Nikon SLR Cameras

What Lights are Needed for Photographing Clothing Indoors? (Online Store)?

Jennifer
Jennifer

I have a shop on etsy and I just bought my first nice DSLR camera with an 85 mm f/1.8D Af Lens (Nikon) for shooting items like jewelry, etc.
I'm also going to be shooting clothing on a mannequin in an all white room. I have tried this before just using a flash but the light is too flat, blue and yucky… I want the pics to look bright, sharp and professional.
Any suggestions? (light that would complement up close macro photography indoors, of jewelry, etc, as well as full length photography of clothing on a mannequin)

Matt
Matt

If the light is blue (or yellow, or anything other than white), it is because the color temperature is off. Look in your manual about how to set the color temp based on your lighting, or do a custom setting for the room, or shoot RAW and adjust it in the computer.

Once flash straight ahead will be flat. But if you have a tripod, good ambient lighting can be fine. I own several very large lights with modifies that I can position and use to wrap light from various directions, but they are expensive. With stationary objects, you can use pretty much any type or power of lighting as long as you have a tripod. Just make sure that all the lights are the same type and color temperature. Mixing fluorescent with incandescent will give you some pretty ugly results.

Here is an awesome resource for lighting: http://www.studiolighting.net/

jason_hermosa
jason_hermosa

You won't really need strobes or speedlights. Because beside the fact that they're expensive, they're also VERY hard to figure out. I've been in the photography business for a while now and it annoys me how hard it is to do strobes.

You're best off with getting some off camera light. You definitely WOULD NOT want to use your built in flash. That would give you a flat, washed out photo. You could just simply get some lamps from IKEA or the home depot. This would give you a very cheap solution and will also give you a "what you see is what you get" photo out of your camera.

If you however, really do decide to take this to the next level and get some strobes for it. For macro, a ring light or ring flash would do for your macro shots. Also, you could get some product photography lighting kits like these

http://www.amazon.com/...0015450T6/

http://www.amazon.com/...000OZRFR2/

But yeah.stick with continuous lights.

Eric Lefebvre
Eric Lefebvre

I think you may be a bit out of your depth here.

When your light is blue it's because you didn't adjust your white balance.

A high key product shot requires at least 3 lights.
Two light with large soft boxes to blast away at the wall and one with a soft box or umbrella to properly expose your model or product.

like this:
http://www.andycrossphotographer.com/news/2011/08/commercial-product-photography-clothing-4/

For smaller items like jewellery and the likes, get a product tent.

The thing is, I don't think you are ready really to try product photography. Your lack of understanding about white balance shows that you have no understanding of the basics of photography.

Here is an example of a simple phone shot.
http://cameradojo.com/2007/06/05/anatomy-of-a-product-shoot-2/

Here is another
http://www.pixtus.com/forum/general-photos/71930-custom-pocketknife-product-shot.html

Here is an article on making a light tent:
http://jasontomczak.com/2007/12/17/a-quick-easy-white-box-light-box-for-product-photography/

Here is a clothing product shot
http://www.jasonmichaelsmith.com/blog/adelio-clothing-product-photography.html