Product Photography Studio Light setup advice

Product Photography Studio Light setup advice

  • Lighting

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Strobes

    Votes: 1 50.0%

  • Monolight

    Votes: 1 50.0%
  • Total voters
    2
D

danny-123

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Hello members, I'm new to this forum. My name is danny and hope to learn a lot from all members to become better at my hobby.
Firstly, Im have a little experience in photography, I started with street photgraphy, but due to financial issues I had to sell my cam and lens and sitting off with no gear. Now I.m trying to start off again, but switching to product photography at home trying to setup my new studio.
Basicly I.m new to lighting, cause in street basic outsight light was inportant in thinking of shutterspeed and aperture. Now things are getting difficult for me. ï have searched lots of information through google, but I'm getting confused of all information about lighting.
Alright my main gear setup for now is, a canon 60d, with a canon 60mm 2.8 macro lens and still considering to buy a 50mm 1.8 also. don't know if this is will be a good thing to do.
my main goal is to setup a studio with a table top and, and background that can be changed in color.canon 60d with 60mm lens.I'm stuck with the lighting part. My room is a 3 by 3 meter bethroom, with no other lights. main light source will be the lights I will buy.
The only light I have is a Yongnuo Y300 led video light
319NbIR6p7L._SY300_.jpg

its a video light and I will use it as a background light. so my main issue is the second key, Rim and fill light. Based on the information I searched, im stuck with, speedlite, monolight, or continious light. Which one to choose. Budget is tight, something to 400 euros// dollars is my maximum. DO I have to choose a softbox also.Hope that somebody can give me some advice what to do.
Products will be, makeup, cosmetics,phones,watches, some macro, and maybe food also but in macro mode. Basic thing will be makeup and cosmetics.
thanks in advance.

gr danny
 
What are the images to be used for?
Your budget seems rather tight... I would probably go with some cheap manual speedlights (2-3), a radio trigger setup, 2 3ft softboxes (min), a reasonably large diffusion panel/silk, 2-3 stands (one w/ some type of boom functionality) for positioning the lights/box/diffusion, and some white/black foam core for reflectors/flags. You should be able to get all of that w/in your budget and have the ability to do some high quality work with stuff that small. Forget about that LED video light...

This is basically a small/low power/battery operated mobile version of a professional studio strobe (monolight) setup. But if you are serious about it and willing to spend more over time then I would get 200-300W studio heads instead of speedlights as well as better quality softboxes and stands (better stands will be more necessary with heavier heads/larger modifiers).
 
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Your camera and lens is fine, you may find it very useful to get a longer lens of around 100mm, but you will have absolutely no use for a 50mm lens. My advice is to concentrate on the important bit, the lighting, and think about getting a longer lens only if it becomes necessary in the future.


Your LED light is unsuitable, and my advice would be get to get low/medium powered studio flash, this kit https://www.lencarta.com/smartflash-3-complete-studio-lighting-kit-600w is almost ideal but with (at least) one of the 85cm Chiaro softboxes. I say "At Least" because the softbox needs to be at least 3 times the size of your subject if the subject has a shiny surface. https://www.lencarta.com/s-fit-85x85cm-redline-pro-chiaro-softbox. Also, get a standard reflector https://www.lencarta.com/smartflash-18cm-7-inch-standard-reflector and a 10 degree honeycomb, https://www.lencarta.com/standard-reflector-10-degree-universal-honeycomb-grid both of which you will need. The umbrellas supplied with the kit are of no use to you but you can configure exactly what you need here https://www.lencarta.com/custom-bespoke-studio-lighting-kits

Before you go any further, read this article on controlling reflections, which also explains the use of the softbox https://www.lencarta.com/studio-lighting-blog/controlling-specular-reflections/#.VjzW6ysl-hE
With all due modesty, this is the definitive article on this subject, and if you go to the front page of the Lencarta Learning Centre https://www.lencarta.com/studio-lighting-blog/ you'll see a host of other product photography tutorials that will be useful.

If this is too much for your budget then you'll need to change your budget:)

Edit: Similar equipment is also available from other suppliers.
 
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All I can add to the above is that your poll might fit your understanding of the subject, but to me:
A monolight is a type of strobe (Americanism) and all of them are 'lighting'

Perhaps you meant speedlights, studio flash or continuous lights? To which the answer is studio flash (mono-lights)

However, as above, the ideal kit is what Garry posted, proper studio lighting will save a lot of hassle it might seem daunting but so is a SLR when you first pick it up, but you soon realise it's a small price to pay for the required functionality.

You can achieve with speedlights, but it's harder work. You'll find some brilliant work in the web shot with just speedlights, but the faff required seems a large price to pay IMHO.
 
guys thanks for you're replies. apreciate it for your time an effort for answering. OK what I found for a start is, a godox sk400 monolight strobe, 1 godox flash TT600 - both has a 2.4 ghz wireless function that can both be triggered with the godox xt1. A softbox Godox 20"x27" 50x70cm Photo Studio Softbox Soft Box.don't know if its the good size. for reflection I will try to use foambard for start. 2 stands for flash and softbox, also got the barn doors with honeycomb for the sk400.and small honeycomb for the flash. Don't know but I think I will be short in lighting...Have to start with this now and save some money to buy maybe one more sk400...fits in my budget.
Images will be used for web, instagram, and facebook but hopefully in the future to do more with it.
 
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I think I have to buy the second sk400 light also, as garry mentioned with the lencarta 2 lights option. and the flash can be used as background light or fill light. is it worthed to buy the second light or not with the honeycomb, Budgetwise it should be possible.
 
The Godox SK400 is OK, it's certainly good value for money. But, if it goes wrong you won't be able to get it fixed, so it only becomes good value for money if you can afford to replace it.
That Godox softbox is crap and won't do what you need it to do. The rather poor diffuser goes over the front of the softbox body, which means that the light is uncontrolled and will go everywhere, including into your lens, where it will cause flare. Also, it cannot be fitted with a honeycomb.

Not convinced? One other thing then - it won't even fit the flash head!
 
OK garry, understood, didn't knew that, ok, so I have to buy a new softbox is a falconeyes or other brand help. and is it worthed to buy the second sk400 also.
 
Well, Falcon Eyes isn't a brand, it's a large Company that re-brands products made by other Chinese factories (just like Neewer and others) so the products they sell are pretty mixed. If you don't want to spend the money that the Lencarta one that I linked to costs, then at least find something that's a good copy of it, because that's the design and quality that you need.
 
well garry, found the lencarta in my country and bought it, but one question, is it a problem if I buy the lencarta 300w en combine it with the godox sk400. will it be a problem. didn't knew about the lencarta, otherwise i would have bought the set. I've already bought the godox. can't return it. and I got also the godox trigger, hopefully it will work with the lencarta flash, I'v got the godox xt1 trigger

the 400w and 300w could give some problems i think. bought the softbox what you mentioned.
 
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That trigger will work fine, although you should have bought the cheaper version that doesn't have the clever bells and wistles of the X1T. Unfortunately you'll now need to get another one, as each flash head needs to have its own receiver - are you sure that you can't send it back? Keeping it is wasting money.
The Godox SK400 will work perfectly alongside the Lencarta SmartFlash.
I doubt whether, real world, there is any difference in power between the two, and if there is then it doesn't make any difference.
 
What are you shooting for? Are you looking to go professional?
To be direct, with both your skillset and your equipment you are really going to struggle to shoot on a professional basis.
 
riddel, yes thats the way I would go. On street I was on the pro way, but due to financial issues I had to stop and sell my gear. Now making the switch to product shooting the lighting is new for me. have to focus and search a lot. glad that I found my way at this forum. I know that in the future have to invest in some more quality lighting but for start should be go on with this. and I will looking also for a 100mm lens. It would take some time, I know.to going on pro there are much more to be needed. but I think with the advise of garry its a good start.
 
