Lighting for pottery studio video

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tomhumf

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Hi,

I'm looking for advice on lighting for doing videos of pottery making. I shoot stills of pots on a Canon 550d , with a flash. I'm planning to use the Canon for video too instead of my camera phone.

I wanted to post a pic of my studio but seems I can't until after 3 posts? It's a fairly large single garage space.

Basically I currently have a couple of 80w photography bulbs screwed to the ceiling on a tripod inside down, umbrella underneath. These are my working lights on the pottery wheel. Then there are normal bulbs in three bayonet fittings in the roof.

I'd like to have all the same bulbs set up with some soft of diffusion on the roof I think...I don't really want light stand around the floor to trip over while I'm working. Is there some kind of roof lighting systems that looks like natural light?

Thanks.
 
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Natural-looking light is just light that's coming from a natural position. That's pretty much overhead, but not directly overhead, so your working lights can't really look natural - and anyway, there's only one sun so when you have more than one light in this kind of situation it can't be ideal.

The cheapest ceiling-mounted light support is the Baby plate https://www.amazon.co.uk/HWASTUDIO®-Metal-Studio-Lighting-Ceiling/dp/B073B6M52W but there's zero adjustment so it's pretty limited.

Another option is a wall-mounted boom arm https://www.lencarta.com/wall-boom-arm-lencarta and that's a better option because, although limited, it does have a reasonable level of adjustment.

As for diffusion, either shoot-through umbrellas (cheapest) or large-ist softboxes (more control) are probably your best option, but if you don't mind a lot of fiddling you could use a neutral white shower curtain as a diffuser too.
 
What are the videos for?
IMO the simplest answer for pretty decent lighting in a space like that is to just light up one wall/ceiling corner that's fairly close and let that be your light primary source. No need going with special bulbs but probably want to avoid fluorescent/LED, just set your white balance appropriately.
 
Steven's suggestion of using a corner of the room is a good one, if you paint the walls in this area a flat true white. A table with the top also white can be placed in the corner to support your item, and your light and umbrella high to camera left or right should be adequate for the light source. If you want to show shots of all sides, a turntable or just a Lazy Suzan kitchen item will allow easy manual rotation. For constant rotation for video work a motorized turntable with adjustable speed would work best. If on a tight budget, consider a turntable from a cake making supply shop, since it has become popular to put birthday cakes on turntables, and there are reasonably priced versions now available.

They also make shooting boxes of translucent materials. Mine is a 2' cube with one side held in place by Velcro. I place LED panel light sources on each side and sometimes one above to light the item. The translucent material diffuses the light so even photo lights without the umbrella can probably work. The Velcro attached door has a hole in the center for the camera lens to shoot through, but I frequently just leave the top half of this side open and folded down. Inside this box came with several colors of backgrounds that are long enough to cover both the back and bottom and they also attach via Velcro. Here is a link to the one that I have, but there are many similar available in different sizes and shapes.. Using one of these you can set up just about anywhere and get good results. This 2' cube has spring wire edging, so it can be folded into about a 14" diameter X 2" thick zipper closure bag that comes with it. Open the bag and take it out, then let go and it will almost completely unfold by itself, so set-up is very easy.

amazon.com/Neewer-Shooting-Diffusion-Backdrops-Photography/dp/B00GKGGICC/ref=sr_1_4?crid=Y2D2OLEPIG4R&dchild=1&keywords=photo+shooting+box&qid=1623589495&sprefix=photo+shooting+box%2Caps%2C168&sr=8-4

If on a tight budget, you can make a frame from PVC pipe and fittings (no glue) any size that you need, and cover it with white bed sheet material (actually the cheapest works best for this). A little white Gaffer tape will hold the material on and the pipes together. When not being used, just dis-assemble it and store it in a bag.

Charley
 
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Say Hi ! to me several times in separate posts and you will have the needed post count. I don't mind, and will enjoy seeing your studio photos.

Charley
 
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