Photo light set up for daffodils

I NEVER have enough time to do the things I want and then it is time to photograph everything blooming in the yard.
I never worried too much about sending snapshots to daffnet till Daffseek appeared because I could NEVER compete with the real photographers here!
Then there is the good article from John Castor about White Balance in the March 2008 Daffodil Journal.
Then last evening a lady brings blooms that she says are for Daffseek because these varieties don’t look too good in there. She picked everything she wanted just BEFORE we got another 2&1/2″ (6.35CM) of rain last evening. (Still raining this morning).
Anyway I needed a quick light set up as the blooms will not last till we get sunshine again.
I used a three tier plant stand with three sets of 48″ twin flourescent bulbs. I used one set of bulbs right up over the top of the vases. The bulbs are 6″ apart (15.24 CM) and about 6″>8″ above the vases.
I then placed another set of bulbs on the left hand side about 20″ away. In the 5772 photo I had the third set of light bulbs on the right hand side about 20″ (50CM) away.
This left a shadow on the front so I then reshot the vase after I moved the right hand light bulbs to the front just about 10″ from the vase just out of the picture frame for the Dick Wellband1 shot.
You can see the difference in color and difference in shadows.
For plants I use a “Cool white plus” and a “Soft white/K&B” in each fixture. These bulbs are more than a year old and it looks like the “White balance” is still a little off. There are ALL types of flourescent bulbs out there, anyone have the “perfect” light bulb combination or do I need to go buy six different types of bulbs to cover the Kelvin heat range of these.
I cannot take hours of staging blooms for pictures during the day. BUT I can pick during the day and stage and photograph at night. I know I NEED to Iron and stretch my background cloth…..Keith Kridler Mt. Pleasant, Texas

1 comment for “Photo light set up for daffodils

  1. Keith – I’m planning on using a “Daylight” bulb or 2 this year for indoor shots. This, along with a basic diffuser should work wonders for indoor photos. I’ve experimented with Tungsten, fluorescent 1, & fluorescent 2, as well as “Auto” settings in the white balance and my BEST experience has come with the Auto balance setting so far. Along with adjusting the intensity of the flash, and about 40 hours per show to get the very best photos, I might be able to improve on my technique a bit.
    Just my 2¢ worth..
    Tom Stettner
    (Just down the street from Linda Wallpe with my underwater flowerbeds, where the forecast was for up to 5 inches of rain in the past 48 hours)

    Keith Kridler wrote:

Comments are closed.