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Quick question, if you want to do some product photography then why not start with what you have got and use just some A3/A2 paper. Pin it up to make an infinity curve and then light from above using the video light. Shooting through a diffuser will soften it. The light will be flat but even and depending on what you're shooting may work just fine.

Check out Photogy on YouTube. Alex is the master of product photography but I warn you, you'll be left seriously having a 'I want this' list!
 
cardiff_gareth said:
Quick question, if you want to do some product photography then why not start with what you have got and use just some A3/A2 paper. Pin it up to make an infinity curve and then light from above using the video light. Shooting through a diffuser will soften it. The light will be flat but even and depending on what you're shooting may work just fine.

Check out Photogy on YouTube. Alex is the master of product photography but I warn you, you'll be left seriously having a 'I want this' list!
Click to expand...
But would that be product photography? The OP may as well use no lighting at all, take the photos on his Smartphone and press the photo filter button....
 
i'll try to start with the godox set and the lencarta 300 as garry suggested en from there on I'll see where it lets me go. I know photigy, trying to learn also from him. guy is too good.
soon I will get all my stuff, for now I'm also focussing on my photoshop skills also. In the future I will post some examples and hopefully I will grow on with my skills. I know its a difficult but have to start somewhere.
 
garry do you have some suggestion for a softbox besides lencarta and also the size..real strange but I ordered 1 softbox with the same dimentions as you said for 58 euros and a day later it has a higher price,. now its for 99.pff..should have bought 2, nothing else do now. I see a lot of other brands and sizes....the size is I think important...If you can suggest something I would be glad to search further on.
 
danny-123 said:
garry do you have some suggestion for a softbox besides lencarta and also the size..real strange but I ordered 1 softbox with the same dimentions as you said for 58 euros and a day later it has a higher price,. now its for 99.pff..should have bought 2, nothing else do now. I see a lot of other brands and sizes....the size is I think important...If you can suggest something I would be glad to search further on.
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I suggested a 85 x 85cm square softbox because it's a good all rounder, big enough for most small product photography but not unreasonably large and bulky. You should get either square or rectangular (octagonal and round are far less suitable for most types of product photography) and as I said before, if the subject is shiny then the softbox needs to be at least 3 times the size (e.g. if it's 20cm long then the softbox needs to be at least 60cm long, but bigger tends to be better)

As for brand, there are a few other good brands available but it's difficult to make recommendations, so many of the so-called brands out there are just re-brands, and some pretty rubbish stuff is sold under reasonably well-known brand names. Many are poorly designed, poorly put together and send light every which way but where they should... Profoto and Elinchrom are good, but IMO overpriced, and of course you would also need to get the S-fit speedring. Might be worth looking at 2nd hand ones in those makes.
 
thanks garry, I think I would then go for the lencarta one. Price is bit heavy but 85 x 85 should be good for the set. I think I have a reasonable set to start the studio. In a few months I will also get another lencarta smartflash with the softbox as you mentioned earlier. for now i will have to learn with the godox and lencarta set to start an slowly building my set up. thanks for your time to reply. You will hear for me soon again for further update.
 
garry thanks for the suggestions. I got my godox set and my lencarta light now. Did some tests and trying to setup the studio the best way. Im struggling with the third light. Should I buy a third light or should I start with the 2 and go on with that and in the future look for the third. I have the sk400 and the lencarta smartflash with the honeycomb 10". Already ordered the lencarta softbox 85 x 85. got one and size is pretty good. I checked the godox one and garry you were right. that thing is too small. Light will go on crazy everywhere. thats why I decided to order a second softbox. the godox flash is good...not the best but can use it as a background light so thats covered. One question, as I read, I should place one light at 45 degrees of the product the other one 45 degrees to the other side....en do I need a third light as Rim....the back of the product with the honeycomb grid in it. or I just use one light at 45 degrees on one side and the other side a reflector to bounce the ligtht, and use the second light as Rim the back of the product....?
the set what i have now is...
1. godox sk400 - with barndoor and honeycomb grid
1 lencarta smartflash with reflector and 10" honeycomb grid
1 lencarta softbox...85 x 85
1 godox tt600 flash

