Guys, will PAR28 bulbs work for small subjects like face-only portraits, toys, or other things that can sit on a tabletop?

They're just 700 bucks each and they're pretty bright and diffused.

Oh, they'll be used at home for tinkering only, not for a studio, project or anything like that.

sir david can you post some results on your shots using PAR28?

thanks...

Hey - you might want to check this site out ..

http://ifakedit.com/log/guides/small-budget-photograhpy/#lighting

He does a lot of DIY lighting on a budget...

Guys, will PAR28 bulbs work for small subjects like face-only portraits, toys, or other things that can sit on a tabletop?

They're just 700 bucks each and they're pretty bright and diffused.

Oh, they'll be used at home for tinkering only, not for a studio, project or anything like that.

thanks for the link sir alan...

I'm not yet prepared to acquire those studio lights yet...

still pricey for wannabees...:(

any suggestions for outdoor home made lights....

yes sir david, could you share your set up? i'm also interested on making my DIY lighting

Please, no "sirs" hehe, all of you have better equipment and knowledge on these things than I do...

Honestly, I haven't had a chance to fully play with such lights.

PAR28s are like florescent bulbs (those coiled type) in a flood-light housing. The ones we have are around 23W each and each bulb costs 600 bucks while the housing costs 150 or so in hardware stores.

We have 8 of them in our shop's garage but they're mounted pretty high on the ceiling.

I tried taking a couple of shots the other day but there was way too much bright, ambient light in our work area for the lights to be effective.

If placed in an indoor setting without direct sunlight entering the room, I think they can be pretty effective for macro, product/food, or close-up portraits. Assuming you'll only be using one bulb.

My estimate is that the light beam will be adequate as long as the subject is no farther than 2ft away.

So if you'll use it for portraits, you might need to add some sort of reflector around the bulb and add 2-3 bulbs more per source.

Which brings us to the next option. A large, 500W halogen flood light assembly. Even when diffused, it can light a subject as far as 5ft well enough. Downside is malakas sa electricity and it's hot. Of course, color temp will be a lot warmer than the PARs. These are the same "worklights" mentioned in Sir Alan's link.

I think the PARs will work well on certain occations like a small subject while the halogen will work better on portraits.

Either case, investment on lights won't exceed 2-3K hehe. PVC nalang structure.

This is a sample shot taken with a single PAR28 mounted 3.5ft away from the subject (one of our detailers hehe) with a lot of backlighting (12 noon sunlight). You can see the other light mounted behind him. The light is angled at approximately 45 degrees. No reflectors were used as well.

Sorry for the blown highlights at the back. (no PP)

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a69/theveed/IMG_1531.jpg

I'm pretty sure this shot will be better if the light is lower and more diffused (with a gauze cloth or something) and have some fill/reflector to balance out the image. Maybe a 2-bulb setup for the key light will be more effective as well.

If you factor that this is an indoor shot with very little hard lighting, it seems to work fine.

You can get more instructions on how to build PVC stands here, they also have a sample 500W halogen studio light setup somewhere there.

http://www.diyphotography.net/homestudio/blz