Colour of Light

I realise i should have put this in with the post about the worklights, but i forgot ^_^ .

Those work lights normally come with a standard yellow halogen bulb.  You’ll definitely want to change this.

Your best choice would be some ‘daylight‘ tinted bulbs.  These ones are tinted blue to give you the same colour range as normal daylight.

But, if you’re in a bind and cannot find these, the next best thing are the bulbs labeled something similar to ‘brilliant white’ or ‘white light’.  This is what i used, as Rona didn’t have an daylight bulbs in stock.  Try the standard bulbs, take a picture against a neutral backdrop.  Then swap it out for the white ones.

The difference is huge.  It’ll save you so much time editing getting the right colour bulb.

Normal yellow bulbs will give you a yellow/orange tint over your picture which in most cases you don’t want, whereas daylight or white light looks pretty close to sunlight.

My Lil Ghetto Studio

As promised, I will start documenting how I setup my studio.  I was originally inspired by this post: diylighting

I’ll start with, of course, where I got the gear i have so far.

The stuff i’m using is pretty affordable, i’m on one relatively comfortable income (my husband’s) while i’m setting this all up and it’s all easy to find stuff too.

Firstly, my uber-leet worklight!   I slogged down to the local Rona (Big hardware store) and got this one for about $60 CAD.

It’s got two adjustable 500watt halogen lamps and you can easily remove them too.  both can be turned on and off individually but you’re definitely need a diffuser as they are VERY intense.

I took the grills off, just be careful as the glass gets extremely hot.  And don’t paw the glass or bulb/dish with your bare hands as oil + heat = FIRE!

My awesome background is actually a kingsize neutral white sheet from Walmart I got for literally $5, pinned over a $2 curtain rail, which fits into two brackets and an hook in the ceiling.  I plan to make a wooden framework later to stretch it out but it still works well as a curtain too.

Last night I bought a studio umbrella off eBay for about $26.  eBay is awesome for cheap gear, if you’re willing to do just a bit of digging…

That’s all i have so far but the results i’m getting so far are great.  This is a self portrait i took as a test shot.  I used the halogen off to my right side pointed up at the ceiling and no flash.

Bouncing it off the ceiling softens it up considerably if you don’t have a diffuser yet.

That’s all for now.  I’m waiting on my umbrella, eBay!

Why hello there world!

Kia ora! I’m Danni, an freelance photographer based in New Westminster, BC Canada.
I’m currently setting up my home studio and one of my friends had the brilliant idea of documenting it.
Other than that, i’m another one of those crazies trying to build up my business in low times in preparation for the good times!

My hope is that this will encourage other budding photographers to jump in there and start their own business, and that setting up a studio CAN be affordable.