One more question, do I have to use the 10" reflector and honeycomb grid with the softbox. I don't think that would be possible.... sorry if the question sounds a bit stupid...:)
I thinks its either one or the other.
Its new for me and Trying to have some confidence in what I try to setup. want to learn as much as I can. Normally I should take some classes in product photography but here its to expensive, so I try to search as much as I can and this forum gives me a lot.
 
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danny-123 said:
garry thanks for the suggestions. I got my godox set and my lencarta light now. Did some tests and trying to setup the studio the best way. Im struggling with the third light. Should I buy a third light or should I start with the 2 and go on with that and in the future look for the third. I have the sk400 and the lencarta smartflash with the honeycomb 10". Already ordered the lencarta softbox 85 x 85. got one and size is pretty good. I checked the godox one and garry you were right. that thing is too small. Light will go on crazy everywhere. thats why I decided to order a second softbox. the godox flash is good...not the best but can use it as a background light so thats covered. One question, as I read, I should place one light at 45 degrees of the product the other one 45 degrees to the other side....en do I need a third light as Rim....the back of the product with the honeycomb grid in it. or I just use one light at 45 degrees on one side and the other side a reflector to bounce the ligtht, and use the second light as Rim the back of the product....?
the set what i have now is...
1. godox sk400 - with barndoor and honeycomb grid
1 lencarta smartflash with reflector and 10" honeycomb grid
1 lencarta softbox...85 x 85
1 godox tt600 flash

One more question, do I have to use the 10" reflector and honeycomb grid with the softbox. I don't think that would be possible.... sorry if the question sounds a bit stupid...:)
I thinks its either one or the other.
Its new for me and Trying to have some confidence in what I try to setup. want to learn as much as I can. Normally I should take some classes in product photography but here its to expensive, so I try to search as much as I can and this forum gives me a lot.
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I can't tell you how many lights you need, nobody can because the number needed, and where they are placed, and which modifiers need to be used with them, varies with every product and pretty well with every shot. All that we can advise is a starting point - thought, understanding of light and experimentation will do the rest for you.

I referred you earlier to the Lencarta Learning Centre, where there are a couple of hundred or so detailed tutorials, mainly on product photography.
Here are the steps that need to be taken with every shot...
1. Get the product perfectly clean
2. Decide on the angle at which you will photograph it, to provide a headline photo that shows the product at its best (obviously you will also take detailed photos too, and will probably have to change the lighting for each one)
3. Place on the shooting table or whatever
4. Put the camera on a tripod, set the camera height as required
5. Arrange the key light - this is the light that does nearly all of the work, and which shows the benefits/qualities of the product and which creates the right shadows in the right places.
6. Arrange a fill light - this is the light that fills in the areas not lit by the key light, although that can be a bit of an over simplification
7. Light the background if necessary
8. Take the shot

Now, with the cutting board with shiny vegetables on that I linked to, or anything shiny, the key light will of course be an overhead softbox, placed very close to the subject and angled forwards so that it lights the back of the subject, and it's top. The fill light (if needed at all) would light the front of the subject https://www.lencarta.com/studio-lighting-blog/controlling-specular-reflections/#.VjzW6ysl-hE
But if you were photographing something with texture, for example clothing or a bunch of flowers, then the key light would be the uneven surface and the fill light would be the overhead softbox, which may or may not be much further away. You must always set up the key light first, take a test shot, and then when you're happy with both the look and the exposure you turn that light off and do the same with the fill light. When you're happy with both, you take a shot using both of them, and you will then see what other lights may be needed.

As for putting one light each side at 45 degree angles, that's strictly beginner stuff, no real photographer would ever do that.

