Question (actually, questions) for the experts:

If I want to shoot indoors without flash, but want to maintain shutter speeds faster than 1/60 (so I can actually hold the camera, and not have put it on a tripod), what would work best as a lighting setup? I only have a P&S (Cybershot V3), so I don't know if it can connect to and fire studio strobes (not to mention those things are 'spensive). Will 600W halogens work? Will a couple of those throw out enough light to match daylight conditions? Any advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

I have used halogen shop lamps before but you have to bounce them off the ceiling to limit shadows and may have to use a reflector of sorts (gold, silver, or white construction paper works).

If this isn't for a studio type shot it adds to the difficulty so you really have to get creative with the ghetto rigging.

I found that taking a medium sized lampshade and a clamp lamp with a 75 watt bulb works. What you do is put the lampshade over the metal shroud of the clamp lamp then attach pantyhose to to the lampshade to diffuse the light a bit. I have used white, and pearl colored pantyhose and they seem to work well with a little bouncing of the light and distance placement.

 

I have a pretty good 100W floorlamp, but it didn't seem to throw quite enough light out (the camera was selecting 1/4s as the shutter speed). I do have a nice 500W halogen shop light, but that might set the lampshade on fire. Thanks for the advice though, the pantyhose thing might save me from having to shell out the cash for an actual diffuser.

 

No don't use halogens for the filtered light:eek4:

Use regular bulb lighting for the shade trick and the halogens for flood fill by bouncing it off the ceiling.

 

Yes, the halogen might be a little warm for the filter. Do you lose a lot of light through the pantyhose diffuser? More that a couple of stops will put me and my unprofessional camera out of business real quick.

 

If studio strobes aren't an option and you need to be mobile, spend a few bucks on a monopod.

What kind of job are you doing that you're using a point-n-shoot?

 

No it just softens the light so its not as direct on the subject. I have found that layering the hose to get desired diffusion works well too.

Here is a shot I did using this setup:


What I did for this is have one bare bulb lamp behind a pizza box blocking most of its light. Then I had the diffuser setup pointed in a general direction towards the subject but not directly at him. Aside from the obvious color tone in PS added it is pretty much untouched.

depending on how direct you put the light you can either drop or raise your stops according to need.

 

More than likely it is personal practice and hobby work...not everyone is a pro

 

Yep, just a hobby. If I were pro, I probably get the strobes, along with a real camera.

My coworker modeled for me once already (we were supposed to shoot outdoors, but it was raining so we shot indoors with not so good light). We'll probably try again once I get a better lighting setup.

This how one of the shots turned out, pretty much just using light from a small window:

 

That turned out realy nice I like the lighting it has and the tones are pleasing to the eyes.

That is really good, I need to find a model again