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Go Back   World Photography Forum > Photography Technique > Flash Photography Technique


Flash - Behind the scenes

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  #11  
Old 31-12-05, 22:00
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Stephen Fox
Any homemade tips on how I can improve the catch lights in James's eyes?
In this image the catch light is not distacting. If were to view at high mag you may think otherwise but then any correction would probably make it worse.

As you are now playing with your new toys I mention it as some thing to look for, and be aware of at the time you are taking the pictures.

The greater the quality of an image the more lack of attention to small details will show.

You would be amazed at what the viewers eye can record, and yours not, without you being aware. I have seen some portraits that the photographer took with a ring light as an easy solution to shadow free light. Very high quality printing and super presentation, he was dead chuffed. For all the effort he put in he did not look at the eyes. The ring flash effect was quite disturbing.

Said nothing !!

Don
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  #12  
Old 01-01-06, 15:41
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I just thought I would show the kitchen roll diffuser as used on the photo. As a reference I have attached the photo again.

I took one piece of regular kitchen roll and folded in half, then looped the long side over the flash and taped.

I caught it in output state to show how the light is diffused.
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File Type: jpg jamesandphonedualflash311205wpf.jpg (275.0 KB, 14 views)
File Type: jpg kitchentoweldiffuser.jpg (110.2 KB, 35 views)
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  #13  
Old 02-01-06, 16:51
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with the addition of a still life gallery and Don's superb tutorial into diffusion I thought I would have a go.

After a few attempts at reducing shadows and flash reflection on the piece I can up with......

How it was done follows......
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File Type: jpg Popstankardforum.jpg (105.1 KB, 35 views)
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  #14  
Old 02-01-06, 17:17
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Setup in the kitchen with fluorescent lighting under cupboards and on the ceiling I put all lights ON. Using three sheets of white A3 paper I setup a makeshift studio in the corner of the worktops. The remote SB-600 flash was fitted with the kitchen roll diffuser as above to the right. A bit of fooling around with bounce flash with the on camera SB-800 led me to blasting as much light at the back of the makeshift studio to wash any shadow. Blasting light at a shiney object only causes serious reflection so...

Using two sheets of kitchen roll placed about 15cm in front of both flashes reduced any shine but kept the illumination. Using my left hand to control the camera and right to hold the kitchen roll sheet was difficult and I really needed an assistant. The secondary diffuser stood up on it edge in front of the SB-600 due to the curvature of the roll.

The photo is in the still life gallery and if you look carefully it is possible to see my arm on the rear rim edge, the other yellow and blue colours on the bottom lip are a rogue tile and the backdoor window (bluey colour as it was taken near dusk)

Hope you enjoy the photo I certainly did taking it.....

Part II follows
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  #15  
Old 02-01-06, 20:39
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Part II

The Motorbike,

The method is exactly the same as above just a bit more experimentation with the correct bounce and flash output - notice the real soft shadows from the exhaust pipes and tyres.

The makeshift kitchen studio can be seen below and also is finished version of the motorbike photograph.

The Photograph can also be seen in the still life gallery.
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File Type: jpg pops motorbikeforum.jpg (137.5 KB, 30 views)
File Type: jpg method.jpg (131.6 KB, 35 views)
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  #16  
Old 02-01-06, 22:44
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Very impressive Stephen.

I was doing my post when Norton detected an attack and cut my net connection. Will finish that then come back for a proper look.

Don
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  #17  
Old 02-01-06, 23:25
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Default Behind the scenes of the Nikkormat shot.

Following yesterdays visit to WPF, I woke this morning with thoughts of shiny things. Stephen had mentioned having a go at photographing very shiny things, one of the things that is very difficult to photograph. Reflections everywhere. So for a first effort Stephens picture is very good. Another topic to post here. I am going to have to think about this one and how to do it with limited kit. This will be a case of making a light tent. Probably a circular frame using stiff wire that can support white kitchen roll. Cut a hole for the lens and fire the flash through the tissued sides careful to exclude the wire frame. All reflections apart from the lens will then be of the tissue. With careful positioning we should be able to do a fair job.

However my brain went off on a tangent today, but shiny surfaces were what gave me the idea.

I am unlucky in that I have not got a piece of glass which would provide a sharper reflection, but I have an offcut of perspex that I used for the windows of my lean-to. From my darkroom days I have some 12 x 16 Black/Grey mounting boards. For the purpose here glass and black velvet would have produced far sharper reflections.

Black velvet absorbs the light but black card reflects a lot back. When you look at the reflection in the image you will see 2 distinct reflections. The one from the top surface that I wanted and another off the bottom surface that glass and black velvet would not give. Proffessionals would use gloss black acrylic for a job like this.

