posted on February 12, 2010 09:36:13 AM
just curious, but what do you sellers use for photo studios? i am looking at muslin stands, light kits/boxes. do you use tungsten or fluorescent lighting. light boxes, umbrellas, or reflectors? did you get your stuff off ebay? what brands are better?
posted on February 12, 2010 10:11:54 AM
I have mine set up in a metal shelving unit. I set the shelves so that I have an open area 30" high. Behind and on the shelf is black felt. I have a window shade attached to the back of the shelfing unit. I can pull it down to make a white background as needed. Mounted from the top of the opening, are a pair of goose neck lamps with reflector shades. I am using Westinghouse Realite bulbs, which are not the best. They give a slight pinkish tint when camera is set for indoor photography. It's served me for 11 years with no customer complaints though.
posted on February 12, 2010 01:52:26 PM
i've been using a set of 4-5 150 watt equivelant fluoros (depending on how much light I need). I bought 6500K to mimick sunlight. I just feel like the quality of my pics varies greatly and it is difficult to tell what I will end up with. Some look great, others not so great. It may be the camera I have. White balance settings are tempermental. I have had it set to auto in sunlight and it is quite obvious it isn't correct.
Other than new features, it seems to me that the cameras aren't as good as they were 6-8 years ago in image quality... unless you want to pay for an SLR. My old Sony DSC-HS85 took way better photographs than my current DSC-H9. It seems that it functioned better in low light conditions too. In fact, I remember Olympus had the Camedia series that featured aperatures as small as 1.8 which I was blown away by considering I could have easily paid $1000 or more for a single lens on my 35mm SLR at the time. Obviously, this is comparing apples to oranges, but when I tried one of those Camedia's, I was impressed by the low light capabilities. The sensors are tiny by today's standards, and there are tons of new features on today's cameras. My current camera has a 2.8 aperature, but that seems overrated.
posted on February 12, 2010 02:05:21 PM
Forgot to mention earlier that I also have my lights set up thru a dimmer. I can't use florescent bulbs with the dimmer.
I love my old Mavica for eBay pics. Served me well over the years.
