Mimic natural lighting Indoors, still subject. Advice?

[youngish]

Hi,
I am still pretty new to all this stuff and all of the lighting options are overwhelming... umbrellas/soft boxes/flash/diffusers/modifiers, makes me dizzy
I want to shoot my dolls indoors (doesn't need to be portable). My best shots are always lit by natural sunlight so I think thats what I should try to mimic.
I shoot on a nikon d90, with tripod of course. Any advise would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Village Idiot]

What lighting equipment do you have?

 

[bazooka]

If you're on a budget, you could always get a 500 watt floor halogen for less than $20 at walmart and put it behind a white sheet. That will make a softbox. Then you can use a piece of white postboard as a bounce. Either set your white balance to tungsten or better yet, create a custom white balance. Because you're shooting still life indoors, you don't need flash.

 

[Derrel]

A BIG piece of fabric, like a white bed sheet or a large piece of white, rip-stop nylon stretched across a wooden or PVC pipe frame, will make a big diffuser. That diffuser can be used to soften the output of electronic flash units, or work lights, and will give fairly soft lighting that is easy to work with. Some people mention frosted, white shower curtains as well in this same general category of large diffusion material sources. See Bazooka's post above for a good light source.

 

[KmH]

Get your dolls away from the background.

As mentioned the way to get nice soft light that looks like it came froma window is to make the light source apparently as large as a window. The DIY diffuser Derrel describes will do that with bazookas light source shining through the diffuser.

You know sunlight is nuclear, it's old light (8.5 minutes old) , you're at the mercy of the weather (cloudy), the time of day, and the time of year.

Using strobed or constant light you can shoot anytime, day or night, rain or shine, and the light is good and fresh (pnly nanoseconds old).

 

[bazooka]

Sorry, I wasn't clear about my bed sheet thing. See Derrell's post for what to do with the sheet.

 

[Derrel]

Here is a DIY setup done by Schwettylen's better-looking cousin, Bo. Keep in mind this is a "fancy" DIY example...<br><br>DIY Collapsible Scrim and Sun swatter to be

 

[youngish]

Thanks everyone!
Right now I set up in the middle of my living room (lots of windows). I have a few clamp lamps with &#8220;daylight&#8221; bulbs which I bounce off foamcore. If I want a white background I cover a window with white paper and set the dolls on the window sill, which isn&#8217;t great because its so low to the ground and my tripod doesn&#8217;t go real low... but I do like having that extra light from behind. For other backgrounds I drape fabric over a piece of wood.It always works, eventually but it is such a hassle and Im always worried the boards/lamps are gonna come crashing down and take the doll with it.


I would just love to not be at the mercy of the sun and have something easier to set up... I&#8217;d like to keep it under $500 so I think Ill try making a cheapy diffuser like yall suggested. A friend suggested a Nikon SB 600 speedlight and Gary Fong diffuser which has the portable bonus, I might get that too