This job is totally different from the others I have posted. With them it was a case of making the light as large as possible for makimum diffusion. For this stray reflections would be very obvious and not what was wanted. So black card was used to shield the subject. For the same reason only one light could be used. This could have been done with a portable flash fired through a diffuser. For that I would have needed an assistant, but as I have a studio unit my assistant did a bit of tidying in the garden.

The set up.

Black card with a piece of perspex on top. Perspex is a pain as unlike glass attracts everything. I nearly spent more time in Paint Shop getting rid of it than taking the picture.

Position the camera. For this it needed to be well above to get the reflection.

Decide on how to light it. - In this case as much directly overhead as my workshop layout would allow.

View the subject from the camera angle and use black card to get rid of each reflection you can see. Knowing where your light will come from stops you masking that area.

I used my camera flash to trigger the main light. If you look at the setup picture you will see it is directed away from the subject. It was also on 1/4 power so as not to have any impact on the exposure.

Exposure is a bit of trial and error as you have to set the camera manually. I did some stuff yesterday for the Macro thread so started at f16 and ended up at f22.

A trial set of pictures and then onto the computer. Even a x 2 1/2 magnifier on the review screen does not show enough info. A look at the best image from the test shoot showed that I needed to improve the reflections in the lens to give it more life. Also I noticed the colour cast was a lot cooler than on yesterdays pictures. I have attatched that image for you to compare.

For the final shot I changed the lens to a favoured portrait lens of yesteryear that I used yesterday and has a warmer tone. ( I am not a digital darkroom buff and so it was just easier. ) I also changed the position of the light and introduced the reflector to add reflection to the lens. The reflector was angled upwards so no reflections would appear on the perspex.

The test picture gives an indication of how much light is reflected back by the card.

As this is an advertising sort of picture you could have a go with mobile phone or any sort of gadget. Its all about creating a super glossy ' buy me ' image.

The first of the attached pictures shows the set up, the second the view from the camera, the third is the test shot and lastly the final result.

Don

PS Hurrah ... Kept loosing my connection while trying to post this.
Attached Images
File Type: jpg Nikkormat_Behind the scenes.jpg (35.8 KB, 29 views)
File Type: jpg Nikkormat_from camera position.jpg (33.9 KB, 26 views)
File Type: jpg Nikkormat test with Nikkor 80 to 200 f2.8.jpg (74.9 KB, 26 views)
File Type: jpg Nikkormat final with Nikkor 105 f2.5.jpg (81.7 KB, 31 views)

Last edited by Don Hoey; 02-01-06 at 23:28.
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  #18  
Old 03-01-06, 16:24
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I thought this attached screenshot may be of interest, especially when photographing white flowers.

This is a 1-1 flower macro of an unknown variety, which bloomed New Years day, each little flower measuring appox 10mm dia. the photo is uncropped.

Lens to subject being approx 100mm.
Equipment
Canon 300D + Canon 100mm f/2.8 macro lens.

Sigma EF-500 DG ST flash attached to camera, with paper kitchen towelling to diffuse flash.

Sigma EF 500 Super + Omni-Bounce (used as slave) hand held at approx 700mm distance @ 10 o'clock whith several sheets of white A4 placed on my worktop as a reflector for the handheld flash.

Black card for backdrop.

Harry
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File Type: jpg screen grab.jpg (154.2 KB, 28 views)
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  #19  
Old 03-01-06, 18:10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Stephen Fox
I just thought I would show the kitchen roll diffuser as used on the photo. As a reference I have attached the photo again.

I took one piece of regular kitchen roll and folded in half, then looped the long side over the flash and taped.

I caught it in output state to show how the light is diffused.
Stephen be very careful with the kitchen towelling, I initially taped the towelling in position and finished up with a nasty burn mark inside the flash head, since then I just drape it over the flash or hold it an inch or so away from the head.


Harry
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  #20  
Old 03-01-06, 18:20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wolfie
Stephen be very careful with the kitchen towelling, I initially taped the towelling in position and finished up with a nasty burn mark inside the flash head, since then I just drape it over the flash or hold it an inch or so away from the head.


Harry
Wolfie,

Thanks for that, you're right I could feel the heat from the on-camera flash when I did the still life photos when holding a piece of kitchen roll. The kitchen roll diffuser will be modified!

Luckilly I have been using the SB-600 (with kitchen towel diffuser at -1 compensation) and I dont think their is any damage but better to be safe than sorry.

Cheers
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