BinaryWolf

a brief bloom in the garden

Are you interested in how to put together a flexible and robust lighting system that is relatively inexpensive?

A flexible lighting system is something that I have wanted to play with for a while, but like everything else in photography it seems to be a fairly expensive area to get into, at least when you consider the relative simplicity of a light-bulb.

Thankfully there are a number of cheap and widely-available or easily-made items that can provide most of the same functionality at a small fraction of the price. For under US$75, this article will show you how to put together a flexible and robust lighting system that is both useful and relatively easy on the hip pocket.

This author of the article advises using the inexpensive 500watt high-power halogen lights you find at Home Depot. You need to overcome the problem of the bulbs throwing a very yellow light that is not desirable for color photography. He suggests replacement bulbs available for these halogen lights that are tinted blue to cancel out the warm color temperature of the original bulb. The blue tint of the bulbs is designed to give off a light that is closer to daylight. Lumiram (true light) bulbs make big differences in colors like peach and pink. Buy the good full spectrum bulbs from Europe. They make a cheap copy in Asia but the active ingredients are not nearly as good.

Taken on an cloudy Sunday afternoon. Habitat is the State of San Luis Potosi, Mexico (land-locked state, located in center-north of Mexico). Rock cliffs around 1200 meters.

How to design and assemble greenscreens and backdrops for photos and video, as well as how to easily and inexpensively build a portable frame to support these backdrops out of PVC pipe.

Fabric types/backgrounds:

Muslin is a strong, sturdy fabric for painting on, or as a simple white or tan-colored backdrop. You can use acrylic or oil paints (found at art supply stores) or paints you can find at home-supply stores to make professional-looking backdrops for portraits and the like. The only problem with muslin is that it is prone to wrinkling (but this may not matter if you paint it. Be sure to wash the muslin right after you buy it and iron it to get out as many of the wrinkles you can. Make sure you buy PVC or metal piping that is sturdy enough to hold some of the thicker muslins. Do a Google search for ‘paint muslin backdrop’ to find out more.

Cotton, one of the more common fabrics found in a fabric store, is fairly easy to keep clean, but not so easy to paint on. Cotton is best for solid dyed colors. Make sure you wash and iron the backdrop before rolling it, or the wrinkles may be very hard to remove!

Rayon is a very lightweight fabric that can be had for a low price and is easy to transport, roll, and keep wrinkle-free. However, because it is so thin, you have to be careful when lighting it (sometimes lights behind the screen will make the lighting very uneven).

Polyester is a very low maintenance fabric, and is relatively easy to keep wrinkle-free. Simply make sure you’ve washed and dried it, then take it out as soon as you can to avoid wrinkles. Light reflects off polyester a little brighter than most cottons, so make sure you account for that when lighting backdrops. You can purchase polyester in many different thicknesses (and many different prices); make sure your backdrop support frame is sturdy enough to hold it.

For Compositing: Professionals usually have access to professional-quality blue and green paints and fabrics for building high-quality backdrops. However, the average photographer or videographer does not have so much money. In my experience, the ‘greenest green’ or ‘bluest blue’ you can find will work fairly well (especially for photographs which you’d like to edit in Photoshop).

Step-by-step instructions for creating a digital camera tripod from a soda bottle.