So, currently you have one proper softbox (85 x 85cm), this will normally be your overhead light, a standard reflector, which you can use (normally from a fairly frontal position) to light the subject, and a 10 degree honeycomb, which is fitted inside the standard reflector when necessary, this is set at an acute angle to the surface of the subject to emphasise the texture, create interest and depth.

You also have a hotshoe flash, this can be very useful too, but the name of the game is always to use just one light if possible, add a second if needed and then a third, fourth etc - but always add extras only if needed and always one at a time.
 
thanks again garry, I've read the specular reflections...it has good info there. Need to do lots of tests, but again you're advise is great. I will start with this set. I will try begin with it and looking further on where I get. If needed I will buy the second softbox and maybe than another smartflash. for now I will do the job with what I have. The directly overhead will be little bit difficult for me cause I don't have a boom stand....to put the softbox directly above the subject....but sideways with the back and top lit is possible. so I will try that first. and fill it with the honeycomb and check it further. THe flash will be used for background light with color gels if needed. subjects have to have depts. What I'm struggling with is that if I want the focus of the complete scene. the 60mm 2.8 has a reallly thin line....pff but will start at F11 and try to go on to f18 and further to f22.max is f32 on my cam.
Thanks for the extra info...I will check out the lencarta website for more learning tuts...it has a lot of good tutorials. have a nice night garry.
 
Hmmn... Your 60D is a cropped frame camera, and ideally you shouldn't really use an aperture smaller than f/11, because there will be a progressive lack of overall sharpness, caused by diffraction limitation, when you go smaller than that.
DOF is very rarely a real problem with product photography, it's usually easy enough to get the whole thing sharp unless you're taking closeup shots, and when that happens it often makes sense draw attention to the bit you're trying to emphasise by getting the rest of it out of focus. Here's a simple example
spiggot.jpg
 
garry a question about the lencarta smartflash. Is it possible to trigger this with the xt1 trigger and the godox sk400, What I do now is I use the xt1 to trigger the godox sk400 without receiver, cause of the build in 2.4ghz receiver. but stuck with the lencarta flash. does it works when I set the godoxsk400 with xt1 and the lencarta as slave. I think that should be possible to trigger both flashes with one xt1. otherwise I have to buy a new set.
I can't test now because of the power cable of the lencarta is a english version and in netherlands we have other power output cables for powering up the flash. I know it uses a standard pc power cable. but I do not have a spare. Hope you got a answer for me.
thanks
 
You can certainly use it as a slave, it will probably work fine, 99% of the time. There might be the very odd occasion when the light from the master gets blocked in some way and so doesn't reach the slave sensor, but for this type of photography it isn't exactly a disaster if the flash very occasionally fails to go off.

Lencarta should have sent you the mains lead with the EU plug fitting, get on to them and I'm sure that they'll send you the correct fitting.
 
again many many thanks garry for youre info...again a great info. People should thank you More for all the help you give here. Im still learning a lot. Updates will soon be brought on this site. Hopefully I'm going the right way. Soeren also thanks to you for the links. will read this carefully :)
 
danny-123 said:
garry a question about the lencarta smartflash. Is it possible to trigger this with the xt1 trigger and the godox sk400,...
Click to expand...

You can use a Godox XTR-16 trigger with the smartflash (Make sure it's the XTR-16, rather than the FTR-16, the FTR-16 is for their older 433Mhz radio transmitters, so wont work with the XT1).

The Lencarta Wavesync 2.4 receiver is the Lencarta branded version of the XTR-16, so will be compatible with your XT1.
 
Garry Edwards said:
........ You should get either square or rectangular (octagonal and round are far less suitable for most types of product photography)
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Appologies for gate crashing Danny's thread but he, and others, might benefit from Garry's explanation.

Why is a square/rectangular softbox preferred over an octangonal or round one for product shots?

Bob
 
Canon Bob said:
Appologies for gate crashing Danny's thread but he, and others, might benefit from Garry's explanation.

Why is a square/rectangular softbox preferred over an octangonal or round one for product shots?

