Environmental portrait with $10 work lights

[texxter]

I wanted to make a portrait of my kids doing geometry, and I recently bought them a compass and I am teaching them about how to draw geometric figures.

As I was about to pull out a flash, I remembered that I have some work lights from Lowes I have not used in some time, so I decided to use them instead.

I ended up using 2 $9.98 units like these. The reason I used two is to be able to shoot at 1/30, f/4 ISO400, to get sharp, clean files.

Here is the portrait, with a behind-the-scenes capture below. Pretty much straight out of the camera, only cropping and a bit of sharpening for the web.











Here is the "studio" viewed from above with some details on light and camera placement.



Somebody said it's not the camera. I'd add to that "it's not the Profoto" - of course sometimes nothing but the best camera and best lights will do. Other times, whatever you got will work.

[texkam]

Nice! Those were the days. Thank you for making me cry. You know someday your model will grow up and go off to college and you will cry like me. I miss shooting my little girl.

[texxter]

Mark, I am crying already just reading your posting!

Carpe diem!

[stephenpinn]

Paco, check out a guy by the name of Brian DeMint. After seeing his images and seeing his lights I could scream!! He uses cheap home depot spun aluminum reflectors with a 200 watt frosted bulb. When he needs a snoot he crushes the reflector and bends it our for flood.

He shoots with 1 hand on the camera and the other holding one of his "moded" work lights.

He was featured in one of the PhotoVision 2011 videos, that is where I saw his technique. http://www.photo-collective.com/wp-c...ianDemint2.jpg

His website is http://www.eyeworksphotography.com/

[groovyone]

Very cool, Paco. Seriously thank you for continuing to share your setups. That is huge to help people learn (like me).

Does the light color of the halogens blend well with your home lights?

[tukaniray]

Always enjoy your work and your light diagrams, Paco.

Nicely done. Goes to show it's not the equipment, but the mind behind the photo that makes it.

-Ray-

[texxter]

Stephen, thanks for the link, amazing work, and simple lighting!

Keith, Ray, thanks!

Keith, halogen lights have tungsten light color, so they mesh great with existing indoor tungsten lamps. They just burn hotter and produce significantly more light. I used 1000 watts total, which allowed me to use a diffusion panel without dropping shutter speed too low. CAREFUL! These lights get very hot and can burn stuff you put close to them, especially with the grid removed. I removed the grid to make them easier to store.

I should have placed the camera slightly higher to avoid the golden trim from the fireplace from intersecting her head. Oh well.

[texxter]

Here is how I mounted the light to the stand:

[groovyone]

Nice. I have a pair of these one a workstand. They get wicked hot but as long as you don't put stuff on or too near them they work well.

[crazyfoo]

Very nice! This may be an inexpensive way for me to get another light, thanks for sharing.

[rhoffart]

Great stuff Paco ... also I want to see that 24 - 700 lens :)

[texxter]

Originally Posted by rhoffart

Great stuff Paco ... also I want to see that 24 - 700 lens :)

I spilled the beans!!! It's an ultra secret Nikon new lens I am alpha testing with my getto lights! I will only share it's a f/2.8 for sure!

[groovyone]

Originally Posted by texxter

I spilled the beans!!! It's an ultra secret Nikon new lens I am alpha testing with my ghetto lights! I will only share it's a f/2.8 for sure!

Just makes the budget lighting that much more important! You have to be able to afford that beast.

[DiskoJoe]

LOL, I saw those on sale at lowes a couple weeks ago. I like how you think.

[texxter]

Ok, here is a variation on the same idea. What's different this time is that I used a small light close to the subject as both prop and key light, and then I used a large Photogenic Eclipse umbrella with the Home Depot lights as fill.

This first image was done with the key light only - a black desk lamp to camera left, on the table, as you can see below:



It is a pretty portrait because of her cute expression, but the contrast is way high. The fireplace in the background is the only indicator that she's not in front of a black velvet background!

So I added this contraption, 2 Home Depot lights, each on its own stand because I was lazy to bungee them together, and a large Photogenic Eclipse 60" umbrella reflecting 1000 watts of hot light back to the subject and the surroundings. In the picture below the lamps are off:



And here is one of the images I created with the fill and the key, to give a more natural "home" feeling. This image below was done at 1/25s f/4.0 ISO400 85mm prime on my D700 sitting on a tripod.