Part 4 Light–Project: Photographic Lighting 2

Exercise: Contrast and shadow fill: This exercise will demonstrate how you can control the contrast with photographic lighting by using reflectors.

This still life was set up as described in the course notes, i.e. with a light to one side of the object and the camera at 90º and on the same level as the object. I chose to photograph some china which was highly glazed. This has given a lot of highly defined reflections which are a bit distracting. All photographs had these camera settings.  Manual 1/125s 32mm ISO100 WB: flash. The f stop for each exposure is noted at the top of the frame with the type and quality of reflector used

8085: f16 No diffuser, no reflector

8088: f11 diffuser, no reflector

8089: f11 White reflector at 1m

8090: f11 White reflector at 0.5m

8091: f11 Foil reflector – dull side

8092: f11 Foil reflector – shiny side

8094: f11 Crumpled foil – shiny side

Conclusion: The effect of ‘shadow fill’ reflectors can clearly be seen on the shadow below the left side of the plate. From the initial shot with no reflector of diffuser, the shadow is deep and contrasts against the pale table top. The introduction of the white card at differing distances and the aluminium foil, dull shiny and crumpled (the effect can be very subtle here) has gradually decreased the depth and contrast of this shadow as to virtually eliminate it. The positioning of smaller reflectors (I use polystyrene blocks) could also soften the other shadows if required.

Exercise: Concentrating the light: I have demonstrated the effect of concentrating the light from a flash unit by using a honeycomb snoot which produces narrower and more diffused pool of light.

8116: 1/125s f13 48mm ISO100WB: flash

Exercise: Shiny surfaces. The objective here is to construct a light tent with tracing paper to photograph a highly reflective object using studio lighting.

8125 f11	8126 f11

First I photographed the inside and outside of this polished stainless steel dish without a light tent to show the extent of the highlights.

8127: f11	8128: f11

I then repeated the shots with a tracing paper funnel round the object and lens. Unfortunately, I had only a small amount of tracing paper so the camera could still be seen in the reflection as I couldn’t roll it around the barrel of the lens.
I then set up something I had tried before, a light tent made with a background support pole. two lighting stands and a cotton bedsheet:

I then photographed the stainless steel balti dish again, with and without the light tent and got  better results. Camera settings: 1/125s f13 40mm ISO200 WB: flash

8224: without light tent

8220: with light tent

Conclusion: The very intense highlights have been eliminated by the extra diffusion of  the tent. In this example, the reflection of the camera lens is restricted to a small shadow on the base of the bowl which is much less obvious.