Lighting Setup

Instructor-only material. Not published to academy.photorobot.io public site (in Phase B; in Phase A visible to anyone with global mode set to Instructor).

Delivery context

Lighting is the module where photographers in the room come alive and engineers in the room glaze over. Photographers know lighting matters — they may even disagree with PhotoRobot’s recommended 4-light template based on their own experience. Engineers tend to treat lighting as “just turn the lights up” until they see the difference between badly-lit and well-lit captures side-by-side.

Calibration: ask up front — “who in the room is a photographer first?” and “who is here for the technical / network side?” You’ll teach the two groups different things from the same material. Photographers want depth on placement principles; technicians want the network + hardware operation side.

This module is conceptual with a single hands-on portion (Freemask 2-light demo). The deep hardware operation comes in m10. Try not to drift into Broncolor menu-walking in m09 — save that for m10. m09 is “why these decisions matter and what the canonical answers are.”

Time allocation (60 min textbook + 20-30 min workbook + optional hands-on)

Textbook block (60 min)

Workbook block (20-30 min)

• Exercises 1-3 (10-15 min): continuous/strobe + 4-light template + Freemask quiz
• Exercise 4 (3-5 min): placement vs. power scenario
• Exercise 5 (5-8 min, hardware-specialist track): full kit design exercise
• Exercise 6 (3-5 min): scopes & presets time-savings calculation
• Exercise 7 (2 min): pre-flight

Hands-on block (optional, 30-60 min if lab time + equipment available)

The Freemask 2-light demo is the single highest-value hands-on moment in this module. If you have a real PhotoRobot lab with front + back light banks:

1. Place a real product (handbag, shoe, dark-colored item works best) on the turntable
2. Show “Capture without Freemask” — operator sees subject on whatever backdrop is behind
3. Show “Capture with Freemask” — CAPP fires front lights, captures, fires back lights, captures, combines → operator sees subject on transparent background
4. Show the resulting PNG file with alpha channel

If lab access not available: pre-recorded screencast of the Freemask 2-light cycle. Students absolutely need to see this once — it’s the moment Freemask clicks.

Live demo points

1. (at minute 3-15) Continuous vs strobe. No demo equipment needed — verbal explanation + analogy. Use the “video vs stills” framing: “When would you ever NOT want continuous light?” Answer: “When you need the brightness without the heat, when you need to freeze fast movement, when you need consistent color.” That’s strobe.

2. (at minute 25-35) Freemask 2-light demo. This is THE wow moment of the module. If you have lab access, do it live. If not, pre-recorded screencast plus a chalkboard sketch of front vs. back light positioning. Students who get this in m09 will internalize the Freemask workflow forever; students who don’t will struggle in m11 (editing) and have wrong intuitions about mass-production workflows.

3. (at minute 35-42) FOMEI ceiling rail system. If you have a real rail system, point at it. Show:

   • The track (mounted to the ceiling)
   • A trolley sliding along the track
   • A pantograph extending up and down
   • A telescopic rod (alternative)
   • The cable routing along the track

   If no rail access: photos / diagrams from the FOMEI manual. The kit-component diagrams are clear and walk through the assembly.

4. (at minute 42-50) Broncolor management in CAPP. Open CAPP, navigate to Hardware Configuration > Lights. Show:

   • The list of connected lights
   • Per-light power slider (0-100% or stops)
   • Modeling light toggle
   • Standby toggle

   Adjust a light’s power in CAPP, then walk over to the physical fixture and show it changing. This is the “you don’t need to walk over to the lights” moment.

5. (at minute 50-55) Scopes & presets. Save the current lighting state as a preset (Demo-Lights-A), then manually change a few lights, save as another preset (Demo-Lights-B), then switch between them. Students see instant snap from one config to another.

If delivering online without lab access: pre-recorded screencasts of all 5 demos. Lighting is highly visual; verbal description alone doesn’t convey it.

Common mistakes / misunderstandings to anticipate

“We don’t need both continuous and strobe — we just buy whatever’s cheaper”

Reframe: “Cheaper” depends on use case. If the studio only shoots stills, continuous LEDs are wasted money. If the studio only shoots video, strobes are useless. If the studio does both, you need both — separate workspaces (m05) keep them from interfering. Don’t optimize for “lowest hardware cost” before knowing the workflow.

“We’ll just use the LEDs for stills too — saves us from buying strobes”

Reframe: LEDs for stills are doable but slow. Non-stop spin mode at 20 seconds per item requires strobe-level recharge. Doing the same with LEDs forces slow start-stop capture (60-90 seconds per item, 3-4× slower). For low-volume studios (under 50 SKUs/day) LEDs may be acceptable; for production volume, strobes are economically necessary.

“More lights = better photos”

Reframe: Each additional light is another thing to position, balance, troubleshoot. The 3-4 light template handles most product photography. Add lights only when you can articulate what each one does (e.g., “this kicker light separates the product silhouette from the dark backdrop in luxury hero shots”). Else you’re just adding complexity.

“I’ll set lights manually each time — presets feel rigid”

Reframe: presets aren’t rigid; they’re starting points. Operator can override a preset at any time. The point is that 95% of shoots use the same configuration, and presets eliminate the manual setup time. Exercise 6 in the workbook quantifies the time savings — ~18 min/day per operator = 75 hours/year.

“Why do back lights need to be separate? Can’t I just rotate the front lights to point at the backdrop?”

Reframe: physically possible but operationally a disaster. CAPP can’t switch between “front lights firing” and “back lights firing” if they’re the same fixtures. Freemask depends on the back lights being independently controllable. Also: rotating heavy fixtures every shoot wears the rail mounts and introduces inconsistency. Separate banks = the engineering answer.

