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Alcohol using ambient & flash

January 09, 2018 in Ambient & Flash

Wanting to try the bokeh effect with still life I hung the lights from a boom and tried to get as much distance from them to increase blurring of a shallow depth of field while still trying to have them fill the frame.

I placed my to fill my frame and pre-set my focus.
Opting for a single light setup I pointed a snoot so the beam of light would stream across the subject and not spill onto the background.

I metered for the fairy lights using my cameras built-in meter. Typically with still life you can slow your shutter speed down, which would have been perfect however due to the fairy lights being fairly flimsy and needing adjusting a lot they were swinging and took a very long time to become still. I needed a faster shutter speed of 1/80 to reduce motion blur, which resulted in needing an ISO of 800 and the lens' widest aperture of f/2.8.

I took several test shots to arrange composition and once satisfied I metered the flash lighting with a light meter making sure the light meter was reading at ISO 800, readjusting the light until f/2.8 was the correct exposure.

I metered from the Jack Daniels bottle as it was the brightest label. The result however, due the angle of the bottles and light is that the Jack Daniels and Martini bottles are well exposed however the Haig club bottle isn't due to the bottles face not being in the light.

I moved the haig bottle so although the light isn't hitting the bottles face, the light will pass into the bottle through the side illuminating it from within as the light refracts inside.

My biggest problem with the image is the fairy lights don't quite fill the frame edge to edge.
However I was very happy with the results from concept to output as little experimentation was needed due to my understanding and planning.

Click here to see a gallery of all the images from the shoot

Building The Lights up

January 08, 2018 in Studio, Flash

I wanted to revisit my still life work of the Jack Daniel's bottle with studio lighting to see how it compares to ambient lighting with the same brief.

One of the advantages of studio lighting is the ability to have more than one light source, however controlling so many aspects of the image can be overwhelming and difficult to assess should the image not turn out as planned. I built the light set-up one light at a time.

I wanting to illuminate the liquid inside the bottle along with the label. I started with a snoot to be able to direct the light however I pulled the snoot back to enable a wider pool of light.

I noticed the angle of the isn't illuminating the liquid in the glass and is also cast a shadow from the glass onto the bottle label.

The drink is now illuminated and i've notied the refraction of the light from the bottle have also created a glow on the left side. The side in shadow is still lit due to the white infinity cover reflecting the light back into and around the room.

I could have flagged the light to stop it spilling onto the side of the bottle but as I wanted more light, I left it.

I added a second light, a softbox to light the side of the bottle. Due to the softbox being so big and spreading light everywhere it also lit the background. However I find I like the result.

Happy with the lighting I built up the set with props

Overall i like the final image, the composition isn't the best but throughout the shoot i learned how much building a set one light at a time can help.

Click here to see a gallery with the images from this shoot

Freezing motion without HSS

January 08, 2018 in Flash, Still Iife, Studio

With this shoot, I wanted to again freeze a splash but this time within the studio.
Without the luxury of HSS, I had to change the way I typically use the studio equipment taking what I had learned from the first module, particularly artist research and what I had learned with this module in how strobe lights work.

As my maximum sync speed with the studio lights is 1/200th that means I have 200th a second to freeze motion which isn't fast enough to freeze the splash wanted. However, from learning about how strobe lights work, the pop of flash is much much quicker and varies depending on power. For example, at 1/64 power a strobe might flash at around 1/8000 a second. However, at full power, as the flash tube can't output more light it will output the light for long, so a flash may last 1/1000 of second or longer depending on the wattage of the light, still faster than max shutter speed will allow.

Last module I researched Tim Tadder and how he managed to shoot his Water Wig series. Tadder has very expensive equipment which could fire strong bursts for a short duration but was still limited by not have HSS.

To remedy this Tadder blocked out all ambient light, set his shutter speed fairly slow and allowed the speed of the flash to freeze the motion.

To start I turned on a single light to make sure I could put Tadder's technique into practice myself.

I turn off all other lights except for the flash head, placed my camera on a sturdy tripod and set my shutter speed to 0.4 seconds. I triggered the camera using a remote which meant I couldn't focus the lens however focus wasn't important at this stage.
I noticed a long trail of motion blur which made me realise the modelling light comes back on before the end of the exposure.

Light set up for background, building one light at a time.

I set up a backdrop featuring a forest scene as I wanted to create an outdoor winter theme with the image which I lit with a single softbox to ensure an evenly distributed light.
Wanting to shoot at f/8, typically a 'sweet spot' in lenses to achieve maximum sharpness, I altered the power output of the flash until the light meter read f/8 as correct exposure.

I set up my subjects, pointed a snoot from camera left at them which allowed me to direct the light across the subject in a narrow beam which meant I didn't have to worry about the light spilling onto the backdrop. It also meant the angle of incidence would send the angle of reflectance away from the camera allowing the light to shine through the glassware and liquid without creating harsh highlights.

