Help a Newbie - Lightbox and Umbrella Lights / Studio Lighting

[Sparkles]

Hey everyone!

This is my very first post here and I am feeling a little sheepish.

I want to photograph my two house rabbits without the use of a flash, which scares them. Their room is Pentagnol (a half room that is 4ft high at the walls and tapers to a point at 8ft in the middle) with only one small window that faces North. This is NOT enough natural light, by far, and they move incredibly fast so a lower shutter speed is not possible. I am not familiar with lighting at all, as I just picked up my very first dSLR last summer, but I am very interested in getting extra lights... Like those backwards umbrella looking things I have seen in studios. I am not a professional, just a hobbyist, and my questions are:

1. What kind of photography lighting would you recommend for this situation, and do you have any recommendations as far as type and brand?
2. Is there a tutorial somewhere that could explain to me what each different type of studio lighting is for, (as I'm sure the Umbrella isn't the only kind of light), how much lighting I need, the pros and cons of each, and how to properly use them?
3. Will I face any unique challenges due to the unique, non-rectangular shape of my room and "bouncing" light correctly?
4. Is there a difference between lighting and a diffuser, and if so, is there a tutorial that explains that somewhere?

I am also looking into getting a lightbox to photograph model horses and possibly the bunnies, too.

5. Are there different kinds and sizes of lightboxes?
6. Is there a tutorial somewhere on lightboxes that could explain to me each type and how to select one for my needs and use it properly?

And lastly:
7. Do you have any tips, advice, or recommendations concerning either lightboxes or studio lighting? Or anything you'd like to add in general about doing this type of photography or shooting small, fast, skittish animals in a studio-type setting?

I guess I'm probably going to have to consider some kind of backdrop, too, and have absolutely no idea about those either, but I do not want to ask too many questions or "overstay my welcome" if you know what I mean.

Thank you very much in advance! I sincerely apologize if this was covered recently or is hidden in a tutorial around here somewhere.

<3

[Manfred M]

Hi and welcome to CiC. If you wouldn't mind filling in the rest of your profile (name and location), it would certainly be helpful to the rest of us members. We tend to work on a first name basis on this forum.

If your rabbits are frightened of flash, I suspect these solutions you are asking about are not going to be much use. All these solutions you are asking about are flash. There are also continuous light sources, but they generally do not put our nearly enough power to freeze motion. This would probably be a good solution to learn about lighting and for doing small models.

I personally would look at moving the rabbits to a location where the lighting is adequate and would shoot there.

You are asking for simple answers to a fairly complex and convoluted subject; artificial lighting in photography. There are many, many books and online videos on these subjects out there. The Strobist is generally considered to be one of the best sites covering small flash.

http://strobist.blogspot.ca/2006/02/...-strobist.html


First of all, all of the devices you mention are (umbrellas and softboxes) are light modifiers and are used in conjunction with flash. Flash really comes in two "flavours"; small flash (your camera likely has one that has been built in; slightly larger models are used either on camera or off camera) and studio lights (sometimes called strobes) which are large powerful flashes and are generally used with light modifiers, especially softboxes.

Smaller flashes are less powerful, but more portable and are likely more than enough for the small areas you are working in.

Getting back to your questions:

1. I would move the rabbits to a place where I have enough light to work and shoot them there.

2. Google the subject and watch demo videos. None of the solutions you are asking about are particularly inexpensive (I shoot both small flash and studio lights). Your camera manufacturer likely has small flash units designed for it, that is a good place to start.

3. If the walls are neutral colours in your room, bouncing the light is actually probably going to work in your favour. Bouncing the light of walls and ceilings is a very common small flash technique to provide diffuse light in a shot.

4. A light is a light, a diffuser softens a light. The softboxes and umbrellas you ask about do this (as well as shaping the light).

5. Yes, many sizes and shapes of softboxes and the specifics of the lighting situation will determine the approach.

6. Yes and no. There are many lighting books out there, but if you are fairly new to photography, you might find these a bit more complex than you are ready for. http://www.amazon.com/Light-Science-.../dp/0240812255 is probably the best general artificial lighting reference out there.

