Lighting for Model Photography

what type/brand of light bulbs do you use?

The gooseneck has just a handy dandy 100W household light bulb in it. The 2 Halogens purchased at Wal-Mart for $13 each. They are 150W quartz halogen portable flood lights made by a company named Globe and they're called supralites. They come complete with a hanger and clamp.

Cool,
I'm thinking about going with painters lights, but I didn't know what bulbs to use it them.
I have a bunch of them left over when I used to play in a band (we put colored gel sheets
over them for a low quailty par can.)
Thanks,
Bernie the K.
St. Paul, MN

Might just work Bernie...give it a try and see what the results are like. I was trying to do this as cheap as possible, don't want to waste money on lights and such when there's so many models to buy. Don't forget to cover them with something to difuse the light....I hear fabric softener sheets work really well if you have no access to baker's paper.

I meant to post here sooner but time slipped away...

Ingenius set up there. The only comment I have is on color balance. A couple of things. You might experiment with a more neutral background such as a mid gray or off white. I'm not familiar with your camera but if you can manually set the white balance for different types of lighting you could experiment with that. If you can set a custom white balance then metering off a *white card* (set next to or in front of your subject then removed) may set the perfect white balance for your subject. An index card will work for a white card. In case you can't manually select the white balance in camera, it would make it easier for the camera to get it right if you replaced the gooseneck with another halogen. The incandescent bulb in the gooseneck adds a slightly different color cast from the halogens.

One other thing, if you can select aperture priority on your camera then try a small f-stop to get as much depth of field as possible. Meaning that more of your pic will be in sharp focus from foreground to background. As you've probably found out, sometimes the autofocus doesn't want to focus on what you want it to. More depth of field will help. You can also use this feature for *selective focus*. Using a larger aperture to focus on a smaller part of the subject. This gets more important in macro or close up mode. Using a tripod or brace and the self timer will help in macro mode too.

And those are just tips, not comments on your photos. The ones I've seen look good! And your builds are great! I don't know that much about the actual building yet so I just try to contribute with the things I do know a little about. But I'm afraid that I'm not an expert in anything...

Ok .... i think I understood the part about changing the gooseneck to another halogen. Then you lost me.... refer to above statement "when it comes to taking pictures, I can pretty much describe myself as dumb as a stick". One of these days I'm going to have to pull out the manual on my camera and see if it has things like f-stops, macros, apertures, or maybe I can even get it to make a great cup of coffee. I consider myself quite lucky to be able to point it in the right direction half the time. LOL More good news, I haven't taken a picture of my thumb yet. I do greatly appreciate any tips you can give me in regards to this strange world of photography and thank you for your kind words on my efforts so far.

No worries and you're welcome. Trust me, if anything can be made complicated, I'll do it. I might even be able to get that thing to make you a cup of coffee.

Have you tried a blue bulb that mimics sunlight? Not that you need it...your photos are topnotch.

Regards, Dan

Haven't tried that Dan, or even really heard of it before. I'll add it to my list of things to look into.

But I did look into the manual that comes with my camera and it looks as if I purchased exactly what I thought it was, an idiot camera that takes pretty good pictures but doesn't mention anything about f-stops, apertures or coffee making. So through testing with various lighting and positioning we'll just have to see what I can do with what I've got.

Hey, the great thing about going digital is, once you get the camera and memory card it doesn't cost a thing to experiment!

Might I make a lighting suggestion? I prefer to use flourescents, rather than halogens, as halogens get VERY hot! And, with heat, comes the risk of melting your model! So, I prefer using flourescents, but I haven't decided wether I prefer warm or cool lighting from flourescents!

The first problem is with lighting.

If you use flourescents you will get a noticeably green cast to your models, even with a flash unless you manually set your white balance.

Try using a daylight balanced light source. You can get these from photo magezines and camera supply stores.

Use a tripod

set the asa setting if possible to 100, if you can't then be sure to use the finest setting for picture resolution.

If you can set f stop set it to about 8, 11, or 13.

Bracket your picture by about 1/2 f stop on either side of the metered setting.

I would use a blue or bright green screen as my back drop. This will allow you to easily replace it with whatever background you desire using photoshop or something similar.

The problem with the small idiot proof cameras is that you do not get a lot of lattitude for picture taking. Especially when you need to be a little more sophisticated because of shadows etc.

Great! Professional advice! I could use it to great effect if I actually had a working camera.

I thought I was being high speed with my green cardboard construction paper half box?
I guess I'll make a better one later but here's a good add on for those of you that already have elaberate ones; Take one of your spouses spinning bases things ( round wooden platter thing that sits on a bearing track that can spin) I don't really know what it's called so bear with me.

It's called a "Lazy Susan", Redlegs.
A little useless trivia for future reference.

Randie

I thought the lazy susan thing was the thing attatched to the door of the cabnet?

Hmmmmm? Now you got me wondering!
I'll have to ask the betterhalf in the morning. I sure as heck ain't gonna wake her up tonight to ask her!!!

Randie

To the best of my knowledge the little turny roundy thingy is the lazy Susan.

The thing attached to the dorr of the cabinet .... would be my hand opening it constantly to look for food. The other hand is on the fridge door.

I second that Robert...lol!

Dan