Digital Light Kits
 

Mike,
Now I'm in your area of vast knowledge. Today I finally took the plunge and bought my first real photography light (I had been using my living room lamps to this point).

Knowing what little I do about lighting requirements for sculpture, I saw what looked to be just the thing for my needs - a kit by Photoflex called the "Basic Digital Starlite Kit." This kit has a silverdome instead of an umbrella and produces a very soft, but bright (500 watt) light. I am anxious to try it out.

What is the difference between using an umbrella and a dome for diffusion? Does anyone use this type of light with digital cameras for resource photos? If so, how do you like it?

Heidi,

No vastness here.

I don't use artificial light to light my subjects. My initial thoughts would be that lighting a sculpture would be no different than lighting a real person, except for the blinking part.

Do you mean that your flash shoots away from the subject and onto (instead of into an umbrella) the surface of this dome (which would be wrapping away from the subject)? If this is the case I can see where most of the light would be diffused away from the subject creating a much softer effect.

My guess is that, as with most of these artificial set ups, it's a matter of doing it over and over again (adjusting the distance - subject to light) until you get the desired results, and then you just don't move it. This is the real benefit to these systems. Once they are in place you just move the subjects into place and it will replicate the results over and over.

I'm not going to be much help in this regard, I know that others use these types of systems and may come along to comment.

Heidi, I'm familiar with umbrella systems where you can either shine the light through the fabric (if translucent) or reflect the light off the interior surface of the umbrella (if it's kind of a silvery surface).

I don't know what you mean by a "dome" system. Is it a Softbox? Can you post some pictures of what you have?

The silverdome is a light panel. Essentially it is a silver lined reflector that has a rectangular opening which is covered by diffusion material. It gives off a similar effect to a north window. The size of a light panel and the distance to the subject are the factors which determine the quality of the light that hits the subject, same s a real window. Smaller light sources give more apparent modeling effects while larger light sources give a softer more even effect and things appear flatter. The further away the lightsource is from the subject the sharper the edge of the cast shadows. However the cast shadow edge is also softened if the lightsource is larger.

The effect of an umbrella is similar to that of a light panel, again depending on the distance to the subject, the size of the umbrella and the material inside the umbrella.

Photoflex claims that the light you purchased doesn't give off as much heat as other 500 watt bulbs. Since you're shooting sculpture it probably wont be an issue, that is unless you plan to shoot unfired soft clay or plastellina. They could possibly melt? For shooting people 500 watts might be uncomfortable and make them sweat.

Thanks for your input Mike, Michele, and Marvin.
Yes, that is it exactly Marvin. Seems like it will produce similar results as the umbrella system. Of the large and small setups offered, I purchased the smaller one which hopefully won't flatten the objects.

I don't plan on using if for unfinished works, but I had planned on using it for the resource photos of the subjects. I'll have to remember to set it back far enough so as not to blind or overheat them or I will end up with squinting sculptures.

I like a soft box better than an umbrella. The smaller the lightsource the more modeling that it reveals. The larger the lightsource the flatter the result. Good luck.

Heidi,

Congratulations on taking the plunge!

You are going to have so much fun exploring your sculptures with your light kit. While you may hit upon a good general lighting setup, as Mike said, each photo session will offer a new inspiration and insight into further possibilities. I had a blast of creativity photographing my sculpture with a 500W Tota-Lite and translucent umbrella. In truth I shot over 600 images the one evening, and each conveyed a distinctly individual expressive message about the sculpture.

Have fun!

Garth

Good gracious Garth,

I admire your attention to detail and quest for perfectionism, but isn't that overkill? I have a hard enough time with just a couple of dozen deciding which ones to use as my display photos. Do you actually download and keep all of those (on a zip drive or CD), or do you just look through them and keep a handful? Storing those on your drive would would eat up your available space in no time.

Well Heidi, yes, I have almost managed to eat up my available hard drive space in no time, and will need another hard drive soooon! I have added 200 gigs to my existing 200gigs, and need 200 more.

Garth

Moderators note:

The discussion regarding the management of photos has been split into it's own thread and can be found under:

Photography General Discussion, Photo Management - organizing your images:

http://forum.portraitartist.com/show...32692post32692

I am finally getting around to experimenting with my light kit since I just have a finished piece back from the foundry. This is the photoflex soft box and has a filtering screen across the 500 watt bulb. Seems no matter where I place it, there is still quite a dark shadow cast behind the piece. Is it best to try to place the light directly overhead?

Anyway, I found these great background supports and paper at B&H Photo . The background support plus three rolls of paper (white, suede, and brown) were under $100 total.

The background curves up immediately behind your sculpture, becoming basically an angled wall. The table top needs to extend further back so that the shadow is cast on a horizontal plane. This will foreshorten the shadow and render it less obtrusive.