DIY Ghetto Striplight Studio -- With Visual Aids!

[RussHeath]

I was at Home Depot for some home plumbing supplies, and I just so happened to wander through the lighting section. That will definitely be the last time my wife sends me to Home Depot alone . . .

A while back there was a video featured on Strobist (see the post here) about creating a lighting studio with some fluorescent worklights. I vaugely remembered the post and thought I would give it a go.

First, I bought two shop light fixtures which each hold two 48 inch 40 watt fluorescent tubes. I also needed a way to stand these up, so I bought some ball bungees with the intention of using them as attachments to chairs:



You can see how I oriented the lights against the back of a kitchen chair with the ball bungees:

(Note: the lights run very cool, so I never felt like the plastic balls directly against the tubes was a fire hazard).



The type of lighting tubes is critical. I wandered the store for some time before finding the "daylight" tubes that specifically say "6500K" on the side. These tubes match the color of the light from my strobes so closely, that I can avoid having to gel my strobes. That's a great thing.

So how to set them up? Well this is my first go at it:



I'm going for a hard wrap around lighting setup with my two new striplights in front and my two SB-600s in back. If you don't have any strobes and were looking at this as a cheap home lighting method, don't worry. In the video I linked to above, he's only using the worklights. You could probably also use reflectors for some other effects. My background there is just a large piece of white foamcore. I use this for a reflector or a background in different situations.

Here is an aerial view so you can see the size of the space:



It's enough room for one or two people to sit (or stand if I raise the strobes).

So, how much did I spend?

--Two 4 foot shoplights at $8.50 each = $17
--Two pairs of Phillips daylight balanced 48 inch 40 watt fluorescent tubes at $6.50 per pair = $13
--One can containing 12 ball bungees at $5

--Total damage = $35 plus tax. That's it!

So go to your local hardware store and have some fun for less than a night at your favorite restaurant.

(I'll have to re-post to myself to show you some quickie results).

[RussHeath]

So, here are some quick results of the above lighting setup. My wife was busy today, so I used my beautiful stand in model, Ellie.

She's regal and classically beautiful but kind of a pain to work with. (Although I guess it would be cheaper to hire real models if they all worked for dog bones and a pat on the head!)







So, if all goes well I'll get this fine tuned and have my wife pose for some shots, which will likely be Part 5 of my ongoing series on portrait lighting. (If you haven't seen it go check out Part 4).

There are definitely some kinks to work out, but I'm happy with the first results overall. I think the strobes need to be toned down a bit (I think they were on 1/32 power at f/2.5 which looks too bright for me). I also wanted kind of a Jill Greenberg look (like her shots of Bears) which didn't really happen. The strobes will have to be raised up a bit and fire down for more even rimlight on the top of the subject's head, and they also need some gobos to keep down the flare. All things to work on . . .

Any critiques, comments, and questions about the setup or the shots are very welcome. I hope some folks give this one a try at home and post the results!

[clockdoc]

Nice work, Russ. Thanks for showing us the setup as well. That is always helpful. I agree with you in that the back lights are a little hot but still a great effect. Very interesting catchlights in the dog's eyes. Have you tried any snoot on the SB600's?

[Digidave]

Nice job!! I agree that the strobes were to bright. That's all I could think about when reading. I think the work lights would be enough with the careful use of reflectors. What do you think?

[RussHeath]

Originally Posted by clockdoc

Nice work, Russ. Thanks for showing us the setup as well. That is always helpful. I agree with you in that the back lights are a little hot but still a great effect. Very interesting catchlights in the dog's eyes. Have you tried any snoot on the SB600's?

Thanks, Lee! I have used snoots on the SBs before, but I seem to have lost them. I'll have to fashion another pair before I con my wife into posing. And the catchlights from this setup are one of my favorite parts. I will also be trying a clamshell setup with the lights oriented horizontal above and below the camera. I've seen some neat catchlights that way on flickr.

Originally Posted by Digidave

Nice job!! I agree that the strobes were to bright. That's all I could think about when reading. I think the work lights would be enough with the careful use of reflectors. What do you think?

Dave -- Thanks! Yeah, I really overdid the strobes, but by the time I realized it the dog was way too sick of posing for me to get any more shots. I think reflectors would work for a subtle effect, but I wanted a very hard rimlight effect (the kind where each individual hair on the dog stands out). I'll try it both ways as soon as I have a subject that doesn't try to continuously lick the camera.

[JMS]

Originally Posted by RussHeath

I also wanted kind of a Jill Greenberg look (like her shots of Bears) which didn't really happen.

It's close enough to Jill Greenberg's look that I think all you might be missing is the post processing work. Nice job!

[RussHeath]

Thanks, JMS. I think Jill Greenberg's post processing involves a lot of high contrast and sharpening painted in with some heavy dodge and burn, but I haven't found a good tutorial for it yet. Most of the whites in the above photos were too overexposed at the edges to give me much room to work. Here is a repeat shoot with the strip lights moved to the rear 45s, one strobe into a silver umbrella camera right at about 45 degrees, and one strobe on the back wall gelled for color:



It's still not quite the light character than I'm after (I need to get the rear lights up higher), but it gave me more to work with in post.

Note: The dog is very large and starting to hate the lights. If I go a week without posting please send animal control to my house as she probably has me trapped in the spare bedroom.

[photofun]

Thanks for showing your set-up. I plan to check out the light section on my next trip to our local home improvement store - you've inspired me so. I love Ellie - she is very regal looking. Please keep posting, I always learn so much from you. I missed Part 4 - so I'm gonna check that out now.

[RussHeath]

Thank you, Photofun. I'm glad you're enjoying my trial and error approach to learning.

Hope you get some good stuff at the hardware store. I find that playing around with the lights at home has taught me a lot about photography and my camera. When you have some control over the main elements of a photo, it makes you more aware of those elements in other places too (where you may have little to no control).

I still haven't been able to get my wife to pose for Part 5, but I'm wearing her down. Maybe this weekend . . .

[Taallyn]

Since you have the strip lights, now you might want some DIY Strip light softboxes.