DIY Lighting for Studio at Home

[henrylim]

Hi all,

I am curious if there is a possibility of setting up a studio-like environment at home DIY using commonly available lighting (e.g. series of fluoroscent lights or halogen lights). I was at this friend's place and he happen to have 4 large strips of fluoroscent lights on the wall vertically aligned, and the lighting was quite bright. I did a grey card WB calibration and shot a few shots and it turn out quite fine, and for a moment, I thought perhaps it is possible or can be done close to studio? :think: :think:

Any thoughts? Perhaps throw in a SB600 or SB800 in remote flash mode with a D70 as commander and white reflector as a flash source also? Just a thought. Appreciate those who have tried various options/had studio experience to comment on this. It would be quite enlightening me who had only 1 studio experience.

Thank you very much!

 

[Del_CtrlnoAlt]

tats depends on your quality standard... if you are only into taking for fun, i think its ok even if you just use a single SB800/SB600 with a diffuser or reflector screen.

Normally, its the mood you trying to achieve... so for the need of studio lights... its hard to manipulate a hotshoe flash, or lines of lights to produce the same fill-in as studio lights. for eg, your 1 studio light can fill in straight for a full body shot, soften with a softbox... your sb800 can't emulate that, cos the throw is althou far, the width is not, to get a width u need to bounce off white card or thru reflectors, den add a softbox... still get partial darkness i suppose...

 

[yqt]

Hi all,

I am curious if there is a possibility of setting up a studio-like environment at home DIY using commonly available lighting (e.g. series of fluoroscent lights or halogen lights). I was at this friend's place and he happen to have 4 large strips of fluoroscent lights on the wall vertically aligned, and the lighting was quite bright. I did a grey card WB calibration and shot a few shots and it turn out quite fine, and for a moment, I thought perhaps it is possible or can be done close to studio? :think: :think:

Any thoughts? Perhaps throw in a SB600 or SB800 in remote flash mode with a D70 as commander and white reflector as a flash source also? Just a thought. Appreciate those who have tried various options/had studio experience to comment on this. It would be quite enlightening me who had only 1 studio experience.

Thank you very much!

The white balance for the fluoroscent lights and the sb600/800 will not be the same, so not really possible with this set up.

 

[Del_CtrlnoAlt]

The white balance for the fluoroscent lights and the sb600/800 will not be the same, so not really possible with this set up.

that depends as well... cos there is color corrected fluorescent lights... but overall... still lack the fill lor...

 

[yqt]

that depends as well... cos there is color corrected fluorescent lights... but overall... still lack the fill lor...

well last I tried, the white balance for the "colour corrected fluorescent lights" were not that close to daylights. There may be better ones around now, if you know of one ( that's close to normal daylight ) could you let me know? To "x"( and lazy :sweat: ) to buy so many to test lar:sweatsm:

 

[Del_CtrlnoAlt]

actually, tat depends, y u wan daylight instead of cool light?

i color blind (no pun intended, its true) to notice the difference, but is flash closer to daylight or cool light?

 

[catchlights]

yqt is referring a 5600k FL lights, not the household type, yes, the kind of FL lights is very ex.

For beginner, a continuations light source is easier to learn, try not to mix light source, last time is very hard to get a perfect colour balance on film (you have to buy lots of CC filters and keep testing on film), but now with digital, no problem to use FL lights for light source.

 

[henrylim]

yqt is referring a 5600k FL lights, not the household type, yes, the kind of FL lights is very ex.

For beginner, a continuations light source is easier to learn, try not to mix light source, last time is very hard to get a perfect colour balance on film (you have to buy lots of CC filters and keep testing on film), but now with digital, no problem to use FL lights for light source.

Does that mean that with the continuous lighting on, I use a grey card to get the right WB?
Also, if I use FL to do lighting, is it inferior to studio strobes in terms of final effect?

 

[catchlights]

Does that mean that with the continuous lighting on, I use a grey card to get the right WB?

yes, use grey card, exposdise or Macbeth colorchecker.

Also, if I use FL to do lighting, is it inferior to studio strobes in terms of final effect?

Not true, understand the light and know how to use it, is far more important that owning or using the most expensive lighting equipments.