Knife Photography - Flash or Tungsten

Stephen F

Stephen F

Joined
Sep 28, 2003
Messages
1,235
Hi - Not sure if this is the correct forum, but here goes.

I want to set up a small studio in my loft (attic) - for portraits and still life (predominantly knives). I will use conventional film and digital media and cameras.

From a cost perspective I only want to go with one type of light source at the moment - Flash or tungsten - For film use and portraits flash appears to be the best for colour balance and not frying your subject (tungsten runs hot for prolonged sittings.

But most of the knife photographers/still life guys (Coop & Phil spring to mind) tend to use tungsten to judge the reflections and shadows/lighting better.

Do any of you out there use studio flash for you still life/knife shots - anyone wih any real life comparisons or experience? I will probably go the flash route if someone says they have had success with it, on the basis that I can test shoot on a digital to judge final lighting effects, but I am unsure how much trial and error is involved in the set up.

Cheers,

Stephen
 
Stephen F said:
But most of the knife photographers/still life guys (Coop & Phil spring to mind) tend to use tungsten to judge the reflections and shadows/lighting better.
Click to expand...

If you're talking about me I use Daylight, actually northern exposure window light.
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=306402&highlight=Frills+Lighting

If I were setting up a studio I would use flash with a low watt modeling light for viewing. The only way I would suggest using tungsten or hot lights is if you could find some Daylight Balanced Photo Floods, and they seem to be hard to come by.

I would also suggest you build yourself a frame and stretch some frosted white Mylar over it to diffuse the flash. It works great as a broad lighting source when you photograph knives and can simulate window light when you want to do portraits. If you're really serious about your photography IMO there's nothing more practical then building your own BankLight, with a flash as the lighting source. There is a company that makes a collapsable one called a SoftBox IIRC. Just as easy to make your own out of foamcore and frosted Mylar.
 
Forget the flash ! You can't tell what you're going to get until after you've taken the foto. Direct lighting is poor , use reflected or diffused light. Reflectors and diffusers can be made from various items. My digital camera , not an expensive one, has adjustment s to get the proper color balance with various types of light. Search the blade makers forum for more info.
 
People have different opinions. I find flash difficult because you don't know what you're gonna get until it's to late. With hot lights, you can set everything up, see all the shadows, the reflections, the glare, etc. But, they don't call 'em "Hot" lights for no reason. I was shut down for the better part of a month this summer because I refused to work under 2000W of light. You really do end up sweating. I wear a sweat band around my head after dripping onto the set a few times. And the heat can effect the knifes. Things do get hot on the set.
 
Phil - Yep , did mean you, my apologies, for some reason I had it in my mind you also used artificial light.

Thanks for the pointers guys.
 
Check this out.

http://www.ezcube.com/

I am an eBay Powerseller, and I use something similar when taking my pictures. Mine is home made, but it works great. I use mine for jewelry that I have sell during christmas, and I couldn't be happier. A light tent, a couple cheap lamps as some reveal bulbs will work wonders. The tent serves two purposes, it defuses light, and keeps any reflections of your surroundings from showing up in the pictures. Give it a shot, you'll love the results.
 
Guys....guys...guys, you use a small low wattage light by the flash head to position the light and focus and then shut it off to actually take the picture with the flash, and I do not mean the on camera flash, but a seperate unit. Lots of light with the correct color balance and you only need the tungsten light on for about a minute. Big studio strobe units have a built-in model/focusing light.
 
Problem with both flash and hot lights is that with normal lenses you still have to contend with direct reflection of the light source. Personally I'd avoid flash because of the potential hot spots that can be produced when it reflects off the blade's surface, or anything that's highly reflective. There are high output white source flourecent lighting on the market today that work quite well for photographing knives, but they are highly expensive.

As for the reflection issue, I'm still playing around with Tilt Shift lenses. They allow me to directly light the knife and then shift the plane of the lens as to not have to deal with the head on reflection. Looks promising.
 
I've got a 100watt halogen on my desk, gets decent pics with my 2.2meg digi.

adjustable arm gives me 2' side to side, 2' up and down to the desk.
 
For tungsten, I am learning to pull the lights back from the subject that helps to diffuse the light more and keep heat off the subject. Digital cameras have means to switch to different light source compensations. So, for example, the orange glow inherent in results from using tungsten is resolved and looks natural.

I am using a tota-light now (tungsten based soft box), but would have used a home-built system if I had seen some of the setups people here use.
 
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