Thanks in advance for all your advice on this... so I was assigned to photograph light pole banners that were recently installed. They start at about 6 ft above the ground, so the perspective is challenging to deal with. I'm also wondering what kind of lighting setup would work well. I'm thinking lighting it form the bottom would be easy and look good, but if other people have experience doing this sort of thing I"m open to suggestions. Attached is a shot of the poles and banners that I'm working with.
I did a "self-assignment" of similar banners, flags, signpots, etc. at Walt Disney World in Orlando, and the Seattle Center in Seattle a few years ago. (Sorry, no examples. The files are on my old laptop that crashed a few months ago, and I haven't rescued them yet.)
I found that the further away I was, using a telephoto, the better they looked to my eye. If I was too close, I was looking up at them, and the perspective distortion looked odd. Telephoto also allowed for distance compression that allowed me to line up multiple banners in a row along one street for one of the shots.
I just shot them at various times of the day under the ambient light. The camera was on a tripod for all of them.
If obstacles prevent using telephoto lenses from a distance, you could use a normal lens from closer, and use a ladder to get the lens axis centered on the center of the banner.
I see two problems with lighting them from the ground. First, fall-off might make one end too much brighter than the other. Second, we are used to seeing objects lit from above (the sun, most artificial lights), and so lighting from the bottom might look "odd."
If you can't shoot using available light only, you might want to mount a strobe on a tall light stand and place it so that its light is coming from the same side as, and the same or nearly the same height as, the light on the pole. That would blend the strobe light naturally with the existing light, and so look perceptually "real."
If you only need to document them, I'd find a ladder and get up to the same level as them. That way you eliminate the need for PC corrections later, and you will get a different viewpoint on the surroundings and background than you would by standing on the ground.
If you want something more creative, then you'll need to go out at various times and see what they look like in various conditions.
What I might do is try to find someone identifiable with each area to stand underneath each sign and tie them to that banner. ie: For the college banner you posted, maybe have one of the sports teams or a group that the college is known for to pose with it. If you are only doing banners for the school, then you have a chance to feature many different groups that might not otherwise get exposure.
Regarding perspective the underlying cause and effect of avoiding distortion is a function of keeping the sensor plane parallel with the pole — unless you have a Tilt/Shift lens which is something you might want to consider renting for this assignment.
To keep the sensor plane parallel with the pole without a T/S you need to either shoot from far enough away to keep the camera level and fit the subject into the frame, or raise the POV of the camera to about the middle of the pole for a wide shot of the entire pole to be able to keep it in the frame and free from distortion. For a close-up of just the banner filling the frame at capture you would ideally want the lens axis in the middle of the banner and the sensor perfectly square to it, as if copying artwork with a camera. The simpler approach would be to put the camera at the height were the lens axis is in the middle of the banner then use different lenses for the wide and and close-up shots, requiring some cropping in PP for the wide shot but eliminating the need to move the camera position. You'll want to use a lens without any visible anastigmatic correction (i.e. the edge stretching seen in UWA images).
Something I do when I need a taller shooting platform is to attach my tripod ball head to a 1/4"-20 bolt counter-sunk into a board and "A" clamped to the top of a ladder , turning it into a "quad-pod". I used it most recently to shoot a golf course from a higher than normal POV... http://super.nova.org/TP/LadderPod.jpg
The more attention you pay to consistency at capture, the less PP correction you'll need to do. If the poles are all identical the ladder-as-tripod approach would have the advantage of keeping the POV more consistent shot-to-shot if you keep the base of the ladder at the same level as the base of the pole and the same distance from it shot-to-shot.
As for the lighting the two concerns are dealing with contrast and fitting scene to sensor and given the assignment, would be keeping the lighting consistent shot-to-shot. Since the banners are likely oriented a variety of directions to the sun what I'd suggest is shooting them on a overcast day which will make it easier the fit the scene to sensor without the need for supplemental flash and minimize differences in light direction.
If you do shoot in direct sun putting the sun behind and flash in front would produce nice 3D modeling with the sun rim lighting the pole and banner. In front with the flash the main concern would be avoiding reflections from the flash on the banner, which may be difficult where it is wrinkled and the flash hits a curved surface rather than a flat one as seen near the bottom in your rest shot.
Thanks, Chuck and Dave for your suggestions. I'm going to try the ladder approach with my 14-24 at midday when it's a bit overcast (a great idea from Chuck). I'll post the results here to show y'all what it's looking like.
Caveat regarding your plan: As I mentioned previously, with your UWA 12-24 you may get undesirable anastigmatic stretching distortion on the long dimension of the frame. It might not be a problem if you shoot in landscape mode but will distort the pole in portrait mode. Shooting from further away with something longer like a 50mm would eliminate that problem.
+1 @ longer lens (distortion) and ladder (keystoning) to get "midway" up.
Also, if you can get your hands on a "shift" lens (i.e. rent, buy, borrow) for the duration of the project, it could make life a lot simpler, i.e. tall tripod & shifted lens could negate the need for a ladder.
RustyBug wrote:
Also, if you can get your hands on a "shift" lens (i.e. rent, buy, borrow) for the duration of the project, it could make life a lot simpler, i.e. tall tripod & shifted lens could negate the need for a ladder.
There's a big difference between shooting from below and correcting with a shift lens and shooting with the lens at the same height as the center of the banner, which I think would be preferable.
I had an assignment to photograph a 10 story piece of equipment at a kaolin mine. I could have photographed it from the ground with a view camera and raised the front element, but I conferred with the art director and we decided it would be better if it was photographed from halfway up. I rented a crane and suspended a small platform (with cursory railings) and I shot it from 50 up. Since I'm slightly acrophobic, it was an exciting assignment!
Why Dmac ... that almost sounds like you took a technical image.
+1 @ midway up is ideal ... but, starting from 5 or 6 feet up and adding a little shift for a lamp pole is quite different from shooting a 10 story structure. Ladder or shift, both should work fine.
essphoto wrote:
AH! Sorry, I meant to include you too Brian. Thank you ALL.
It's okay. Just because I was the FIRST ONE to mention ladders and perspective distortion and everything...no need to include me... No, it's no big deal...really. [Sniffle] I'll just go now. [Sniffle]
If I think I cant get where I want to be I will often take my monopod and my remote and then I can stand where I am safe or wont get arrested or shot or hit by something heavy moving very fast.
Then I have 6 feet of extension and dont have to bring a TS lens or a ladder. I do have both and think they are good suggestions tho.
I've got a ball head on my monopod ... makes it easy to adjust your angle/position (if needed), so you just learn to be consistent at keeping the pod vertical (kinda reminds me of a seal balancing a ball).
I've done it with both long cable release or via timer. I just look pretty dorky when I'm doing it ... but hey, I look dorky doing just about anything, anyway.
