novice help needed for lighting set up

[brimer10]

I am a real novice at photography, I manager of a small software company and we in the process of landing a contract in the automotive industry. I need advice on how set up the lighting for taking pictures of automobiles, I do not care about beauty I want a presentation that show all scratches dents and dings. I will be using Minolta Dimage. Most pictures will be taken in an indoor controlled assembly line setting with substandard lighting. Pictures will be of the front back right and left side. As well as interior. I have been reading about the different lighting techniques but have only become more confused. Softbox’s look the most impressive and possibly the least expensive, but were would I position them and will they give me the proper illumination without massive reflection? Thank you for any help you can give

[Russ]

I am a real novice at photography, I manager of a small software company and we in the process of landing a contract in the automotive industry. I need advice on how set up the lighting for taking pictures of automobiles, I do not care about beauty I want a presentation that show all scratches dents and dings. I will be using Minolta Dimage. Most pictures will be taken in an indoor controlled assembly line setting with substandard lighting. Pictures will be of the front back right and left side. As well as interior. I have been reading about the different lighting techniques but have only become more confused. Softbox’s look the most impressive and possibly the least expensive, but were would I position them and will they give me the proper illumination without massive reflection? Thank you for any help you can give

I believe that you are correct in selecting Softboxes for this type of shoot. They will provide the least reflections and as their distance from the subject is increase the light will become "harder" which will perhaps give you some of the detail you spoke of while minimizing reflections. You will most likely have to experiment with the placement of the lights to minimize the reflections. I THINK that raising the light(s) higher can help. I'm also fairly certain that it all has something to do with the reflected angle of the light source as it strikes the lens.