Still learning about lighting

[JaneEyre]

I'm playing around with my new mini studio set up. I think I am having trouble with lighting, not sure.

I set up on my desk a "black 4 sided box" that I made out of poster board (I didn't have velvet fabric on hand so the background is a little reflective). I used two desk lamps on each side of the object shining away from it. I used a white poster board (hand held) to reflect that light onto the subject. I thought I would give this a try before I invest in real light/reflector set up.

I thought this method worked pretty good on geometrical objects, like wooden puzzle toys, nested dolls, etc. However, as soon as I started playing with orchids, I got mixed results. The shadows seem distracting, and the flower looks flat...

This picture was taken with tripod at f/10, 1/5, ISO 200, -2/3 stop

[Discus]

Photography literally means "drawing with light" - play around with the way the lamps are shining, try just one lamp, and move your "reflectors" around. You may also find diffusing the light by shining lamps onto the object through some white semi-transparent fabric also produces pleasing lights by acting as a "diffuser". Try different lamp-to-subject distances too!

The way you're currently lighting should lead to "flat" light quality - something a lot of people want. If you don't, it's time to mess around some more

[Ray]

You may find that a white box with a black velvet back is better. The white surfaces will reflect enough to give more overall even lighting, and the velvet background will "eat" any shadows.

[JaneEyre]

Originally Posted by Ray

You may find that a white box with a black velvet back is better. The white surfaces will reflect enough to give more overall even lighting, and the velvet background will "eat" any shadows.

That's a good idea. I will give it a try after work. Should be quick set up as I already have white poster board panels.

As Discus said, I just have to "play" with lighting.

[ChasWG]

Welcome to a long and winding path. Lighting and photography are like a hand in a well fitting glove. There is a great book you need to get and read called: "Light: Science and Magic" by Fil Hunter, Steven Biver and Paul Fuqua. It's a great read and even has some "assignments" in it for you to try.

As stated above, you might try a different set up with the posterboards, but you might also try moving the lights either closer on one side of farther away on one side to help give a "Key" and "Fill" type of lighting. Thus creating some shadows. Don't be afraid of shadows, they create depth and character in an image.

As you mature with your photogragraphic lighting you may want to move up to using flash instead of constant type lights. And then getting that flash off the camera and having it triggered either through a PC cord or a wireless trigger of some sort. Then things start to get real fun!

Here's a shot taken recently using nothing but a shaft of light coming through a greenhouse window.
Natural light and a fast lens


On Camera flash, but the power was turned way, way down. More fill than anything.


A single flash unit off camera and directly above the flower. This was a tough one: Hand held 1/60 @ f22 shot at 63mm focal range and using a 12mm extension tube behind my 24-70 f2.8L lens. Flash was mounted to a macro style flash bracket. So the whole camera assembly wieghed in at around 8 to 10 lbs.


And finally Off Camera Flash using wireless triggers and multiple flash units.


here's the set up shot for that last image just to show you what I did to create that image.


You can see that the main light is only coming from one side and that the other side has a white foamcore bounce card. The back light was in fact the background as well. It's a 2'X2' Softbox placed right behind the orchid. The size and proximity of the shoot-throu umbrella craets a huge source and give a lot of soft, wrap around light. But without the bouce board it was a touch too dark of the right side of the image. I played with that by moving it in and out until I found a placement I liked.

Hopefully that helps some.

Also, one tip: Shoot tighter! The orchid is beautiful, the pot isn't. If you don't have a lens that will allow you to get closer or crop out the parts of the scene that aren't helping, get a set of Kenko Extension Tubes from an eBay seller ($160 for a set of three) and move in closer to your blooms! I love mine and I used them in all the images except the wide set-up shot above.

Keep shooting, you'll only get better with shutter releases.

[JaneEyre]

ChasWD,

Thank you so much for such helpful post. I will definitely give that book a try. It's in my Amazon cart now ready for next purchase.

You took such stunning photos! Thank you for sharing your techniques with each shot. I am especially impressed with the daisy type flower. I don't think I can pull off 1/60 at f/22 without a tripod.

Your set up picture will be helpful. If you don't mind, I would like to try duplicating the set up as much as I can with my current equipment. I don't have diffusing umbrella but I bet I can find some diffusing white material around the house.

Thanks
:bow:

[Discus]

Originally Posted by JaneEyre

ChasWD,
I don't think I can pull off 1/60 at f/22 without a tripod.

I do this often (at f32 even). With total flash lighting, the super-short duration of the light pulse essentially stops camera motion. Of course, you'll get very slightly better pictures if you go the whole hog with tripod, mirror lock up and cable release!

On camera flash gets pretty heavy after a while, I must say!

[ChasWG]

Discus is correct, in that shot above taken at 1/60th @ f22, it was only possible with a flash with those settings. Power on the Canon 540EZ was set to 1/16th, so the very short flash duration was the stopping power to remove any camera shake. That set up that I used fore that image is a heavy one. The Canon 24-70 f2.8L is a very heavy lens. It weighs in at a touch over 2 lbs. Then add the bracket, the flash, the wireless triggers and camera body with battery grip and you have a very heavy camera. Not great for a lot of people, but I like the weight, it centers me.

I've tried using tripods, I find them just too restrictive and slow.

Jane, you are more than welcome to use whatever technique of mine you want. I'm only copying someone else's work anyway, so why not.

Off Camera Flash is a hoot and is usefull for so many things!

1/250 @ f3.2 ISO 500


1/200 @ f3.5 ISO 500


A shot of the strobes being bounced off the back wall of the gym.


A set up shot from mid court to show me the spread. The kids don't actually see the flash because it happens so fast and they are paying attention to the game. The coaches and refs don't see it either.


The point is, you need extra light to make better images sometimes. Have fun and experiment with it.

I shoot lots of different subjects.

[Amanda L]

Thanks for sharing the tips!

I have come to the conclusion that I need to take a photography class. I have been told that I have a good "eye", but I feel that I need to learn my camera better. I really don't know what a lot of the terms mean, I have looked them up but my memory fails me more than supports me. All the talk about f stops, ISO and the like make my eye twitch and I can't even begin to think about lenses. My style of shooting is play with the camera until I like what I see in the viewfinder then shoot. I try different things, but sometimes rely too heavily on the presets (cheating in my opinion), especially for action shots. Visiting the OB and seeing all the wonderful pictures make me sad and hopeful at the same time.
My biggest problem is my flash will flash repeatedly and the lens will focus and refocus when shooting in light that is not too bright. Even set to manual focus the flash will go off repeatedly. It's very frustrating and makes me miss a lot of opportunities, not to mention people get bored waiting for the camera to take the stupid picture.

[ChasWG]

The flash fires repeatedly because there isn't enough light to focus the lens. There needs to be enough light for the lens to be able to see well enough to focus. The flashing light is trying to add enough light while the camera looks for something to lock onto.

It could also be that you have it set to a 'Red Eye reduction' setting, the strobing light cause the human pupil to close down and there is like likelyhood of you getting that horrid red eye look.

First off, what lens are you using? How fast is it. What's the lowest f# on the lens? If it's f3.5 or slower it will have a really hard time focusing in dim light.

The best technique to try is to set the camera to Av mode (this controls the aperture and the camera selects the shutter speed) then you can have some measure of control and creativity with some help from the camera. You need to think about what you want in the image you are after. If you are just looking for something that is in focus and nothing more, then put the camera in P mode and look no further. The other modes are more creative.