“Broncolor’s WiFi is unstable, I want to use cabled lights”

Reframe: Broncolor’s WiFi management is stable if the network is configured correctly (separate subnet, recommended router model, no 2.4 GHz interference). Most Broncolor WiFi problems are network configuration problems. If the studio’s IT setup is shared with corporate Wi-Fi and there’s heavy traffic on 2.4 GHz, Broncolor will struggle. Solution: isolate the lighting network per the Broncolor Lights Management manual.

“Lights drift in color over time — should we just compensate in post?”

Reframe: minor drift is normal and can be corrected in post via white-balance adjustment. Major drift (>500K over a year) indicates wear and the fixture should be evaluated for tube replacement (strobe) or LED panel replacement. Quarterly white-balance check with X-Rite ColorChecker is the canonical maintenance practice.

Q&A anticipation

1. “What’s the difference between continuous LED and ‘constant’ tungsten lighting?” Answer: Tungsten = old-school continuous lighting. Hot, power-hungry, warm color temp (~3200K, not daylight). LED continuous is the modern replacement: cool-running, energy-efficient, can be daylight-balanced. PhotoRobot doesn’t recommend tungsten for new installations.

2. “Do we need a dedicated ‘photo studio’ room or can we do PhotoRobot in a corner of an office?” Answer: PhotoRobot is designed for dedicated studio spaces with controlled lighting. Ambient room light interferes with strobe-driven exposure. A corner of an office with windows + overhead office lights = exposure will drift throughout the day as natural light changes. Recommendation: dedicated room, blacked-out walls, no exterior windows.

3. “What’s the deal with color rendering index (CRI)?” Answer: CRI measures how accurately a light reproduces real-world colors. 100 = perfect (sunlight). Cheap LEDs are CRI 70-80 (colors look slightly wrong). Studio-grade LEDs and strobes are CRI 90-95+ (colors look accurate). PhotoRobot’s recommended Fomei + Broncolor lights are all CRI 90+. Cheap aftermarket lights can break color accuracy in subtle ways that ruin product photography.

4. “Can we mix Broncolor with another strobe brand?” Answer: Technically yes; not recommended. PhotoRobot’s CAPP integration is built for Broncolor’s protocol. Mixing brands means CAPP can only control Broncolor lights; the other brand requires manual operation, which defeats the workflow. Stick with Broncolor for production.

5. “How long does it take to install a FOMEI ceiling rail system?” Answer: 1-2 days with two technicians for a Kit 3 (5×5m), assuming the ceiling structure can support the mounting. Customers often underestimate this — the rail installation is the longest single hardware step in a new studio setup. Plan for it. PhotoRobot recommends working with the customer’s local construction team for the ceiling drilling + mounting hardware; PhotoRobot technicians handle the rail assembly and light installation.

6. “My customer wants to use natural light from a window. Can PhotoRobot work with that?” Answer: No, with rare exceptions. PhotoRobot requires consistent, repeatable lighting. Natural light changes by hour, weather, season. Production wizards depend on identical lighting per item. The customer either commits to dedicated studio lighting or accepts that PhotoRobot’s value proposition (mass-production consistency) doesn’t apply to their workflow.

Workbook discussion plan

Diagnostic — is the student ready for m10 / m11 / m17?

Operator-track readiness signal: Exercises 1-3 + 6 fluent. Student knows continuous vs strobe trade-offs, the 4-light template, Freemask mechanics, and the value of scopes/presets.

Hardware-specialist readiness signal: Exercise 5 fluent. Student designs a coherent kit, justifies each component, accounts for the network configuration step.

Placement intuition signal: Exercise 4 → C. If student picks A/B (raise power or add light) instead of repositioning, the “placement first, power second” principle hasn’t sunk in. Re-emphasize.

Materials needed

• Slides — 4-light template diagram, Freemask before/after photos, FOMEI rail components, Broncolor Siros photos, CAPP lights view screenshot
• Real FOMEI ceiling rail (or photos / scaled model) — for the rail demo
• At least 1 working Broncolor Siros monolight + RFS 2.1 transceiver — for CAPP integration demo
• At least 1 Fomei LED DMX panel — for continuous lighting demo
• Test object (handbag, shoe, dark-colored item) — for the Freemask demo
• Pre-recorded screencasts for online delivery fallback
• Workbook printed / PDF — one per student
• Module knowledge check ready

Notes for refresh delivery

Lighting fundamentals don’t change quickly — refresh deliveries can be shorter. Refresh targets:

• New equipment additions since last training (Broncolor model refreshes, Fomei LED panel updates)
• Studio’s lighting kit current state — has anything aged out / drifted in color?
• Operator’s actual production pain points — are there shoots where lighting is consistently wrong? Walk through the preset configuration.

Refresh delivery: 20-30 min, focus on Exercise 4 (placement vs. power) + studio-specific troubleshooting.

Cross-references

• m02 Safety — high-voltage strobes + ceiling installations carry real risk; m02 is prerequisite reading
• m03 Network Setup — Broncolor WiFi subnet configuration touches network specialist
• m05 Workspace — lighting is per-workspace (separate workspaces for stills vs video)
• m06 Capture Basics — Freemask UI lives in m06 Section 11; lights configuration in Hardware Configuration area Section 12; scopes/presets in Section 14
• m07 Wizard mode — wizards reference lighting via presets configured in m06/m09
• m08 Camera config — camera + lights are tuned together; m08 is prerequisite
• m10 Lighting Hardware — forthcoming, deep dive on specific Fomei + Broncolor units
• m11 Editing images — Freemask output feeds editing pipeline
• m17 Synchrobox — multi-camera lighting orchestration
• m25 Troubleshooting — flash-not-firing + Broncolor WiFi disconnects are major topics