Photographing Larger Items
by A.B. Russell
eBay Staff Member

As you've noticed, I've been using small objects as the subjects of my images. It isn't my objective to ignore those of you who sell larger items; smaller items are easier to show as a basis for other items. This time, however, I'd like to move to something a little larger.

There is always more than one way to light a subject. While incandescent bulbs arranged in a row from top to bottom is one way, another is florescent. If you want to use florescent, it's best to use the kind that are intended for growing plants. The color of the light produced by these bulbs is very close to that of sunlight. That means you won't need any special filters if you're using film, and your results will be more predictable using either film or digital.

(I don't want to get too far into the physics of this, but florescent lighting can vary considerably in color from tube to tube, and even from one session to the next. This makes using filters somewhat unpredictable, and the results can be far less pleasant than you'd like.)

I have a couple of fixtures that were designed for this kind of shooting. They have florescent tubes in a wooden box, covered with frosted Plexiglas. The Plexiglas acts very much like the tracing paper in the previous articles by diffusing the light and making shadows softer. I chose a four-foot light to show the rocking chair.

The setup is quite simple, and the photo pretty much explains it. I've placed the light at about a 30-degree angle to the background, aimed at the chair. Rather than using a longer reflector that was made specifically for photography, I've clipped two of the reflectors I've been using together. Remember, these are simply sun screens made for a car windshield. They're the foil type rather than cloth, and I'm using the dull side toward the subject to minimize the chance of hot spots.

If you prefer, you can use a large sheet of white foam core board. This is not quite as reflective, so it will need to be closer to the subject, but it may be easier for you to stand on its end. Using the foamcore is a fairly standard practice among many photographers.

Another possibility for larger items is window light. If you have a large window, you can often use the natural light falling on the subject. Be sure that you don't have the sun shining directly on your subject, or you may see deep shadows in places where you don't want them.