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Tip: Lighting for the cheap

Apr 29, 2005

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    1. Hi everyone! Before I start I just want to let you all know that I am not a professional photographer and have had no training, so I probably shouldn't be giving other people tips... but I thought maybe some other amateurs like me may find this interesting/useful.

      I tend to take my photos at night and because of this I used to always have huge problems with lighting. I refused to use the flash on my camera and I didn't really feel like spending lots of money on good photo lighting, so I was at a bit of a loss. Then one day I was at the local hardware store and looked over and saw this staring at me:

      A Woods $6 Clamp Lamp. I thought it looked like it had promise so I bought two. It turned out to be the amazing economical answer to my lighting issues, my doll photos have never been better.

      Currently I have two of them (with 75 watt blubs) clamped on the legs of my tripod.

      Sometimes I just use one and get cool moody shadowy shots.

      They're amazingly useful and can be bought at probably every hardware store and they're so CHEAP!

      Word of caution: Don't leave them on for too long close to a plastic wig because the wig will sort of crinkle up/melt. I'm a moron and learned this yesterday. :oops:

      That's basically the end of my tip, I hope someone is able to find this helpful.
       
      #1 eliezuh, Apr 29, 2005
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    2. That's a great idea...my apartment has cruddy lighting at night, but that's the only time I can take pictures in peace. And I really had no good ideas as far as better lighting.

      To the hardware store! :o
       
      #2 Osaka, Apr 29, 2005
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    3. Those are exactly the lights I use although I use much stronger bulbs than the 75watt ones. I have 3 but I usually use 2 to get rid of shadows. I plan on making a tutorial on how to use them and create some shadowless pictures soon!
       
      #3 nikita, Apr 29, 2005
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    4. Oh fabulous thanks!
      The lighting in my house is horrible so I either *have* to use the flash (ew) or wait until *just* the right time in the afternoon when the sun filters in right. :roll:
      I see a trip to the hardware store coming up this weekend. ^.^
       
      #4 Kaighn, Apr 29, 2005
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    5. I use one lamp like this, except that I bought it from a photography store and paid about $30 for it. Why so much more expensive? It's rated to handle the heat of my 250 watt daylight flood, which is what I use for my primary flood. For my fill light I have a lawn spotlight with a 4 watt bulb in it and a tungsten to daylight filter on it. I need a brighter bulb, I think, but it works.

      -HH
       
      #5 Happy-Hacker, Apr 30, 2005
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    6. Thanks for the tip! Just what I was looking for... >_<
       
      #6 inkwraith, May 7, 2005
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    7. Perhaps this is a silly question, but do you take your pictures with the overhead light off or do you leave it on?
       
      #7 onnawufei, May 13, 2005
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    8. I don't if I'm using the clamp lights. It also depends if the room light is the same type of bulb as the clamp lights.
       
      #8 nikita, May 13, 2005
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    9. I usually try to have a bit of overhead/backlighting just to soften the shadows, but that's my personal preference and way too much theatre tech work coming into play.
       
      #9 Osaka, May 13, 2005
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    10. same here. :) been using them for years and am always pimping the things whenever someone asks about what kind of lights i use. i call it my ghetto rig ;)
       
      #10 isotropic, Jul 3, 2005
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