good day...

while the weather outside was frightful, i started playing around with some of my wife's orchids and lilies. i've never done any sort of indoor, table-top stuff before, so i thought this would be a fun way to experiment and learn something new.

we had some can lights in the house... i think they're called accent lights. they are basically tubes, about 5 inches in diameter and 8 inches long. the tubes are affixed to a base, though they can swivel to change the angle of the light. they take 50 watt halogen bulbs. i know this isn't the proper light source, but it's what i had handy, and the 50w halogens seemed very bright and white, at least i thought so at the time.

some of the shots actually came out pretty good... the velvia 100f had the best color, as e100vs and rvp both became too warm; displaying a distinct yellow-orange cast, i assume from my poor choice of lighting. white phalaenopsis and stargazer lilies were rendered yellow on all but the velvia 100f, even then the colors were still off.

i enjoyed doing this so much that i'd like to work some more at it, this time with proper lighting. is there an inexpensive was to accomplish this? ie, can i just get different bulbs for the lights i have, or would i need to invest in some studio equipment? is it possible to use photography bulbs in ordinary lamps?

thanks for any inputs,
scott