On a DIY studio mission... advice...?

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Betty

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Right then, I am currently converting our spare room into a studio. The room measures 4m x 4m, but one corner will be used as the office space.

Basically I dont want to spend a fortune on kit, so I bought a couple of floor lamps with adjustable heads from Ikea at the weekend, they currently have 60W bulbs in, but should I put something over the lamp such as tracing paper to diffuse the light? As its quite harsh light at the moment.

And how would I go about lighting the background? Do I point one of the lamps directly at the wall? Sorry for the dumb questions :D

Anything else I have missed? Any other advice? Thanks y'all :)
 
Haha, it wouldnt be on the bulb :D More like over the end of the actual lamp head, much like a softbox :)

I can have a practice tonight, thanks mattyh :
 
phew... had visions of the local paper:

newspaper.jpg


:LOL:
 
My IKEA lamp in my room is 60w i think and doesnt get hot at all, its some strange long shaped bulb thingy.

/end of random fact
 
60 watt household lamps will be totally inadequate, as well as creating a very real fire risk.

My advice is to forget any kind of continuous lighting, get flash instead. The light from flash can be modified (shaped) to produce the effects you want. Modifiying continuous lighting is difficult, expensive and there are less options available.

If you don't want to spend a fortune get one of the cheap lighting kits, some of the ones sold on Ebay are very good value for money.
 
Jimmy_Lemon said:
My IKEA lamp in my room is 60w i think and doesnt get hot at all, its some strange long shaped bulb thingy.

/end of random fact
Click to expand...
That will be a household fluorescent - again totally unsuitable for photography because the CRI (colour rendition index) will be far too low. This means that some colours are reproduced very badly, The minimum CRI value for photography is 90, many of these household lamps are less than 60...
 
Thanks for the advice Garry, but at the moment, I really cant afford any sort of studio kit, not even from eBay, which is why Ive gone for the lamps, I understand they are not ideal for the job, but I am trying to make the best of a bad situation :)

And I hope they wont cause a fire risk, we leave lamps on for hours on end in our house, I am only hoping to keep these on for an hour at a time :D
 
I also have a cunning plan to visit IKEA soon (when I eventually get the chance this year) and get some of their tall bendy lamp things, . . . but with a twist to the tale, as I spotted these beasties which would (hopefully) screw into the ikea edison screw lightbulb fittings:

http://www.fotosupplies.co.uk/Flash_Lighting/Product85.aspx

or similar

its a rough plan and really I dont know if it will work
 
I got a couple of there for my light tent photos and some Ikea angle-poise lamps. Lovely bright white light and keep nice and cool if you want to create some muslin softboxes.
 
yes, I meant to add that when I posted the link, they also do the fancy fluorescent daylight balanced continuous bulbs, not as bright as those you've linked to on ebay ones but slightly cheaper :clap:

http://www.fotosupplies.co.uk/Bulbs/

32W or 24W = £14.99

versus the ebay ones:
55W = £19.99

that's very bright, is it necessary to be that bright? :shrug:

I'd be interested to know if anybody has tried either the screw-in slaves or the bulbs for portraits

I was sure I'd seen a similar cheap one piece screw-in slave but with adjustment on the flash power, can't remember where or find a link so maybe I'm just imagining it
 
Not sure if thats what you mean Wookie, but I noticed it says E27 fitting, thats the same as my Ikea lamps :)
 
Yay! Glad to help :)

Let me know if you get those bulbs, and what difference they make, I might purchase some myself :)
 
Hi,
If you want to buy one of the Pro Line slave untis, then try this guy on ebay. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Pro-Line-45w-Studio-Slave-Flash-Light_W0QQitemZ330219769363QQihZ014QQcategoryZ3860QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem . I got mine from him for £8.50 including postage. I sent him a postal order and had the lamp delivered 2 days later via courier. He is alot cheaper than any shop and the service is second to none. I even got a tracking number for the parcel included for the price. And yes the flash does work well lol.
With mine, I went to B&Q and bought an edison light fitting (similar to the type used for bedside lamps) and then manufactured a rightangle bracket out of part of a hard plastic box with a small hole on the lower face. This means that I am able to screw it onto my spare (cheapo) tripod and aim it where I want.
Hope this helps.
 
Be very cautious if putting any type of material over the lampshade as a diffuser,it is a very real fire hazard. The shades are designed to keep anything away from the bulb as it needs at least this amount of space to keep cool. Putting paper on it will decrease the breathing space and will at best, cause the bulb to explode, copping a feel off a fireman may well be great (good work matty:clap:) but we really dont want to see those headlines Betty.
Dean:)
 
Dino f said:
Be very cautious if putting any type of material over the lampshade as a diffuser,it is a very real fire hazard. The shades are designed to keep anything away from the bulb as it needs at least this amount of space to keep cool. Putting paper on it will decrease the breathing space and will at best, cause the bulb to explode, copping a feel off a fireman may well be great (good work matty:clap:) but we really dont want to see those headlines Betty.
Dean:)
Click to expand...

Good advice - there have been countless genuine news stories about fires caused in this way.

And anyway, as I pointed out earlier, it needs a lot more power than you can get from a domestic light bulb. And 'saving' by getting fluorescent bulbs with an unknown or low CRI value can only produce results where some colours are way out, and can't be corrected.

