Setup for close-ups

[enaiman]

I've been thinking for a while to start photographing polished rocks. I had a few tries but haven't got good results.
So far I have used only "natural lighting" (light coming from a window) but that, many times made the window shape to be reflected ... not good at all, and flash (reflecting again back to camera) - see attached pic.

I would appreciate an idea about a minimum setup: light source, reflector (if needed) and a good lens.

The lenses I have atm are Sigma 17-70, Canon 55-250 and a Tamron 18-270.

Thank you,

[Goldcoastgolfer]

Do you have a tripod? If you do, try turning your flash off and leave your shutter open for longer to get the right exposure.

Of course if you have the money to spend, some of the others have lighting set ups for these sort of subjects. I'm sure they'll be along to comment shortly.

[enaiman]

Thanks for your reply Malcolm.
I do have a tripod and I am using it frequently. Definitely you are right, disabling the flash will indeed eliminate the burns.
I think I still need some light sources because it will definitely add to the picture.

I'll definitely try your advice and I'll see what I get. Thanks

[ktuli]

Eugen,

Have you tried using a light tent? They are designed to diffuse the light so that it seems that the light is coming from all around the object. You might still get a reflection - I'm not sure. You might have to try a circular polarizing filter to eliminate that reflection.

- Bill

[Goldcoastgolfer]

Have a look at this - probably along the lines of what you're looking for. This company is based in Australia on the Gold Coast so they're reputable (I buy gear from there).

Hope this helps!

http://www.camerasdirect.com.au/opte...d-lighting-kit

[enaiman]

That is looking very good
Many thanks Bill and Malcolm

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Eugen,

I have something like the tent Malcolm posted the link to, but it was much cheaper (£20) as without its own lights.

For illumination, I bought three small gooseneck lamps and a selection of 30W and 60W SES bulbs so I could vary the itensity on different sides as necessary - the whole lighting kit, including a 4 way dis board to plug the lamps into, was about another £20 from Asda (aka Walmart).

I get exposures of around 1/10 to 1 second (and obviously use a tripod).
I obviously use Tungsten WB.
Keep an eye on how close the lamps are to the tent fabric to avoid heating issues.

The battle I lost was being able to have it set up permanently in the corner of the lounge

PS, if you go this way; shop around for lamps with on/off switches in the base, not the cord (as I have).

Cheers,

[Steve S]

Hi Eugen,

I have something like the tent Malcolm posted the link to, but it was much cheaper (£20) as without its own lights.

For illumination, I bought three small gooseneck lamps and a selection of 30W and 60W SES bulbs so I could vary the itensity on different sides as necessary - the whole lighting kit, including a 4 way dis board to plug the lamps into, was about another £20 from Asda (aka Walmart).

I get exposures of around 1/10 to 1 second (and obviously use a tripod).
I obviously use Tungsten WB.
Keep an eye on how close the lamps are to the tent fabric to avoid heating issues.

The battle I lost was being able to have it set up permanently in the corner of the lounge

PS, if you go this way; shop around for lamps with on/off switches in the base, not the cord (as I have).

Cheers,

How about a little wire/a couple outlets/a couple dimmer switches/an extention cord plug ..................run main power into dimmer switches and then to the outlets. Now you can plug the lights into the outlets and adjust the output of the lights with the dimmers switches

[ktuli]

If you do your own lighting, compact fluorescent lights work well if they're in the 6700K temp range. That's what my light tent came with.

- Bill

[enaiman]

Thank you very much for your suggestions
I'll definitely go for the "tent" recommended by Malcolm plus bulbs + dimmer.

Sounds like a win setup

[rpcrowe]

I use a light tent very much like this.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/30-75-75cm-P...item2a127ff33f

The advantage is that it folds up like one of those car window shades and I can put it away easily (MY neatnik wife appreciates that facet). It also has a front cover made from the same material as the tent. The front has a slit through which you can push your lens. That way, when shooting very-very reflective subjects, you don't see a reflection of the camera and/or photographer in your subject. Another advantage is that it comes with several colored backgrounds...

I light the tent with a pair of, Chinese studio strobes, which were extremely cheap and which I will use for back and hair lights when I am using my White Lightning studio strobes as main and fill lights. However, you could light this rig with just about any type of light from a desk lamp to a work light...

A very cheap lighting setup would to use a clamp light on a "stick-in-can" stand. Here is a DIY site showing a rig like that...

http://diyphotography.net/stick-in-a...or-3d-lighting

[enaiman]

Thank you Richard for your ideas.
I was thinking about the same "tent" you suggested but I decided in the end to go with the one suggested by Goldcoastgolfer - it's smaller but I liked the idea to have everything in one piece
Already ordered it and I guess I'll have it sometime next week.

I loved that "stick in a can" setup

[shreds]

Obviously there are a lot of do it yourselfers here. My small light tent is a white Marks and Spencer's pop up laundry bag £5! Reflectors include Chinese meal container lids suitably cleaned first, as these are white card on one side and silvered on the other. Add to that foil cake trays, mirror tiles, mount board in varying shades, black, white, silver, cream, green for plants, crumpled up silver foil and tissue paper before I even get onto the subject of the lights.

Oops, better go, my better half is just wanting half her kitchen back!