I've mentioned my new artificial lighting a couple times now with the promise to share a little more about it soon. So here I am, sharing a little more about it. To recap: my original inspiration to make these lights came from this post and I used this tutorial for my lights. Full disclosure: this is NOT a full tutorial for making or shooting with these lights. There are tons of tutorials available if you're interested in making your own. I hope to share more in-depth insight in the future about shooting with these lights, but I can really only offer some preliminary thoughts and example shots this point.
In these first few photos, you get a close up look at the lights themselves. I decided to make two lights because I've always worked with two lights in my lightbox, and I love the way that you can create soft shadows a lot more easily with two lights than one light.
I added some removable white cotton to diffuse the light. It's awesome to have lights that are so much more powerful than my lightbox lights (400W total as opposed to 120W total), but I don't want the lighting to be harsh. The cotton attaches with Velcro so it's really easy to put it on and take it off as needed.
I have a new set up for these lights, but it's also really easy to move them around the house and shoot in other locations, as I did here in my kitchen.
Here are just a few examples of shots with the new lights. As I said before, it's still way too early to talk too much about shooting with these lights, but I plan to revisit the topic in the future.
I have three new backdrops: large ceramic tiles, faux chalkboard, and faux wood. Ceramic tiles of all sizes, colors, and finishes are readily available at any home improvement store at very affordable prices. You can read more about the other two backdrops over here.
This is a sneak peek of the first finished sample for my second ebook. I'll be posting more about that in the coming months, too.
Have you bought or made any new photography equipment lately? What photography skills are you working on right now?
What an ingenious idea! My items look good on distressed wood, but actually best on fabric :)
ReplyDeleteI definitely like your wood backdrop!
Love the wood backdrop! I wonder how my wood items would look against more wood? Too much, or a complement to it?
ReplyDeleteHmmmm, I do usually need additional light in a room when I'm shooting a whole space! I'll have to peek at the tutorial. Genius idea about using tile as a background, too.
ReplyDeleteThose lights look awesome :) What a great idea!
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