Photography lighting queries...

[Gingerbread]

I'm getting a bit miffed with our English weather (constant rain) so am trying to get the bits together for a mini-studio indoors.

Can everyone tell me what bulbs they use? I'm thinking of getting some normal goose-neck lamps as these will work on my light tent too but I have no idea what bulbs to use, apart from craft bulbs which are pricey.

[Knibitz]

I just use normal daylight bulbs.
They sometimes give off a bit of a bluish hue, but nothing overbearing.

[kaoskat]

Same as Knibitz.

[Gingerbread]

Cool, thankyou

[Knibitz]

^__^ no problem!

[melodys_angel]

You can always correct the ballance in a program like photoshop if the lighting gives a hue thats too yellow or too blue

[Eviecorn]

You can always correct the ballance in a program like photoshop if the lighting gives a hue thats too yellow or too blue

This is what I do!

[DoctorMowinckel]

White balance works based on the 'temperature' of the light. Different lights have a different colour temperature that digital camera censors are sensitive to. A really low temperature, something like 1000 would be something like a candlelight. Very high colour temperature, 10000+ is the pure blue sky. However, we're seldom taking pictures of clear blue skies. If you were, that's something to keep in mind. Daylight bulbs mimic daylight colour temperature, which is around 5000-5500, so those will work the best with the 'daylight' white balance setting.

However, if your camera can't shoot in RAW, I wouldn't use the white balance presets. Correcting a JPG with colour balance isn't the same as setting white balance on a RAW image. If you're shooting JPG, the best thing to do is get your scene set up, light it, hold or put a white sheet of paper under the light, and use your cameras 'set white balance' function. That'll get it pretty dang close every time.

I touch on white balance in my photography guide; http://www.doctormowinckel.com/?p=668

I'm going to revise that soonly, add more information, clarify things, show some new ways to make light boxes and lights, and so on.

[Diamond]

I use the new ott lights, but the home depot version, much cheaper.

[Gingerbread]

@DoctorMowinckel - thankies for the link, most interesting!

I tried looking for some cheapy angle poise lamps last night and found nada. When I get a chance I will go out again and look elsewhere but I really don't want to spend £60 on lamps if I can do it for £15! I'm all about the budget :p