3 replies to this topic

[NickCran]

Hi everyone.

 

Our in house photographer had to leave rather abruptly one day, and the equipment was largely his. So i've been asked to have a look at what we need to get back up and running again, and maybe take the reigns for a while. I'd love some advice on what to get, and have uploaded a few room shots so you can see the type of thing we're used to doing. I have a limited amount of experience editing photography in Lightroom, but enough to know my way around it.

 

Our main tasks are:

 

- Roomsets

- Photographing artwork for reproduction.

 

Looking at the D850, it seems ideal for both of these. (I believe our photographer used a Canon 5d (10 years old) which obviously worked, but I am leaning more towards Nikon.

 

So essentially our shopping list includes (based around a Nikon camera):

 

- Camera

- Lense

- Tripod 

- Studio lights

 

Any help or advice would be really greatly appreciated, as I am quite a far out of my depth here.

 

Thanks!

 

 

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[Merco_61]

The D850 is a no-brainer. Nothing else with a mirror comes even close without going medium format.

 

For studio strobes, A Profoto Studio pack with 400J per head or a couple of the Profoto 500J Monolights are hard to beat when it comes to reliability over time and value for money.

 

Will you be using a copystand for the repro work or will you use a tripod with the artwork on the wall?

 

Will you try to get close to the quite hard light your previous photographer used or will you try to get a more inviting, softer light?

 

Giving advise about lenses and light modifiers is difficult as so much depends on how you can rig the lights and camera in the physical room. In your place, with limited experience, I would try to either hire a photographer or hire a consultant to get the right kit and teach one or two persons on the staff how to get consistently good results with the equipment. Far too much of your good reputation is at stake to take shortcuts with the quality.

[NickCran]

Hi, thanks for your comments, super helpful. I'll put the monolights and the D850 in the shopping basket.

 

Up to now we've been using a tripod for repro, copy stand looks good though.

 

Our studio space is pretty big, but we are sharing it with other parts of the company. So really we've got about 7-8 m2, and 2 story height. No natural light. Everything is the sets are real, down to the paint on the wall. We can control the light really well in the space, with black foam walls to position all around. You make a really great point about the current shots, something softer would be much more desirable.

 

What we need in terms of lens performance is something that can capture those sets, and perhaps a bit of versatility for details and close ups, but also wide angle for 

shots of our studio and workshop space. So basically everyone rolled into one haha.

 

Would you say theDX16-80 would be a good place to start? I'd hope to get the 50mm as well, just depends on the budget at the moment. We have a lot of time to learn and get this right. Our stock pics can keep us going for a while.

[Merco_61]

The 16-80 is a DX lens and doesn’t cover the full FX sensor. The equivalent FX lens is the 24-120.
I would probably get a 24-70/2.8 to start with, and a 60/2.8 MicroNikkor for your repro needs.

Large octaboxes are hard to beat for soft lighting, maybe with a couple of Lastolite trigrips to provide directional accents.