Studio Lighting Overview for PhotoRobot Systems

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The following overview describes the choice of studio lighting for PhotoRobot customers. This includes information covering all types of available studio lights for PhotoRobot. Find the choices for continuous, strobe, and DMX-controlled lighting from Broncolor, FOMEI, and Profoto. 

There is technical information on lighting quality as well as on the lighting approach to photographing products in general. This includes common mistakes in studio lighting for product photography, how PhotoRobot solves them, and technical notes on achieving the perfect depth of field.

Note: This user manual provides a general overview for your choice in lighting systems for use with PhotoRobot. For technical documentation on a specific studio lighting system, refer to PhotoRobot User Manuals, or to the additional resources at the end of this document.

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Choice of Studio Lighting with PhotoRobot

Rather than using mass-produced (cheap) studio lights, PhotoRobot integrates only professional studio lighting from Broncolor, FOMEI, and Profoto. These brands allow PhotoRobot customers to focus on increasing throughput without any risk of compromising quality due to poor lighting. 

In the end, the overall approach to the lighting of photographed products is crucial to the resulting image. Moreover, that image is often a decisive factor in succeeding or failing to sell the product online, and ensuring minimal returns.

This is why PhotoRobot supports only professional studio lighting. Quality in lighting matters, especially at the speeds of PhotoRobot. Thus, it is necessary to afford special attention to the selection and configuration of our lighting systems.

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Most Common Mistake in Studio Lighting

One of the most common mistakes in studio lighting is using excessive backlight intensity for product photography. While this might lead to a perfectly white background, the amount of light bleeding in from behind blurs the contours of the object. This so-called “light-wrap” is common among all-in-one “box-like systems” that use inappropriate diffuse lighting, creating major issues in practice.

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Excessive backlight intensity results in:

• Reduced or loss of gloss on reflective surfaces;
• Change in color (due to a milky tint);
• Loss of texture.

On the other hand, if the light source is too weak to allow sufficient stopping-down of the lens, the depth of field becomes too shallow. This results in blurriness in front of and from behind the object, which is especially discernible when zooming into images with online viewers.

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Depth of Field in 360 Spin Photography

In the context of 360 product spins, it is not only important that the subject fits in the frame in terms of width and height. It is also necessary that the entire image remains in focus, and that the background is out of focus if possible. This allows for the easy calculation of the depth of field, and for its later verification in practice. There are a number of online calculators to calculate depth of field, including mobile apps on iOS and Android for example.

Note that, at a given focal length of the lens, the depth of field is influenced by camera distance. Additionally, camera distance can only be controlled to a certain extent when mounting the camera on a robotic arm. The same is true for aperture value (f-stop). To achieve a greater depth of field, higher aperture is necessary, amounting to higher demands for the intensity of the lighting.

Although continuous LED lights are popular (and despite their technological advancement), their light intensity in regards to larger objects remains insufficient. Larger objects require strobe lights. 

Strobe lighting allows for an extremely short exposure time (e.g. 1 / 10,000s). This means that there is no requirement to stop the movement of the machine in order to take an image. Instead, exposure is performed by a “freezing of motion” during a very short and intense flash. At the same time, PhotoRobot is able to read the position of the turntable 1,000 times per second to ensure the flash occurs at precisely the right moment. 

What does this amount to? Without having to stop the rotation of the turntable, there is a four-fold productivity increase on average.

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Types of Available Studio Lights for PhotoRobot

For the functional operation of PhotoRobot with studio lights, automatic light control is a strict requirement. Automatic light control is necessary so that a specific product (or product category) can function with automatic preset lighting parameters through software control (PhotoRobot Controls). This also means the operator does not have to manually reset the lighting of the scene.

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Continuous Lights

When using continuous lighting, the DMX bus system is common. It is supported by a number of manufacturers, such as the popular British manufacturer Rotolight. Their ANOVA range in particular works well with PhotoRobot, but note that it is also possible to connect LED lights of your own design. For example, we might use LED lights of our own design when photographing jewelry or small items. In this case, the absence of flashes can be a pleasant advantage for the operator, while light intensity remains sufficient in respect to the size of the objects.

PhotoRobot systems control the DMX system via a USB adapter, which connects to the control unit of the robot or to the controlling computer.

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Strobe Lights

Manufacturers of strobe lights typically use proprietary communication protocols. PhotoRobot currently supports control of the following brands.

• Broncolor (Siros S series)
• FOMEI (Digital Prox X series)
• Profoto

Note: For technical documentation and user guides on specific lighting systems for use with PhotoRobot, refer to the additional resources at the end of this document.

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Broncolor

The Broncolor Siros S series provides first-class quality, Wi-Fi control, and high color stability (even when the flash intensity changes). This eliminates any need for color calibration when changing light settings. The Broncolor Siros S series also has a high flash frequency (even at high intensity), and comes with a complete accessory kit. Its higher price is thus fully in line with the delivered quality and performance, which is suitable for customers with high demands regarding product throughput or extreme image quality.

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FOMEI 

Digital Pro X studio flashes by FOMEI deliver excellent proven quality, and come with a complete accessory kit. The lights provide mid-range performance in terms of stability, reliability, and frequency of flashes, while offering an excellent cost-to-performance ratio.

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Profoto

Installation of Profoto lights is possible only for customers who already use Profoto products and do not want to change brands. This is due to limited support of Profoto lights.

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Additional PhotoRobot - Studio Lighting Resources

For additional documentation and user guides on specific lighting systems for use with PhotoRobot, refer to the following customer resources.

• Broncolor Lights Management
• FOMEI Ceiling System Kit
• FOMEI Digital Pro X Series
• FOMEI LED DMX 150B
• FOMEI LED DMX 300B
• FOMEI LED DMX 600B

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