7. I don't shoot small skittish animals, so can't be of much help. I would try to shoot them in an environment where you have more light. Flash photography is a complex subject and takes a lot of time to master.

[Loose Canon]

Hi Sparkles,

Welcome to the Forum. No worries about overstaying any welcome and try not to feel sheepish. Your questions are welcome here. All of them. I have personally overstayed my own welcome by around four years and they still put up with me so you have no worries!

You are not going to find anyone who can give you any better advise on this subject than Manfred. Which is why I’d like to step in here and just confuse the issue so he can straighten me out while he is at it!

It’s a shame you have to rule out flash because that’s for sure the best way to go to stop motion for a number of reasons. No need to mention those reasons at this time if this is your final decision.

So this leaves continuous lighting as Manfred mentioned. And you are going to have to have quite a bit of it depending on how much available light you already have which you say is not enough by far. This to get your shutter speeds fast enough to stop the bunnies. And its hard tellin’ not knowin’ how fast a shutter speed you would need. Depends on how fast they move and are you going to shoot them moving or when they settle down for a minute. How high of ISO values are you comfortable with and what apertures are your lenses capable of.

I can’t say off the top that I have ever heard of anyone bouncing continuous lighting solely off of walls purposely and consistently. Not to say it can’t be done or isn’t a good idea, but it would take even more powerful continuous lighting to do it due to the distances involved from the light to the bounce surface and finally to the bunnies from the bounce surface. There are better, more practical solutions.

I would look at lighting them directly. In other words point the lights (maybe in the umbrellas) right at them. You will also get some additional lighting if you do this from the inevitable "bounce" that will occur from what is called "spill". Spill is the light that hits all over the place (walls/ceiling) besides on your subject There are continuous studio light kits available and some come with the umbrellas or other modifiers you mentioned. They are somewhat reasonably priced. Google it up and see what you find. Beware of continuous lighting that produces a lot of heat. LED is good stuff but not always as powerful.

Here is a little DIY thang I did stopping some liquid you may or may not find helpful. The lights in the example are “hot” lights and you have to be careful touching them and keep them from burning the house down. But they can work as you can see. The background was a roll of vellum paper and that was what needed to be lit for these particular shots rather than the subject directly.

They were used at close distances so I got a lot more out of them. But I also shot at F/9, 1/2500 sec. shutter and ISO 2000 to stop the liquid. I wouldn’t think you would need anywhere near this extreme for your bunnies.

So, if you have some halogen work lights laying around, or some clamp lights and bulbs you could play around with to kind of get the “lay of the land” with this thing while you are researching lights you might get a better feeling for what/how much you may need. I got the work light on the stand at a garage sale (cheap) and the clamp lights are only a few bucks with bulbs. Very inexpensive way to start to get a feel for it.

And don't hesitate to fire off any and all questions that may (will) arise. There will be other issues you will run into but not to worry. One step at a time will get you there and all the issues can be solved probably easier than you think. That is part of the fun and the way I see it, if you are learning about lighting you should be having fun!

[rpcrowe]

1. What kind of photography lighting would you recommend for this situation, and do you have any recommendations as far as type and brand?
I would definitely recommend flash and I am sure that you could get good lighting with a camera mounted hotshoe flash, bounced and modified with a reflector/diffuser such as the Joe Demb Flash Diffuser Pro. I would select a place to shoot that has a white or light color ceiling of moderate height. There are any different hotshoe strobes available from the manufacturers of the various cameras as well as hotshoe strobes available from third party manufacturers such as Yongnuo and Metz, to mention but a few. I would select a model that has through the lens metering capability. That makes it much easier to shoot.

2. Is there a tutorial somewhere that could explain to me what each different type of studio lighting is for, (as I'm sure the Umbrella isn't the only kind of light), how much lighting I need, the pros and cons of each, and how to properly use them?
Try the various tutorials on this site and/or do a Google or YouTube search for "studio lighting"...

