How To Set-Up Lights For Easy Night Time Shooting
Wednesday, October 28, 2009 at 12:19PM
Easy and Inexpensive Lighting Set-Up
Fluorescent Daylight balanced bulbs have recently become my new favorite type of light. I obviously still prefer to shoot under natural light, but like I mentioned in the previous post, my cooking and shooting time doesn't always correspond to the whims of the sun.
Shooting at night requires buying a lighting system, but purchasing lights doesn't have to bankrupt your budget. A few clip lamps, daylight balanced light bulbs, and tissue paper is all you need to take gorgeous shots any time of day!
Karen of The Eclectic Cook sent me images of her lighting set up to share with all of you. The images below are really helpful in visualizing how to set-up your lights
A few things to notice about Karen's lighting set up is that she uses a very small space and places the lights, one on each side, coming from above. Second, she covers the light with layers of white tissue paper to diffuse the light. THIS IS CRUCIAL! The tissue paper helps to soften the light creating even lighting conditions.
And last, all of the "equipment" is really inexpensive. For around $15 bucks and a trip to Home Depot or Lowe's you could have a very versatile lighting system.
Also note that Karen uses two locations for her shoots. One for shooting the ingredients, and another for shooting the "final product". She uses colored poster board to make a background and shoots her final dish on that.
Make sure to visit Karen's site and see the fabulous recipe for Thai Curry and Coconut Butternut Squash Soup from which these images come from. Thanks for sharing Karen!
Reader Comments (30)
danny - thanks SO much for posting this! I have been struggling with lighting lately, so used one of your previous posts as a guide to buying bulbs, etc...now this post is taking things one step further! I really appreciate this!
Very interesting post! I struggle with photo taking at night. This definitely gives me something to think about! Thanks!
Oh my goodness, thank you for posting this, photography is where I'm so lacking right now for my blog, so this is awesome timing!! Thanks!
I'm glad people find this post informative. I struggled with shooting at night for a really long time and I'm so glad I found this solution.
very clever! Now that its dark more than light I will definitely have to find some alternatives. Great idea here.
Holy cow bat man! Why didn't I think of that? Maybe because you were suppose to tell me! Noe the less, you are a God send, thank you.
I will definitely try this! Wonderful aid! I was really pissed off with having to cook and shoot only during the day. I work at home and I can do it any day, but as I eat lunch alone... I'm usually limited to cook&shoot in the weekends. In fact I already own a clip lamp, greeeeeeaaaaaaat!
Thank you so much for sharing, great help!
This is awesome! Thanks so much.
I would just like to state that I've used the posterboard and 1 430ex method for years. LOL. Great post.
Thank you thank you thank you. The photography issue is pretty much the big reason I have procrastinated starting a food blog. Now I just need to find room in my shoebox of a kitchen for the light.
I guess I wasn't the only one with this problem! I'm glad my solution also worked for others
Where would I get daylight balanced light bulbs? Can I just set my white balance to Tungsten?
Hi Anonymous,
Daylight balanced light bulbs can be bought at any hardware store. The grocery store might even carry them. These bulbs are actually fluorescent bulbs that do not heat up, which is why you can place tissue paper over them to diffuse the light. Regular old tungsten bulbs will burn the tissue paper. Ack!
This is great! Thank you for sharng this wonderful tip! =)
Thanks for the help! I was thinking about this the other day, "how on earth am I going to take a good photo of the food I just prepared?"
Hi Danny,
I bought a set of photo lights which came with diffusers over xmas (just like these: http://rocwing.co.uk/epages/eshop138448.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/eshop138448/Products/RW09003-0050).
I tried to take my first pics with them yesterday and was really disappointed. The colours were really flat and I had problems with the reflection of the light in the bowls and spoons. It all seemed very bright and not nice.
Do you have any ideas for me?
Thanks a lot,
Sandra
Sandra,
Please email me your pics so I can take a look and see what the problem is.
overthehill.onaroll@gmail.com
GREAT POST! My only question- is that regular tissue paper? The bulbs don't get hot? Let me know! Thanks!
Yes Michelle, regular tissue paper..only it has a number of layers on it. If you are using fluorescent bulbs they will get warm, but not hot...just make sure they are "daylight" balanced.
Hello!
Thank you verry,verry much for all your posts!
Nic
i`m me again!(nic)
halogen lamps its working the same?
i cant find any lamps like yours.
i`m in uk, and i just bought 2 halogen lamps (50w each GU10).they are ok but yours looks better.anyone can help with some advices,please?
thank you very much!
or can you tell me exactly the name of your lamp , please?
To the above commenter...Halogen lights won't work as well because they are not daylight balanced...fluorescent energy saving bulbs are best because they don't get hot which allows you to wrap them in tissue or parchment paper to diffuse the light.
Thank you very much for your quiq answer.
Nic
Wow, talk about simple set up.
I've been doing tons of pics on my blog and cursing my horrid kitchen lighting. But now I can see there's ways to get around the problem. I'm sure the basic kitchen lighting will still be horrid after this but at least the photos should look better!
Thanks for the great examples, this can be done so easily.
But a question about these daylight bulbs: Do I set the camera's white balance to "daylight" or "fluorescent"? Or AWB? I hear Canon's tungsten calibration is kinda poor, too. Or do I need to dig into the old manual and actually learn how to set the white balance manually?