Photography Lights

Hmmm cool tip, Dennis. Thanks.

Hey Themage, you might want to check out the GE Reveal line of incandescent bulbs. They fit into a standard light socket and, with a quick trip to the hardware store, depot, etc., you've got a lighting kit that will work great with your new digital camera.

Whip out your instruction book and see if your camera allows you to do a manual white balance. If it does, turn on your lights prior to your photo shoot and set your white balance beforehand. That will, in effect, make whatever light source you end up using become the true white value in the photo. That's why you sometimes see video guys shooting a white card before taping a news or sporting event.

One of the benefits of using lightbulbs to shoot models is that you can instantly see what sort of lighting effects you'll be shooting. You can make subtle changes to the lighting by using reflectors made from white index cards or crumpled and re-smoothed aluminum foil. The crumpling helps prevent hotspots, by the way.

Hope this answers your question and gives you some cheap alternatives. I use a professional electronic flash setup to shoot my models (I'm a photographer by trade) but can achieve almost the same guality (at least for internet posting) at home using my trusty Reveal bulbs.

Give it a shot, practice makes perfect and, with digital, costs you nothing.

Dennis

A nice piece of white posterboard can act as reflector/fill light and not generate the heat that multiple bulbs will. Its easier with another person helping, too.

I use the clamp on lights also but use daylight bulbs instead of the standard soft white bulb. They don't cost much more but give you less color shift. I use two 100 watt daylight bulbs and one 100 watt daylight flood and position my lights around the model to kill as many shadows as possible.

I use two of those metal clamp on lights you can get at home depot or any hardware place. Also put my set my clamp on light hovering above it for some additional light. There are probally some guys that have something better though, but for the money I spent, about $15 , my set up works great for me.