Help with photography setup?

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Dematre

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Hi.

I was wondering if you guys could please lend me some advice?

I am starting out selling on eBay and Amazon. The problem I have run into is obtaining high quality photographs to help my items sell.

I have been researching about photography setups, lighting and gear needed.

From what I've researched I need to make a sort of light tray (not box) using 3 pieces of foam board with 3 light sources. I am using foam board because I’ve heard it is a reflector. The light sources should be on tripods peering over the top and sides of the 'tray' to minimize shadows. My light sources would be at north, east and west.

The lights I have found are as follows: Yongnuo YN-160 III YN160 III Pro LED Video Light 5500K

I do wonder if these lights will be to strong or to weak? The area I intend to cover is A0, however, most of my products fit in A1. The above light does have 4 shutters on them, I will clip diffusing material on the top shutters.

My questions to you guys would be have any of you done something like this? How effective do you think it would be? Do you think the 3 lights I selected would do the trick or do I need more? Are my lights positioned correctly? Am I missing anything? Do I need a reflector? Can you guys recommend a different setup? I’m really open to anything and any tips as I am really new to photography. I ask this only because I don't want to waste £200+ if the setup doesn't work or if it is overkill. My largest item is 1meter tall but I will mainly be selling small items.

PS. The camera I will be using is pretty good, it’s worth 650 pound, I can’t provide the Cannon model because I will be borrowing it off a friend and currently do not know it.

Sorry for the long post and thanks in advance for any help you guys can give.

Cheers!

Dematre
 
With the right modern camera, there's plenty of light there.

However...

Life's more complicated than that.

Simple answer is if you just want OK fairly boring standard images you're heading along the right lines, but be aware that exact positioning of lights will not come from a description on the Internet, no one can give you remote help, you'll have to work it out yourself.

More complicated answer: you really should light your products individually to show the features of the products. It's not easy, different surfaces require different techniques, different shapes require different modifiers. Some items can be shot with 1 light, some might need 10, there's no simple answer.

To give you an idea of how technical this answer could be, there's a couple of threads in the lighting section at the moment where 2 blokes with over 100 years of professional lighting between them have fundamental disagreements about approach.

Just to add... Light stands aren't tripods, LED lights are notoriously colour inconsistent, be prepared to pay a lot more if you want proper colour accuracy. Make sure you're in control of your lighting by removing all other lighting in your studio.
 
I have some of those for fill lighting in emergencies. They're what you'd expect for the price, the colours are off and skin tone isn't great.

If you look at the Television Lighting Consistency Index which was developed by Alan Roberts (ex-BBC R&D, now consulting for European Broadcasting Union, Guild of Television Cameramen etc.), there is one surprise LED lamp with a high rating (over 85 requires no colour correction for normal use)

Ikea Ledare LED1304G11 11W, E27 cap Temp: 2777 TLCI: 93 21/10/14 - See more at: http://www.gtc.org.uk/members-area/tlci-results/current-tlci-results.aspx#sthash.QiE0J7RO.dpuf

I've had a play, and provided the camera is white balanced, the results are very very good. If they still make them, it's relatively easy to make some dimmable video lights from them.
 
TBH I think you may be overestimating what you will need.

The pictures on eBay aren't really brilliant anyway and you could spend a lot of time and money to achieve no more sales than with a very modest setup.

Have you considered a simple camera with a bounced flash off the ceiling etc?
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Best thing to do is start a thread in the 'Talk Lighting and Studio' sub forum with (a) examples of what you can already produce and (b) links to examples of other people's work of a standard that you'd like to achieve. Don't post other folks' images directly, btw.

That'll tell us whether you need something quick & dirty or a more sophisticated result.

I'm guessing that unless your products are flat and non-shiny you're going to need a whole heap more powerful lighting gear and a lot of practice to do a good job for items which are A0 sized.
 
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juggler said:
Best thing to do is start a thread in the 'Talk Lighting and Studio' sub forum with (a) examples of what you can already produce and (b) links to examples of other people's work of a standard that you'd like to achieve. Don't post other folks' images directly, btw.

That'll tell us whether you need something quick & dirty or a more sophisticated result.

I'm guessing that unless your products are flat and non-shiny you're going to need a whole heap more powerful lighting gear and a lot of practice to do a good job for items which are A0 sized.
Click to expand...

Update: There's no way we can comment on where to position lights unless we know what you're photographing.
 
I guess a sturdy tripod, shooting table, soft boxes, flash, and reflectors are the initial components you'll need for a great product shot! I did a quick google search and found this page, it's got some pretty useful info for beginners about preparation, camera settings, and editing.
 
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