Shooting at f/8 I changed the keylight's, the light that is primarily lighting the subject and typically the most powerful, until it metered for f/8.

Having the subjects in the scene meant I would set my lens to manual focus and pre-set it so I can trigger the camera with remote. I then took a few test shows dropping things into frame practicing timing and how much the scene would freeze.

It was also at this point I realised how easy it would be to accidenetally be in frame.

Satisfied with the test shots, I added water to the glass and went for it.

I then spent a lot of time re-taking shots and recomposing slightly to try and get the best shot and best splash possible.

One problem I came across in this shoot was with the radio triggers communicating between camera and light.

Here my key light was triggering but for some reason my softbox, to light the backdrop, wasn't.
I remedied this by switch the 'cell' function on the light. This allows the light to be triggered when a light sensor on the body of the flash head detects a flash. This meant the radio trigger would trigger my keylight, which the light sensor on my backdrop's light would detect and then trigger itself.

After a lot of shots I came away with several usable images, here is my favourite.

Though the motion isn't as frozen as my shots with my speedlite in HSS mode, it had frozen the motion enough and more so that if I was limited to the 1/200 max shutter speed.

Having already set up the light and backdrop I wanted to revisit my Jack Daniels shots again.
I arranged my set keeping the same lighting set up. From my previous shots attempts at shooting this scene I know I wanted to try lighting the bottle and glass independantly however as seen her the snoot isn't creating a narrow enough beam of light. To narrow the beam firruther, I added a grid.

Though still lighting more of the scene, the bottle is more exposed than the glass.

I added a second snoot behind the set and pointed it at the glass. Turning off my keylight to see the individual effect.

Together the 2 lights created this image below, the liquid in the glass is lit along with the christmas paper hat behind however the side label isn't as clear as bright as I would like.

Rather than add another light I used a reflector to bounce the light from the back light onto the side label, using the gold foil side to made the golden colour the whiskey is refracting.
Resulting in this final image.

A problem I had with this shoot was the placements of the light. The lighting rid is connected to rails on the ceiling which make fine adjustments hard. I could have arranged lights on light stands however on this occasion I asked a friend for help to hold the lights steady.
Here is a picture I took on my phone of the set up.

Click here to see a gallery of all the shoots in this post

E-commerce & Lens Shoot

January 08, 2018 in Lighting, Studio, Product, Still Iife

During the module we had the opportunity to sit in with photographer Richy Leeson.
Though learning a lot from the workshop one thing that stood out to me was hearing Richy talk business after education.

Richy mentioned e-commerce as being an excellent source of income and I was surprised to realise I had never really thought about the topic as a genre of photography.

E-commerce is essentially any transaction over internet. Typically a product/service being purchased for money. When we shop online, without really thinking about it we see pictures of the product, typically on a white background. The goal is not necessarily to sell the product but to show an accurate representation of what the product is and does.

Obviously, someone has had to take that photograph, deciding on composition, lighting and angles. Leeson brought this is my attention and stated typically practice consists of being paid a predetermined amount for every image.

For this shoot I used a 'product tent'.
A product tent is essentially a cube frame wrapped in a diffusion material. Sometimes, with different inserts for backgrounds.

The backgrounds served the purpose of avoiding photographing white on white helping to separate from the background.

I lit the product tent be pointing 3 softboxes (to soften the light further) into the left, right and top of the tent. This was to created ensure every part of the product.

ISO 100    f/13    1/200sec    105mm — ISO 100 f/13 1/200sec 105mm

By angling the side softboxes I was able to light the background evenly also.
As the tent will be reflecting light from all 3 light all around the inside, I thought building 1 light at a time would be impractical as I wanted a simple flat lighting.

I turned on the lights, set to the same value at the same distance and metered from the center of the lens with the infercone pointing towards the lens.

Due to the angle of the lights, there are enough shadows cast to show clear detail,depth and form .

However, the same intensity of light on the sides doesn't quite read the very front of the lens, due to the cylindrical shape.
I could have solved this problem by moving the lens furter back into where the light was being aimed however carelessness meant I didn't stop the problem on the day, partly due to shooting untethered and the built-in screen not being the best to evalute images.

The nature of ecommerce photography means different angles of the product is shown, as this product is second hand, this is also important to show and highlight the condition of the item.
With lenses, the condition of the glass is a very important factor.

the issue I had with this shot is the transparency of the glass. It shows the condition of the internal elements, which is good, however the front glass element, bar some flaring and dust specks, is too transparent to show the actual condition due to the light just passing through.

To solve this problem, I moved the lens so the angle of incidence of the light would bounce back into the lens showing the reflection coming off the lens.