Bob
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A lot of products are more linear. And even if they are not, having a linear edge/falloff tends to look better and is easier to control/feather, especially if the product is highly reflective.
 
yes sk66, I did some test with reflective bottle shot..dammm.. that thing is getting me crazy. I get only harsh lines on the side of the bottle is there a way to reduce this. I think and I have tested with a diffuser made by myself, with paper but I think the paper was to thick that the diffusion paper holds more stops of light. It gives me no difference in the hash lines on the side of the bottle. Maybe for a beginner like me bottle is nog a good start. I have to start with something easier. Garry gave great tips. I have only one softbox and one refelctor with the 10" honeycomb. I don't know where to begin. tried two days to search all kinds of things to do some test, its killing me. space is small and cannot put 3 lights with softboxes. so I decided to buy tracing paper and make another diffuser for myself to start do test more. I will try now to put the light with honeycomb at the back of the subject with the diffuser and on the left or right the softbox and on the other side a bounce card...a long one also to refelct. hopefully this will help me. garry have some other tips...? how to do this.
 
danny-123 said:
yes sk66, I did some test with reflective bottle shot..dammm.. that thing is getting me crazy. I get only harsh lines on the side of the bottle is there a way to reduce this. I think and I have tested with a diffuser made by myself, with paper but I think the paper was to thick that the diffusion paper holds more stops of light. It gives me no difference in the hash lines on the side of the bottle. Maybe for a beginner like me bottle is nog a good start. I have to start with something easier. Garry gave great tips. I have only one softbox and one refelctor with the 10" honeycomb. I don't know where to begin. tried two days to search all kinds of things to do some test, its killing me. space is small and cannot put 3 lights with softboxes. so I decided to buy tracing paper and make another diffuser for myself to start do test more. I will try now to put the light with honeycomb at the back of the subject with the diffuser and on the left or right the softbox and on the other side a bounce card...a long one also to refelct. hopefully this will help me. garry have some other tips...? how to do this.
Click to expand...
I don't know where this has come from, but personally I wouldn't advise a newcomer to try lighting bottles. It isn't actually hard but it needs the following to get good results easily
1. A matched pair of rectangular softboxes, preferably strip softboxes (that's what strip softboxes were designed for). When positioned dead square and very close to the subject in exactly the right position, they create large, diffused specular highlights on the edges
2. A spotlight or similar to light the label (although this can be bodged in PS)
3. Studio flash, because hotshoe flashguns struggle to light large softboxes evenly and because they don't have modelling lamps
4. Powerful modelling lamps, used in the dark (easy enough to get a totally dark shooting environment at this time of year though)

No more tips to offer, any advice would be general, theoretical and pretty pointless. Instead, I suggest that you find any household item that's lying about, post the results on here and then some of us can give specific advice.
 
garry youre right, after some struggle and research I found out that its not possible yet for me to do things like bottle, firstly I thought It has to do with the diffuser but now reading your info ....its not on de the diffusers. Its that on bot sides there has to be equal size of light, and then the top and then the label and so on. After this I was a little sad that all my hard work was for nothing but basicly I made a false start.
Will try now to do other stuff and try to learn. examples will soon be posted for advice.
 
With reflective things, I find it easier to think of creating the environment that will be reflected rather than lighting directly as such. The hard line you're seeing is almost certainly the edge/shape of the softbox being reflected.
For a bottle I would probably use dark field backlighting to start with... basically wrapping the light in around from behind/sides with a dark BG. Most glass/bottle lighting starts with backlighting, not direct frontal lighting.
 
Deleted, redundant
 
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i saw something about it sk66, didn't understand first but now its clear...thats why a guy setup a light at the side with softbox and diffuser, and on the diffuser he created on the left and right side with black strip cloth, so at the end there was only a white strip light that was litting the subject and creating a shiny and not to harsh lines for the bottle. but for me i have to try simpeler things for a beginner.,and further on will test that also.
 
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