We need to create a photo studio at work, this will be in a windowless room approx 2x3mtrs, with a dark wooden floor. Colour rendition is important because we work in ladies fashion, what colours should we paint walls/ceiling and which kind of lighting should we use?

Wow, what a question.

Well, don't paint it white, that would be bad. I'd go with a mid grey as with the right lighting you can make that white or black. Darker is better as you can always add light but it's hard to control light bouncing all over the place in a little white box.

Sounds like a very small room for a studio, I use Profoto gear myself I think that would be over kill. Get yourself down to the Flash Centre and try out some Elinchrom gear. They do a really great try before you buy service and will be able to give you specific advice on what you need.

If you are really serious about colour rendition and consistency then Broncolor or Profoto are the pro option but be prepared to shell out A LOT of money for it. I don't even want to think how much money I've spent!

I'd also make sure you have a decent wireless trigger system, in such a small space cables will soon become a real pain.

Cheers

Cris.

Size isn't an issue really as we're mostly taking pictures of stuff on a bust, not live models. What about ceiling colour?

And sorry, meant lighting as in room lighting, not flashes. At the moment it's more about constructing the space than the kit we use, although I need to look at that too.

You may be better off going black since the room is so small. You can easily put up backdrop to change the colour. With such a small space I would worry that it would be difficult to light the subject without also spilling light onto the walls. 2x3m is very tight - you're going to have a hard time fitting in softboxes or umbrellas, even if only shooting a bust. Before finalizing anything you might want to see if you might be able to stretch out the space a bit.

OK, will see what size it could be

If you are planning on using flash then the lighting you select for the room doesn't matter as you can just cut that out. Just make sure it's flush fitting so it doesn't cast any shadows.

If you are shooting the same shot over and over again, you may want to look into not using flash at all. There is nothing wrong with shooting longer exposures and using tungsten/HMI's you may have more problems with controlling the colour using that method though.

How good are the people taking the pictures, are they pros ???

Cheers

Cris

No, I was thinking a basic DSLR with a tripod + Flash, we don't need high definition, accurate colour rendition is more important.

We can go up to 2.3x4mtr for room size.

That's much better than it was before. But it's still the 2.3m (7.5 feet) that I'm worried about. If you could stretch that to 3m you'd be much better off. But, it's still workable.

You should most definitely consult strobist.com for lighting on a budget and potentially some great info on close-quarters shooting as well.

Do you already have a picture of what you'd like the final output to look like ???

From another company who is already doing this for example.

Cheers

Cris

Remember to white-balance the camera each time you alter the lighting in any way, including moving the position of a light. If you do that, you should be good with your colo(u)r rendition. (Well as good as the CCD of the camera can be.)

All the images we receive are crap, no detail on black garments, poor colour rendition etc... We want our images to be better.

I'll take a look, thanks

Boooooo

Hey, you try getting a pretty girl in a windowless, black-walled 2m by 3m room. They're not as excited about that as you might think.

Technically speaking, since the room's black, with the lights out, she probably doesn't need to be pretty.

We still talking about photo studios here?

thanks guys. So I'm looking at a grey painted box with a tripod mounted DSLR and a flash, right?

Multiple flashes if you're not going to set up more powerful lights/strobes.

Also.... Make sure the room is well ventilated - it's going to get hot in that small space, especially if you bring in any modeling lights or any type of big light.

A couple thoughts:

I agree that the room seems a bit on the small side, and that black-painted walls (matte, not glossy) will make your life easier if you're trying to control the lighting. If you want to bounce light, you can always add a reflector or whatever later.

You'll definitely want to have one of those window-shade contraptions that lets you pull down backdrops of different colors. You may want to spring the extra bucks for longer ones that can also spread out on the floor, allowing you to shoot full-size floor-standing things from a variety of angles.

There all kinds of fancy lighting "systems" you can get into, some wired, some wireless. Some built around standard camera flashes and others built around dedicated strobes with external power supplies. Some add "modeling lights", which are low power bulbs that let you make sure you're getting your shadows how you want them when you adjust the lighting. Then you get the high-power flash only when you pull the trigger.

To some extent, your best bet is probably to arrange to tour the photo studios of several local photographers and ask them to demonstrate their stuff. Ultimately, once you've seen and dorked with the equipment directly, you'll have a much better idea of what you want and you'll be more prepared to justify the cost.

I would go for a black painted box. Flat black, not glossy.
This lets you isolate subjects from the background easily, and you could still hang backdrops (big rolls of coloured paper) or even white sheets to get any other type of background.

The small pro-studios I've seen, admittedly few, used black.

Cheers

... or the pretty girl.

It is great learning all this (lighting, I mean). Thanks Bruno for linking stobist.com . I am considering my first speedlight, and this is all very amazing.

I use a Metz-54Z (? something like that) with my Canons. Works wonderfully.
The current model is probably a 55Z or something like that.

Many, MANY operational pluses over the Canon EX speedlights, but the downside is that it lacks Canon's wireless multiflash protocols.

Cheers

Again, thanks for all the help! I had only looked at Canon so far.

I read on their website that Metz mecablitz 58 AF-2 digital seems to be the top of the line today, an improvement over the winner of best flash unit in EU 2008:
http://www.metz.de/en/photo-electronics/...nformation.html

I don't think I need the Canon's wireless multiflash protocol, being a novice. Or do I want it (still a novice)?!

Do I understand correctly that the 58 AF-2 does support Canon wireless protocol, now?

That's the feature. Cool!

No brainer, then, unless it's horrifically more expensive or something. When I bought mine, the Metz was cheaper than the top of the line Canon EX speedlight. And WAYYYY better.

The model here has old-fashioned "Auto" exposure built-in. Which means it has a puny little photocell for self-metering the amount of light it needs to provide. This is very useful in many many situations where Canon's fsck'd E-TTL algorithms (in the camera body) b0rk things up.

Cheers

The way Metz does their flashes, is they manufacture a top unit that provides all of the flash functionality. This is then paired with an interchangeable mount, or shoe, that adapts the flash to a specific manufacturer's system. Eg. Canon, or Nikon.

One can purchase additional mounts to use the same flash body with multiple cameras from different vendors.. so in theory I could keep/reuse my flash if I switched over to Nikon cameras.. for the cost of a new mount/shoe. Not that I would switch at this point.

EDIT: I have had the firmware in the shoe upgraded twice since initial purchase, to help the flash implement the latest new Canon EX features. That new model appears to have a USB interface to make upgrades much simpler now. Great!

Cheers

Best price I found is €359 on eBay seller. Here in EU, I mean, Maybe more search will bring some better price, but it does not seem bad, compared to Canon EX... It seems pretty much the same price of a Canon 580EX Speedlite.

Yes, USB firmware upgradable. It seems nice.
Very interesting.

MMmm.. that new unit appears to have done away with the vendor-specific shoe/adapters.. looks like perhaps a single unit can be reprogrammed to work with any of the major brands.. nifty.