This angle also allows you to see the depth and form of the lens as the head on angle gave a very two-dimensional look to the image.

Final Set of Images

Click here to see a gallery of all the images taken

Angle of incidence

Put simply, the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflectance; the angle that the lights hits a surface (incidence) is the angle the light is reflected of the surface (reflectance).

This is useful to know when you want to catch highlights such as the example above or avoid highlights such as photographing people with glasses.

Ambient Still Life

January 07, 2018 in Ambient

Having never really shot still life or product shots in the past, I was eager to get in some practice. With this shoot, I'm using a north facing window as my key light. I tend to associate still life and product photography with highly controllable studio lights so was interested in how this shoot would go with ambient light only. The advantage of still life photography is the subject will only move if you move it, with ambient light, this means you can draw out your shutter speed to let in more light as the intensity of the light cannot always be controlled.

Going into this shoot I knew I wanted to rely on an interesting set and props as I would be restricted with light both due to using ambient and lack of experience. With it being autumn/winter time I thought connotations of the season would work well with warming colours of fires and and comfort and indulgence being key to the theme. I chose to photograph alcohol, characteristic with the time of year and the glass bottles would result in some lighting challenges and interest.

I began with building the set up one step at a time.

Not worrying too much about exposure at first, I arrange my primary products first and took a frame adjusting each time to try and find the best composition.

I noticed immediately that the light wasn't directly hitting the front of the bottle, the most important part of the image.

I then noticed, due the tripod i was using, a light a portable one, shooting at 1/8 second due to the lighting conditions produced camera wobble as the tripod was not steady enough. And I opted for a more heavy duty and robust tripod. Changing composition each frame and then adding decoration.

Once I was satisfied with my set design, I decided to work on exposure. I wanted a dark background and for the Jack Daniels bottle to be clear and well lit.

From the first image above you can see the background is too light and the small logo of a bee which is gold foil is over exposed. I remedied this by softening the light with a scrim which changes the exposure slightly and allows the bee to stand out without being blown out. I then make slight changes to the expose in 3rd stop increments until i achieved the desired exposure. However with a new exposure to compensate for the bee logo and make the background darker, the side of the bottle is not thrown into a dark shadow.

Adding a gold reflector, to warm the light and fitting in with the desired theme, I changed the angle until achieving the desired effect of adding shape to the bottle,filling in the shadows and, as a bonus, casting a nice warm reflection onto the copper muddler.

ISO 100    f/8     1/3    70mm — ISO 100 f/8 1/3 70mm

Here is my final image.
The light from the window is being diffused to help blown out highlights while a golden reflector is filling in shadows and giving the picture ambiance and the feel there may be a fire to sit by off to camera left.

The set dressing matches the warm colour tones and a cozy winter feel. Post processing involved toning the image given it a warmer and almost oaky feel to it. I've also darkened the background slightly with a brush adjustment underexposing a bit more and cropping to ensure a straight image.

Changing subject, I also shot a prosecco bottle scene with grapes. I wanted the same winter warming feel and tones of decadence and indulgence. I began with building the set.

I liked the final image here, however as we've not places a skrim over the window yet there are quite hard and sharp lines where the light transitions to shadow.

The bottle is also casting a shadow onto the chopping board and the light falloff from the window causes the left side of the grapes to be slightly underexposed.

You can see very obvious and clear reflections you couldn't before due to the glasswares design and both bottle and glass having a round, tapered shape.

In this image I've jumped straight to the set-up I had previously with the Jack Daniels set. I've diffused the window and added the reflector to provide a side light which casts an interesting shine on the bottle and helps with the light fall off with the grapes.

The skrim has helped someone with the reflections however you can now see the curved glass is still reflecting everything within the room.

I sort out advice from Holly on the issue, we tried experimenting with several different ways of rearranging the scrim material, doubling it up and moving it closer to and further from the window.

However, the issue remained and, though a north facing wall was used, the sun was setting and we lost light before solving the problem.

Here is what I feel is the best image of the day.

The reflections remain and I noticed a fingerprint is present on the bottle. I do overall like the image, the tone and theme fit my plan and I learned a lot about how controlling ambient light can be difficult for particularly when photographing reflective surfaces.

I posted this image on social media along with my final Jack Daniels image and received advice from Richy Leeson regarding the shadows. He suggesting placing the scrim from backdrop to camera to wrap around the glass.

I didn't have the studio time, but asked to use the studio alongside someone else and quickly was able to try this out and capture the following image the next day.

The result, after polishing the glassware, is a less distracting reflection however there wasn't enough scrim material to completely surround the set to remove all of them. By this time also, the decorations had been handled so much they look messy and uneven. However I feel if shooting this again, I would be more successful.

Here's a link to a gallery to see all the images regarding this shoot: https://adobe.ly/2ECr0OX