[Don Hoey]

With a bit of sun about I decided to take a picture of the Nikon F3. The background was to ring the changes from others I have used. The 1.4 lens that I have used on other pictures was used, as it has a large set of elements, and I could get a decent reflection to counteract the black of the camera.

The key light for this was daylight and the flash units were used to add a reflection on the lens and the front left side of the camera. To make the flash light source appear as large as possible 2 flashguns were fired through a Lastolite reflector.

Exposure was manual so a light reading was taken in manual mode 1/8 sec at f16. The flashguns were turned to 1/4 power and moved relative to the subject to get the light balance right.

If you look at the picture you will see mention of ' black flags '. To bounce light back into the subject I placed 2 reflectors to the left and overhead. To limit the reflections pieces of black card were used to mask the reflectors. As the camera bag is quite a light colour it would have been slightly overexposed without this. If you look at the F3 @ 2 PM picture you can see how the side of the bag disappears into shadow.

Two pictures are here to show the change in colour temperature of the light. White balance was left on auto for both pictures. The first picture F3 @ 2 PM was taken at 2 PM. I decided to leave the set up and returned just before 3 PM when I took the second picture F3 @ 3PM. Removing the lens cap to get rid of a long shadow, and slight repositioning to get the light filling in the base of the motor drive.

Don