RE: OT: Indoor Lighting for Photography

["Paul" <groups@xxxxxxx>]

Rob,



One of the main factors here is 'Colour temperature' of the light and
the 'White Balance' in the camera. Colour Temperature is a measure of
the frequency of light and resultant colour, measured in Kelvin (A
standard household bulb is around 2900K, sunlight 5000K ish and
Fluorescent 6000K). Have a look at the settings of the camera - there
almost certainly is a white balance adjustment that can be manually set
(as on my Coolpix 880) by general type (fine, incandescent, fluorescent
etc) or by measuring it and assigning to a preset. The measurement type
is by far the most successful although the auto feature is normally
pretty good. To measure, get a piece of non-reflective white card or
paper and position it in the location and lighting you're going to shoot
in. Aim the camera at the white card/paper so that it fills the screen
and select 'measure' or whatever the camera offers. Once this is done,
the scene should look more natural.



But that is only one part of the equation (there are loads of books on
the subject that make interesting reading). The actual light in the room
is of course also very important. When I'm filming, I go to great
lengths to make a scene look good (light wise) which normally involves 3
or more lights of varying type, rolls of colour correcting 'gels' or
Neutral Density filter, reflectors etc. Probably the best light for what
you want to achieve, is a very diffuse light - this can normally only be
gotten by having some kind of 'egg crate' diffuser attached to the front
of a powerful light or reflector (such as a large piece of polystyrene -
which you bounce the light off of). Depending on how much light is
needed 500-600W upwards to several KW are common in the video, film and
photographic industry.



Crude 'builders lights' are very harsh and will give you huge variations
in contrast (over-exposed areas and deep shadows) and make the room look
uninviting, un-natural and flat. They can be used by bouncing the light
off of a reflector but the quality of light isn't particularly good. I
have read some interesting articles on studio lighting for very little
cost (have a search on www.dv.com for 'lighting' - 'lighting on the
cheap') using halogen lamps, aluminium tube and buckets of concrete!
Fluorescent lighting with colour corrected tubs are also used
increasingly in studios as they run cool (incandescent light puts most
of it's energy out in heat).



As to the question about which lamp is it - could be one of a huge
number of luminaries. How bright was it? Most will have some kind of
barn door option and the facility to take high temperature glass filters
(I use a dichroic daylight filter for some jobs which gives really good
colour and a 'bluer' daylight light effect).



It's a fairly complex 'art' to get into. Have a look at
http://cybaea.com/photo/color-correction.html
 and have a search on the
Internet - there's quite a lot out there.



Let me know if you need more help. It might also be wise to talk to a
good lighting supplier for something compact but powerful enough to do
what you want.



Paul.



-----Original Message-----
From: Rob Mouser [mailto:rmouser@xxxxxxx]
Sent: 08 March 2003 16:28
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subject: [ukha_d] OT: Indoor Lighting for Photography





> Sorry for the OT but I know we've got some budding David Baileys on
> the list.
> A m8 of mine has a small independent estate agency and uses a Nikon
> Coolpix 995 digital camera for taking pictures of his properties.
> He wants to improve his internal shots with better light and we've
> tried using a halogen builders site light behind the camera to
> illuminate the room with a white light with limited success (Certainly
> better than incandescing bulbs which give the picture a very yellow
> tinge.)
> When he had a pro guy out to do a shoot on a big posh house he used a
> static light (Not linked to the camera) with barn door style shutters
> which apparently produced excellent light.
>
> The question(s) is/are:
>
> Is their a better way to achieve a daylight or good light effect
> indoors?
> What was the light the pro-guy used?
> Any tips?
>
> Thanks
>
> Rob
>


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