i got some new “photo” lights for christmas, and tried them out for the first time today. i’m really pleased with how much they improved the picture quality. this is basically untouched (i changed the color slightly- the daylight bulbs weren’t quite right but that was it, normally i do a lot more editing than that) i’m impressed since i picked something really tough to try-really high contrast both in terms of dark/light clothes and the vividness of lucy’s coloring vs the emmie’s delicate tones
(lucy is introducing emmie, who is too shy to meet everyone on her own)
here is my set up. it was pretty simple. a couple of clips from the dollar store hold up the foamcore board backdrop. (an idea i got off an internet tutorial, sorry i can’t remember where) this works so much better than propping it up against a box on the table! it was always sliding or falling over when i did that. the lights are $20 clip on tasks lights from homedepot with daylight twister flourescent bulbs that you can get anywhere!
the third light source is my window, afternoon sun, midwinter, with the sun above the house – so not super bright, but if i was taking pictures in the evening i would need another couple lights to replace it i think.
i had planned to go the whole light box box route and build movable sides and covers for the lights to get them more diffuse, but it really wasn’t necessary. there are no harsh shadows the way it is, and the covers/lightbox cut down on the light so i would just have to add more. maybe if i got higher wattage lights i would need covers but these ones don’t need it (they are 100w equivalents 21 watts actual i believe)