Milissa,

These days there is no reason to use hot lights (lights that generate heat:
incandescent, quartz-halogen, etc.). There are lots of relatively
inexpensive small lightweight LED panel lights for photography - the better
ones allow you to control both the light level and the color temperature. I
also have had success using inexpensive strobe flash lights with an
inexpensive slave unit on my dslr. I could scale that from close up's of
coins to use in the field to shoot an entire retablo in an historic
California Mission. It's advantage is that it's very portable and gives you
wide coverage to capture building interiors and large objects. You can
easily position the flash to get direct, raking, or bounce light. I gave a
short tips paper on it at a conference several years ago.

In the lab / studio I preferred paper color backgrounds on rolls on a rack
behind a folding table. Different colors are useful. Not everything is
enhanced with a grey background. Cloth background are hard to keep flat, so
you tend to see creases and wrinkles in fabric.

Whatever you choose make sure to set your white balance to your lighting
and to have a scale, ruler, etc. I always used magnetic numbers for the
accession number in photos, but you can also print out the object name and
number on paper for your photos too.

Here's a small LED panel light that is great - a pair of these should light
all but the largest of objects in a collection.

https://www.amazon.com/VILTROX-L116T-3300K-5600K-temperature-Brightness/dp/B01KZLM3QC

Cheers!
Dave

David Harvey
Senior Conservator & Museum Consultant
Los Angeles CA. USA
www.cityofangelsconservation.weebly.com


On Jan 31, 2018 11:56 AM, "Amanda Roberts" <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

Milissa,

There's an Emart photography kit on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/Emart-
Photography-Studio-Lighting-Shooting/dp/B01MZWSBOP/ref=sr_
1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1517428205&sr=8-1&keywords=lighting+booth).  This is the
16" one; there's also a 25", I believe.  It has LED bulbs, sets up rather
easily, and folds up well for storage.  We haven't been using it long, so
I'm not sure what the longevity is of the pieces, but we've been happy with
it so far.

Amanda

Amanda Roberts
Curator
Rice County Historical Society
Faribault, MN

On Wed, Jan 31, 2018 at 9:37 AM, Milissa Brooks-Ojibway <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> I am looking at setting up a small photography area for artifacts.  I need
> lights and a backdrop so I thought a kit would be ideal, however I'm
> finding the kits only seem to use fluorescent bulbs.  Can anyone recommend
> a photography lighting kit they've purchased and liked?
>
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