UKC

I know this is well OT but since UKC is the font of all knowledge I'm sure someone will have some useful advice

I want a simple and inexpensive lighting set-up for taking product photographs for a corporate website. There are hundreds of products so I want to just set up a corner with background, lights and camera etc and get on with it. Getting a pro in to do it is not what I am looking for

The products are car parts which are made from aluminium and steel, all smallish items fitting within a 12" cube area

Given that the surfaces are quite reflective I will need a diffuser of some type or other. Does anyone have a good suggestion of how to set this up without making the whole thing unnecessarily spendy. Is it possible within a £100 budget?

That should be possible, maybe make a softbox out of thin paper.

the http://strobist.blogspot.co.uk/ is probably the font of all knowledge for flash related stuff.

Make sure you don't accidently spent 60K on one of these softboxes
http://www.petapixel.com/2012/04/03/how-to-photograph-a-380000-car-with-600...

In reply to Dan Arkle: Would you use flash or lights?

In reply to woolsack:

never used one, but what about a Light Tent?
People use them for product shots to put on eBay.

An example
http://www.stevesphotoshop.co.uk/

In reply to The Lemming:

And Amazon

http://www.amazon.co.uk/tag/light%20cube/products

In reply to woolsack:

For this kind of work, you might get away with a set of speed-lights and small light tent. I would also be looking to shoot tethered in to Capture One or similar, and have the lighting profiles set to give you a nice clean white background, assuming thats what you want. Saves hours of time later, but does take some practice on getting it right.

Under a £100? I'm sure there are set ups out there for that price, but I couldn't say if they will give you consistent images across your entire product range.

In reply to woolsack:
If your after lighting kit for the shoot and room rather than flashes for cameras drop me a message! I work for a bit lighting and sound hire and sales shop! Look us up

http://www.cegshop.co.uk/

In reply to woolsack: Thanks everyone. Kind of info that makes this site so useful

In reply to woolsack:

Couple of speedlights would be a good start.

If you've got a whitewashed room that you can get in a corner of, you should be able to control your bounce easily enough to give a nice even spread, thus negating the need for softboxes/unbrellas to an extent.

Like lots of camera gear, studio accessories are the sort of thing that you can pick up very heap if you search around.

I would imagine umbrellas are cheaper than softboxes. Reflectors are cheap and come in handy and are good for just a little fill.

Don't forget stands, should be able to get cheaply again.

Sub £100 might be tricky if you haven't got any flash/tungsten lighting yet though.

In reply to woolsack:

If the parts are very reflective, you'll NEED a tent. Otherwise you'll have to control the reflections from the whole room, which is (without hours of pp) nigh on impossible. With a tent it is really easy, put a couple of speedlights outside, trigger them by a cable and you're done. Only nice, neutral reflections.

2 cheap-nd-cheerful speedlights, a cable converter for the hotshoe, bit of cable and a tent - you should just be able to make it under a 100 quid. Cactus wizzards are cheapish too, but not AS cheap, and it'll be hard to stay under 100 quid with wireless triggering. More useful for other situations, so not a bad investment for the future.

In reply to woolsack:

This is a very helpful book;

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Light-Science-Magic-Introduction-Photographic/dp/02...

In reply to woolsack: Cheapest way, use 2x anglepoise desk lamps with high output daylight bulbs. Cross light through greaseproof paper. Done, not amazing but much less than strobe and triggers etc. 'keep it ghetto'

In reply to woolsack:

If you've got the time/inclination this site tells you how to make DIY softboxes - http://www.diyphotography.net/how-to-build-24-diy-softboxes

In reply to woolsack:

This place was useful when I was taking pics for our website a couple of years ago

http://tabletopstudio.com/