Using a PC projector as a key light

[Rogern123]

I needed to take some photos of a new base-station product in the office last week, so had to set up a makeshift studio with what was available. I used a roll of paper from the flip-chart and some sellotape to create a white background. The lighting was not looking good; gloomy daylight and florescent tubes, and I didn't have my off-camera flash with me.. I decided to see what I could do with the office PC projector (an Epson unit with 22000 lumens output).

Initially I tried it with no PC connected, it produces a bright blue light by default. The first shots with the light at about 45-degrees to the camera (Sony A100 on tripod) looked good, but the blue was a bit too overpowering. I then connected up my PC to the projector, created a new Powerpoint file with a screen-filling rectangle that I filled white. Setting this to slideshow mode then provided a bright white light.

Shots with this came out pretty good (IMHO):





I then tried filling the Powerpoint rectangle with different colours - orange and red looked interesting:



Although I didn't try it, I think that some interesting effects could be created by using other images or gradient colours in the Powerpoint projection rather than just a solid colour.

Has anyone else tried this?