If you want to do studio photography, get studio lighting
 
The hard plastic on my ceiling light was slightly touching the bulb and the whole lot completely melted last night - I know it was touching but then it was also that really tough plastic coated stuff :eek:

Anyway, a few points I would perhaps consider is that putting paper etc over a bulb (even a low heat) can still be a fire risk and do you really want to take the chance of...

1) Burining your house down (after switching off and leaving but the bulb still being hot?)

2) The possibility that your home insurance would become invalid because of this?

3) The risk of injurying or worse to someone you are photographing in the studio should a fire occur - and risk of being sued?

Not sure how valid my points are but I'd rather wait until I can do it properly or if you reckon you could make some money from renting the studio area out then take out a small loan to get the right stuff?

Just a few things I hope will help :)
 
the heat from bulbs is dodgy stuff, a normal incandescent is bad enough but spot bulbs including the 12v spots & halogens get seriously hot, any stuff close to them (just close, not even touching) can catch fire, especially to the front (I guess there's a lot of IR).

The sticker on the 60w golfball incandescent desklamp (a short bendy job from wilko) in front of me reckons 0.5m clear at the front, but that rather limits its use as a desklamp! I suppose it should keep my coffee warm though.
 
All these warnings of fires and damage is precisely why I was recommending a CFL lamp. Not only does it run cooler, but they save electricity and can often produce a much whiter light than filament bulbs can (especially the ones I linked to previously).
 
exactly

now when I was last in wilkos, before xmas I'm afraid, they had some big dished shiny aluminium shades. The shades were in 2 sizes, the larger must have been a foot diameter, maybe more. Could be useful for going behind those CFLs?
 
God damn, been back to Ikea and bought some ceiling spotlights. I have to stop spending money there :D

Hopefully the office will be coming together this weekend, Ill post pics then :)
 
Betty said:
God damn, been back to Ikea and bought some ceiling spotlights. I have to stop spending money there :D

Hopefully the office will be coming together this weekend, Ill post pics then :)
Click to expand...

:clap: Have fun.

I hate Ikea... we went for a £6 mirror and came back with £125 worth of stuff :crying:
 
Betty, be ever so careful about this. If you are using normal incandescent bulbs:

1: Genuine fire risk if covered
2: Massive drop in light output going via any fabric/paper (so long exposures, no depth of field and poor density/noise in dark areas)
3: Very difficult to control/direct

If using fluorescent bulbs (IIRC all IKEA bulbs these days):

1: Dreadful colour rendition, and difficult to correct even in Photoshop
2: Massive drop in light output going via any fabric/paper (so long exposures, no depth of field and poor density/noise in dark areas)
3: Very difficult to control/direct

You'd be better to play with a couple of modest flashguns with home made attachments, as the results will be much better.

Cheers

George
 
Dont worry everyone, I am not getting the results I want. Looks like its a £200 home studio set up after all. At least I tried :)
 
Have a look at the interfit EX150a kit from morris photo, ~£190 inc. free delivery, and they were doing it with a free radio transmitter as well, which worked with the pc sync plug on the camera (or if you don't have one via a pc sync hotshoe adaptor for a tenner at jessops). They're not the most powerful in the world, but they're alright for a home studio in my limited opinion

(y)

EDIT: Link
 
mattyh said:
Have a look at the interfit EX150a kit from morris photo, ~£190 inc. free delivery, and they were doing it with a free radio transmitter as well, which worked with the pc sync plug on the camera (or if you don't have one via a pc sync hotshoe adaptor for a tenner at jessops). They're not the most powerful in the world, but they're alright for a home studio in my limited opinion

QUOTE]
The Interfit kits are good value but there have been a lot of forum posts about unreliability, overheating and so on...

It might be worth considering one of the better (but still cheap) studio kits such as Lencarta - more power, all metal construction, better modelling lamp, radio trigger, much better stands, bigger softboxes, more accessories...
Click to expand...
 
Actually, can I ask a stupid question. Do these kits come with any bulbs? Or do I have to buy those myself? :)
 
Betty said:
Actually, can I ask a stupid question. Do these kits come with any bulbs? Or do I have to buy those myself? :)
Click to expand...
All flash heads come with flash tubes, which last for ever (usually) and also with modelling lamps. The role of the modelling lamp is simply to give an indication of the effect that the flash will produce (eg direction and hardness of shadows). Any modelling lamp of less than 100 Watts is inadequate.

Although the flash tubes last, the modelling lamps don't. As an aside, always switch off the modelling lamp if using the flash with a honeycomb, snoot or lighting gels, to avoid causing damage.
 
Well here it is, avec kittah :D

IMG_3974.jpg


Its ok for now, I need both lamps on, the ceiling light and the onboard flash to make it work, but the white balance is all screwy. Ill be looking to buy that cheap set up soonish :)
 
Betty,

I honestly think you'll do better getting a reflector now and using natural light outside, especially as the days are getting longer.

Ultimately saving up for the Lencarta kit Garry suggested about £400 IIRC for 3x 200Ws lights and all the extras you'll need in time for Winter. Not only is each light 200Ws which is 50Ws more than the ones you've linked there is also one more in the kit and it also comes with more stuff, such as a snoot, barn door, gels, honeycomb etc. IIRC in another thread recently Garry offered people a chance to see the Lencarta kit as he's testing at the moment in his studio in Bradford (not that far from Derbyshire) - please correct me if I'm wrong Garry.

I'm guessing Garry's setup is much better than matty's ;)

just my 2p worth.
 
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