quality fabric images

[tornado360]

Hi Everyone,

I am very very new to photography and would dearly love some help. What I am about to embark on I have not got a clue what to do. I plan to photograph some fabric about 1 meter squared in a normal room with normal lighting. The photo must end up to of the highest quality and an exact or if not very close similarity to the fabric.

Could anyone tell me if the best option would be to use two umbrellas for lighting with some daylight bulb to replace my normal room bulbs too? Or would it be better if I used a good flash unit with diffuser?

[andy153]

Hi there Tornado - welcome to WPF - enjoy the forum. For me the answer lies not in normal room lighting but in natural daylight. There is little normal about room lighting. Type, wattage etc all make it different. With the great weather we are having at the moment I would pin it to a board, take it outside and light it with the sun. Camera on a tripod with its back parallel to the board and take the picture that way. That's why most women take clothes outside the shop to see the real colours.

[tornado360]

Hi, Thank you very much for your response. I can see what your saying by taking the fabric outside natural daylight will be far better. With wind and clouds and other weather factors this could be difficult as I am under a time scale too. So if you had a choice of a softbox or a better flash unit with diffuser which would you choose?

Tornado.

[miketoll]

You have not mentioned composition, are you after just a flat square on shot or with the fabric folded or what? I do not know much about studio set ups but would want to think about texture in a fabric as well so that means some of the light has to be at least slightly side lighting to bring the texture out as surely texture in a fabric is just as important as colour.

[tornado360]

I am looking for a flat image of the fabric and for it to pick up the texture and colours yes your right the texture is just as important. What I need to know is shall I use a flash unit with a diffuser or some softbox's?

[ABphoto]

personally I think I would use two lights at oposite corners of the frame, set at quite a low angle to pick up the detail in the texture. when I first started out I was using small halogen desk lamps so it doesn't really matter about using strobes but pay attention to your colour balance to make sure the colours are correct. Hope this helps

[tornado360]

Thank you very much indeed, I am sure this will help and I will aply your response to my project thank you.

[ABphoto]

Probably should mention too, it doesn't matter what lights you use as long as they're the same temperature (same type of bulbs) or you'll end up with a colour shift across the shot.

[yelvertoft]

Originally Posted by tornado360

I am looking for a flat image of the fabric and for it to pick up the texture and colours yes your right the texture is just as important. What I need to know is shall I use a flash unit with a diffuser or some softbox's?

Neither of the above. Using diffused light like this will flatten the image and hide any texture in the fabric. You need to have some direction to the lighting as ABphoto has said.

[tornado360]

Well I am very graetful for all your comments and will definately take each and everyone into consideration when I photgraph the images very soon.