3. Will I face any unique challenges due to the unique, non-rectangular shape of my room and "bouncing" light correctly?
I would personally fabricate a "shooting stage" of a floor and three walls. This doesn't need to be large. I shoot my small dogs using an arm chair covered with a colored fleece. The back and two arms restrict the movement of the dog. However, it would be easy to construct a three walled "stage" from plywood or particle board for your rabbits. You could place this on top of a table for shooting. The size would be determined by the size of our rabbits.

4. Is there a difference between lighting and a diffuser, and if so, is there a tutorial that explains that somewhere?
The "light" provides the illumination and it can be continuous such as halogen (that is very hot and I would not want to use it on anything living), LED (quite modern and quite cool), fluorescent (also cool) and flash (either hotshot camera flash or studio flash). The diffuser will spread the light either by reflecting it or by placing a translucent material in front of it. The diffuser can be used with flash or continuous light. However halogen and diffusers can be a fire hazard. Umbrella can be used in two different ways (depending on the construction of the umbrella). You can point the light source into the open end of the umbrella which will reflect the light back onto the subject or if the umbrella is made of a translucent material you can shoot "through" it. In both variations the effect is that the size of the light source is increased which will provide softer shadows.

This is the way that I used to shoot dogs. The ceramic dog is a stand-in for my white dogs to get the exposure correct before I started shooting the dogs. The umbrella image left is a translucent shoot through umbrella the center and image right umbrellas are reflective types. Although this is a great setup my wife doesn't want it as a permanent fixture. So I do the hotshoe flash and armchair which can be broken down and set up in seconds...



5. I am also looking into getting a lightbox to photograph model horses and possibly the bunnies, too. Are there different kinds and sizes of lightboxes?
A lightbox, also called a shooting tent or photo cube, is designed to photograph non-moving subjects. I don't think one would be appropriate for your bunnies... there are various sizes of lightboxes available. I personally like the ones that fold. Except for size, I have not seen any great difference in quality from the least expensive to the most expensive. Here is an example:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/17-Photograp...item27d03687f7

You may be thinking of a softbox, These can provide nice lighting and can be used with flash or continuous light. Here is an example of a softbox
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Godox-40x40c...item35e0ca978e
There is a definite difference in quality between the least and the most expensive softboxes, both in quality of construction and in quality of lighting

6. Is there a tutorial somewhere on lightboxes that could explain to me each type and how to select one for my needs and use it properly?
Do a Google or YouTube search

And lastly:
7. Do you have any tips, advice, or recommendations concerning either lightboxes or studio lighting? Or anything you'd like to add in general about doing this type of photography or shooting small, fast, skittish animals in a studio-type setting?
You need a way to control the animal. I use a dog show lead which my wife holds to secure the puppies. I don't know how rabbits would react to that.

I guess I'm probably going to have to consider some kind of backdrop, too, and have absolutely no idea about those either.
I use a fleece background for my dog portraits but, IMO fleece is inappropriate for rabbits. There was a recent post using a fleece background which did not look all that good. I would use something like rustic wood with some straw for the floor.

My setup for my dog portraits is quite unusual but it works. I place a colored fleece over an arm chair. My main light is a hotshoe mounted flash on camera. This flash is modified with a Joe Demb Flash Diffuser Pro with the Flip-It reflector straight up. www.dembflashproducts.com

My fill light is a softbox using four compact daylight fluorescent bulbs at about 45 degrees and as close to the dog as possible as long as it is out of the frame. The closer a softbox is to the subject, the softer the light.

My background light is an Ott Hobby Light.

This is a very unorthodox setup. Some people shutter when I tell them that I mix lights like this but, I think than my results are pretty decent.
http://rpcrowe.smugmug.com/
I shoot in RAW and use a WhiBal card to get the best white balance.

but I do not want to ask too many questions or "overstay my welcome" if you know what I mean.
We are here to help. All of us at one time have needed help. You will find that this is the most helpful and friendly photo oriented website on the Web.