MikeGelhaus.com

Lighting

The Purchase

I am attempting to take photos of pool parts for General Pool and Spa Supply to be use for the Website as well as Parts Catalogs. I am an amateur photographer at best, and as such am very limited on taking studio quality photos. I know from school at UCSD that the minimalist setup is to arrange lighting in three points around the point of interest to reduce shadows on and around the object/subject.

I first looked around for a cheap lighting system available on ‘the web’. There were none of course. Each light I stumbled upon ran about $300 dollars or more for the cheapest product. For my budget and needs I felt this was over-kill. So I ventured out to my local Home Depot to see about getting some flood lamps. To my surprise I found reasonable prices. I ended up leaving Home Depot with a $40 receipt for three 250watt Halogen flood lamps for use in outdoor construction as my lights.

The Setup

My Setup is pretty basic. Right now I have the lights setup on some books. I may purchase some cheap multipurpose tripods that I can mount the flood lamps to in the future, but for now this should suffice as most the parts are rather small.

The Verdict

But because I am going cheap I am worried the difference in quality of the light and the brightness might affect the shots. The professional lights ran at a minimum of 1250watts, so I am falling short on power right out the gate. The flood lamp housing claims to handle 1250watt bulbs (but warns do not exceed that limit) so if the light isn’t right I may look into some replacement bulbs.

Camera

The Choices

Right now I have two options. My older 5 megapixel Canon Powershot S500 or my girlfriends 7.2 megapixel Casio. For the shots on this page I used my Powershot. I may switch to my girlfriends newer camera here before long. But if that still isn’t good enough I may have to research a DSLR (think detachable lenses) for the job.

I am also temporarily tripod-less. I have a Canon GL2 digital camcorder that uses my tripod alot, both of which are not with me in San Diego. So I will be taking the shots by hand for now (bad idea).

The Verdict

I wish I had a tripod for these test shots but I will make do. If anything I can go get one from the store.

Results

I am not too too happy with the results. I still find there is too much shadow in the picture. I may have to look into alternative lighting and possible get some new 1250watt bulbs for my flood lamps. I am also not happy with the clarity. I was hoping for a sharper image. I am messing around with the settings on my camera, but without a tripod I am severely limited. A possible solution could be to switch cameras. Look for a future post on new tests.