (e.g. your sample), but if you start shooting necklaces and bracelets - forget about it, it'll take hours to clean one shot.

I got the best results from a sheet of very clean (keep the bottle of windex ready:-) glass and a white background (paper, foam, whatever) few inches under it. I used an empty aquarium set on its side on worktable and two halogen worklights from HD:-). Sorry don't have a shot of that setup.

HTH

Great, I'll see what I can do with it

wxwax · February 8, 2005

MHJS, I'd love to see shots you've made with this set-up. Thanks for sharing your diagram, it's very useful.

tmlphoto · February 8, 2005

Here is a pictue of one of my one light setups with a reflector. I've posted it before elsewhere, but just in case you missed it.

Here is a picture using that setup.

Notice the double catchlights. You can always figure the lighting used by looking at the catchlights. I can't look a portrait or glamour shot now without studying the catchlights. Its really easy to see if a softbox, umbrella etc. was used. You can tell about placement of the lights by how big the catchlight is and what part of the eye the catchlight is at.

blackwaterstudio · February 9, 2005

Following along with the jew shots, hows this?

#1 Black and white (forgot to turn it off in my 20D)

#2 Color

#3 Coins

Nikolai · February 9, 2005

I say

jdsphotography wrote:

Following along with the jew shots, hows this?
#1 Black and white (forgot to turn it off in my 20D)
#2 Color
#3 Coins

#1 B/W object kinda blends with a background, prolly requires a different one.
##2&3 - nice. The only question is whether or not you want the shadow. If a little shadow's ok - no problem, otherwise you need to try the softbox and/or my glass thingie..
Yet again, on the objects that big and solid it's easy to handle in PS..

Good job!

Cheers!

Nikolai · February 9, 2005

Nice setup!
I like this thread! Learned a lot of "how to" stuff already:-)!

Cheers!

blackwaterstudio · February 9, 2005

Nikolai wrote:

#1 B/W object kinda blends with a background, prolly requires a different one.
##2&3 - nice. The only question is whether or not you want the shadow. If a little shadow's ok - no problem, otherwise you need to try the softbox and/or my glass thingie..
Yet again, on the objects that big and solid it's easy to handle in PS..

Good job!

Cheers!

Yea I really like the B&W for some reason, I'm going to try some black background to see how that effects things.

John Mueller · February 9, 2005

Thanks guys for jumping in here and posting.
Wish we had a thread just for lighting techniques.
As time allows.Ill try and post more diagrams,shot of my set-up and the results.
Keep up the great work

John

Lighting Diagram

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