Brilliant idea and photo. On close inspection it is possible to notice a soft shadow caused by the black flag on the wide shot in the D100 and gold boxes photo.

The Duelling Pistols....

Unlike my other work I spend a long time composing this shot where previously I was too eager to get to the flash challenge. I must have spend 30 minutes trying different compositions.

Pic1 shows undiffused flash pointing directly at the subject, not pretty! Diffusion was going to be key to this shot and through experimentation I managed to get something near with a soft shadow from the RHS pistol on its side onto the book. To reduce/eliminate this I used SB-600 with diffuser through an AP diffuser pointing upward so only a small contribution to overall exposure as made (pic2). Pic3 shows how light was reflected directly, not diffused toward the main subject. The reflector made the light source much bigger illuminating gently without shadow the entire photo. Pic4 is the finished article and can also be viewed in the still life gallery.

Stephen,
Picture 2 shows a good example that although you are using flash you can effectivly control the amount of light you get, and are not limited to its full output.

Picture 3 is great as it really demonstrates a bit of lateral thinking. A method of triggering the SB600, and providing a large area light source.

In the final image lots of detail has been retained in the yellow cloth, and the exposure front to back on the white page is excellent.

Those copies you bought, of Amateur Photographer with the free reflector offer have certainly paid off. :D

Don

Using Black Flags in the Manfrotto 701RC2 shoot.
 

In the image of the internals of the 701 head I wanted to concentrate the viewers attention on the vane and counterbalance spring. To do that a good degree of flash falloff towards the back was required. As the subject was only 12 inches front to back, I could only acheive the effect by limiting the amount of light reaching the back of the scene. This was done with black card, see attatched pic and graphic.

The main light was a large diffused flash. A second undiffused unit was set to graze the surface to give some texture and fill light. Its angle and power were controlled to limit its light getting to the back of the scene.

Don

Calming reflections....

Before photographing the Spitfire ashtray I racked my mind for ideas to calm shadows, ideally a light tent would be used but in absence of such equipment decided to use.... a white bin liner :o

With an assistant holding the huge diffuser/reflector I took the spitfire shot which has calmed reflections of Mosquito/Hornet (still undecided!) but flattened any interesting highlights and shadows from the Spitfire fuselage and wing area.

Below is the assistant and bin liner with end result.

Stephen,

I think the white bin liner has added its own reflection, which being white, has given the effect of dulling the polished surfaces. If you don't mind I would like to post a composite with the Mossie to try and explain.

Don

Feel free....:)

Thanks Stephen,

I will try to do this in PS8, this machine does not like PSP7 which I normally use. It may therefore take a while.

Don

Finally made it Stephen.

Graphic not quite up to usual standard. I have put most of the info in the graphic as easily printed.

In essence its a case of looking at all the surfaces and working out what lit them. This is a case of adding controlled reflections to bring out the shape. Be prepared to spend a bit of time as there will be a fair degree of experimentation. Adequate reward required for your assistant. :D

I have added your Mossie pic as it is easier to reference here rather than a gallery link.

Don

Behind the scenes of PC Remote Control of Camera
 

Today I had a more serious play with remote control of the camera using a laptop.

In the past I have used a 2 1/2 x workshop magnifier to assess a picture I have taken. Quite often when the image is downloaded onto the pc I find flaws, and have to reshoot. The idea here was to down load images direct to the pc and view them full screen nearly immediately.

I attatch a marked up first shot to show what would not have been visible at the time of taking the picture.

Lighting for this was quite easy as the attached image shows. After the first shot which was taken as a flash exposure of 1/160 sec. I had to remove the reflector as it created an unwanted highlight and reduce shutter speed to 1/15 sec to allow a bit of light from the door to fill in the shadow from the collet ( shiny object bottom right of picture )

Further details are in the ' Camera Remote Control through a PC ' thread.

Don