How to take photos of lamps?

[den_lim]

Can anyone help me?
I need to learn how to take photos of lamps for our catalog, but I am having problems with this.
Are there any tutorials?

[oldwolf]

Expose for the lamp turned on and then add a few lights to light up the base?

I guess it depends on if you want the lights on or not to show off the lamp shade if it has a lamp shade on.

[den_lim]

Originally Posted by oldwolf

Expose for the lamp turned on and then add a few lights to light up the base?

I guess it depends on if you want the lights on or not to show off the lamp shade if it has a lamp shade on.

Actually, we need to take photos of the shades with the bulbs on.

Our products are the shades themselves.

[oldwolf]

If the shades are what you're selling then expose for the shades with the lamp turned on. If you want the base to fade away or be lit less then put some fabric (white ripstop nylon or something), on the bottom of the shade so the light doesn't spill onto the base too much.

You can also try lighting the shade from the outside with some flashes and a snoot or grid on the flash depending on what you'd want lit. It would be cool to have one picture of the full shade and then an inset of the detail of the shade. That would give the customer an idea of the detail and texture.

If you want to show the texture then light it from the side and not straight on.

Just my two cents.

[den_lim]

That's a cool idea. Thanks.

[cyber3d]

Bracket bracket bracket. Raw raw raw. Edit in Photoshop if you don't have a great many to shoot. You know, layer the best exposures for the background, for the lamp base, and for the shade itself. Then mask and blend with transparency. Makes sense?

[den_lim]

Originally Posted by cyber3d

Bracket bracket bracket. Raw raw raw. Edit in Photoshop if you don't have a great many to shoot. You know, layer the best exposures for the background, for the lamp base, and for the shade itself. Then mask and blend with transparency. Makes sense?

yikes! we have hundreds of items. i've been doing that and was thinking of other options

[i speak in math]

I wouldn't go the bracket, raw photoshop route, its way too much post work. As a product photographer, I can tell you what I would do:

Set up a white seamless sweep with some 4 ft paper. Put your camera on a tripod and a lamp on the table and properly line things up. Put a small dot on the paper where your lamp will go, so they are always in the same place in the photos.

I would use a medium softbox (larger than the lamp) close on one side, about 45 degrees from center and another small softbox 90-120 degrees (straight or slightly behind the product) on the other side. This side lighting should bring out any textures in the lamp shades while the rear highlights and separates it from the backdrop.

Set your lens to f/22 for max depth of field, and your strobes to match (hope you have some powerful lights).

Turn the lamp on and slowly lower the shutter speed down from sync until you start seeing the glow from the lightbulb. This should introduce a nice warm color from inside, while the outside remains mostly color corrected from the strobes.

I would think something like f/22, 1/20th and ISO 100 should work if you have the strobes doing the bulk of the work.

Now just switch out the lamps. Set one on the dot, plug it in, hit the shutter. Next lamp. And so on. Shouldn't need any post if you've done it right.

[den_lim]

Originally Posted by i speak in math

I wouldn't go the bracket, raw photoshop route, its way too much post work. As a product photographer, I can tell you what I would do:

Set up a white seamless sweep with some 4 ft paper. Put your camera on a tripod and a lamp on the table and properly line things up. Put a small dot on the paper where your lamp will go, so they are always in the same place in the photos.

I would use a medium softbox (larger than the lamp) close on one side, about 45 degrees from center and another small softbox 90-120 degrees (straight or slightly behind the product) on the other side. This side lighting should bring out any textures in the lamp shades while the rear highlights and separates it from the backdrop.

Set your lens to f/22 for max depth of field, and your strobes to match (hope you have some powerful lights).

Turn the lamp on and slowly lower the shutter speed down from sync until you start seeing the glow from the lightbulb. This should introduce a nice warm color from inside, while the outside remains mostly color corrected from the strobes.

I would think something like f/22, 1/20th and ISO 100 should work if you have the strobes doing the bulk of the work.

Now just switch out the lamps. Set one on the dot, plug it in, hit the shutter. Next lamp. And so on. Shouldn't need any post if you've done it right.

Just to clarify
1. The strobes are for the softboxes?
2. I understand everything except for
a. set your strobes to match
b. lower shutter speed down from sync
(I'm not used to flashes/strobes)

[i speak in math]

Yes, softboxes by themselves are just pieces of fabric. You'll want to mount a strobe (like an Alienbee 800) on the back so that the light goes through it and is softened because the light source becomes the large front of the softbox, instead of the small bulb of the strobe itself.

At f/22, your aperture is very small and doesn't let in a lot of light. The strobe needs to be powerful to properly expose the subject. A flash meter will tell you what f/stop your light is at if you can't do it by chimping (looking at the screen repeatedly).

Usually, the readings from a flash meter are given assuming you are at or near your sync speed (1/200th or so). They don't take the ambient light into effect (although, some light/flash meters can do both). If you slow your shutter from 1/200, to 1/100 to 1/50 to 1/25th... you let in more and more ambient light, while the light from the strobes remains the same.

So, slowing your shutter speed lets the light of the warm bulb burn into the image without changing the proper exposure from the strobes.