specialty photo light setup feedback requested

[tysonb]

Hello,

I take specialty photography for Real Estate agents in Canada.

I take those virtual tours with some specialty hardware. The specialty hardware is such that I place my tripod in the middle of the room, and point my camera up. I photograph the reflection of the room in the hardware in a single shot, then manipulate the pic on my computer.

My problem is that during late fall thru spring, I need to be at a house well before the sun starts to set as I need considerable light to make these pics turn out nice. This is not always possible, and with my volume of houses increasing.

I can set up flashes to mount on my tripod, and slave them to each other, but that is going to cost me about $1500 or so.

I need your help in conceiving a system that illuminates an entire room, connected to my tripod, look professional, and run on a battery that is not terribly heavy (2-5 lbs - 12v??)

I posted in the HID as I thought that this may be the way to go, but was not sure.

The system would have to light up the entire room including most of the floor, and ceiling.

Please post here with any suggestions, offers to build, and anything else.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Tyson

 

[McGizmo]

tysonb,

I think you will be hard pressed to do better than a set of strobes slaved to your camera. A single light source like a HID will probably give you enough light but it may not be evenly dispersed in the room. Would you target the ceiling above your specialty hardware (what ever that is) and have the hardware block out the beam of light that was bouncing off the ceiling and otherwise apparent in the image?

How about one of those halogen work lights that have 250 or 500 watt lamps?

 

[Darell]

The "look professional" part has me a bit confused. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thinking.gif Need to have a good impression with the agent?

The 500W halogen work lamp might look a bit hokey, but you can't go wrong with the cost or function. I agree with Don that slaved strobes is the best answer. The cheap answer is 500W of halogen glory clipped to the tripod.

Good luck. Sounds like an interesting job. I've always enjoyed playing with those driveable images. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Saaby]

I'm thinking that "Look professional" is for the results, not the setup, where a 500W halogen would probably work great!

Take an APC UPS along for when there's no 110 AC at the house. Sure a 500W halogen will suck it dry fast, but how long do you really need it to be on?

 

[Deleted member 684]

Get a couple of slave flash and set them to trigger off upon detecting a flash? Position them strategically throughout the room? Use colour gel filters on them to colour up certain areas of the room?

 

[tysonb]

Guys,

Thanks for your replies.

I need the unit to be portable, so a UPS is out of the question.
The hardware takes the pic of the whole room, so I would need 3 of those halogens, minimum.
I am considering the slave strobes as my primary option, I just wanted to see what you fellas had to say.

Thanks again,

Tysonb

If anyone wants to see some of my work, go to
www.arvindsharda.com - This is a fully live site, so be nice to my client /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[McGizmo]

Tyson,
It looks like you are stitching stills together? I can imagine that any change in the illumination would somewhat jar the fluidity of the pan. I think for constant on lighting, you would need to go with either the halogen or HID and Halogen is inexpensive but not real portable. You could stick a gel battery (marine deep cycle) on a dolly with some 12V halogens and maybe get in under the cost of the strobes but a HID system will be putting you up there with your slaved strobes, real quick!

I suspect that you could get by with less light by increasing your exposure time but in this I also suspect that time is money!

 

[gadget_lover]

The specialty hardware is an ingenious device that reflects the light from all sides down into the lens of the camera simultaneously.

Here's one. http://www.0-360.com/

You use software to correct for the horrible distortion.


Daniel

 

[McGizmo]

Cool! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif