Lighting is an integral part of photography. Dealing with lighting can be tricky, and a good understanding of light and its impact on product photography can make you stand out among competitors. In this blog post, we’ll explain 2 types of lighting equipment.
Understanding Your Product Photography Needs.
The foremost step before understanding lighting and the best lighting equipment is knowing the details. Some of the factors to consider are-How often you shoot, what kind of photoshoot it is, and what are you shooting.
For instance, if you are planning to book a busy Product Photography Montreal studio to shoot product photographs or commercial campaigns on a daily basis, then simple budget lighting products won’t be the right choice for you. If you’re a small business selling products online and shooting occasional portraits, budget equipment will fit your needs. However, it doesn’t only boil down to the frequency of shooting; it also depends on the type of shooting.
The Two Types Of Lighting Equipment
One of the major decisions to make is the type of light you’ll use—continuous light or flash- light. Let’s understand them in detail.
Continuous Light
Continuous light remains ‘continuous’, meaning it does not flash. The best and largest source of continuous light is the sun! However, in ecommerce Photography Montreal, sunlight cannot be specifically taken as a reliable lighting source. There are mainly two problems with it: your location might not be favorable, and controlling sunlight might be tricky. This is where studio lighting comes to your rescue. The market has a good range of continuous lighting systems aimed at both photographers and filmmakers.
Pros of Continuous Lighting
- Visualizing lighting levels and shadows with the naked eye.
- Continuous lighting is easy to use.
- One of the best options for manufacturers to meet the demand for home portraits and small business e-commerce.
- Budget-friendly and aimed to target both amateur and beginner markets.
- Easy to balance ambient color temperatures such as Daylight.
- Useful for product and still-life photography or video.
Cons of Continuous Lighting
The most common type of continuous lighting is found in our household lamps, which is incandescent light. Incandescent lights are generally undesirable as it is described as an orange hue that is mostly found in amateur interior photographs. This is the primary reason why there are other alternatives for continuous lighting, including the following:
HID Lights
High-intensity discharge (HID) indicates that the bulb is brighter than a standard headlight. With different types of HIV levels in photographs, each HID light has a different color and temperature.
HMI Lights
Hydrargyrum medium-arc Iodide (HMI) is an alternative to continuous light used by many photographers, especially in photography of large subjects such as cars for interiors, where the available wattage is sufficient to overpower the sun.
CDM/CHM Lighting
Ceramic Discharge Metal/Halide (CDM/CHM) comes with a warmer color temperature that produces a clear and natural-looking light. Montreal Product Photographer uses this type of lamp because the bulb can easily be swapped to match the given color temperature.
Tungsten Halogen Lights
The most frequently used incandescent lighting by photographers is tungsten. Photographers mostly prefer to shoot still objects and use them for film production as they are affordable and readily available.
Cool Lights And Fluorescent Lighting
They are entry-level continuous lighting systems available between 5600 and 6000 kelvin for photographic use. They are flicker-free and produce very little heat. They are ideal for portraits and stills, especially food and culinary photography.
LED Lighting
Light-emitting diodes (LED) have a similar application to fluorescent lighting. Just like fluorescent, they are also ticker-free, daylight-balanced, and fully dimmable. But LED lights are preferred over fluorescent lights as they are 80% more efficient, convert 95% of their energy into light, and only 5% is wasted as heat.
Flash Lighting
Also known as a Strobe lighting flashlight, it emits short bursts of light. They are a highly popular choice among studio Product Photographer Montreal. Flashlights come in three different formats on camera: Popup flash/on-camera flash guns/speedlites, and studio flash.
On-Camera/Popup Flash
Instantly recognizable and available on the camera, on-camera flash is the flash that pops out of the camera when needed. The benefits of on-camera lighting it’s small, highly portable, comes with low power output and is fixed to the camera. It is commonly found among compact cameras, entry-level DSLRs, and high-end DSLRs; and it produces a flat, bright, and unflattering light when used as the main light source. It is best used for fill flash in bright sunlight or high-contrast scenes.
Flash Guns/Speedlite
Flash guns are separate flash units that can be placed directly on the hot shoe of the camera or on the entire camera. Typically battery-operated, they produce more power than popup flash. Expensive models provide the flexibility of tilt and rotation to help photographers achieve extremely high sync and shutter speeds, which are not always available with studio-based flash systems.
Studio Lights/Studio Flash
Studio Flash offers much more creative flexibility than flash lines or on-camera flash. Studio fast lights allow you to shoot successful frames more quickly as they typically recycle faster than speed lights.
Other light equipment used by photographers includes
- Monoblocs/Monolights
- Studio generators
- Battery Generator
- Battery Packs
- Ringflash
Conclusion
Lighting can make or break a product photographer. There are mainly two types of lighting used by photographers- Continuous lighting and flash lighting. Both come with their pros and cons. When used wisely, despite their limitations, they can create the perfect lighting that photographers are aiming for.
Impression photography aims to help e-commerce businesses flourish by capturing high-quality product images. We are the top-choice photo studio with skilled professional product photographers.
