BrittMcT wrote:
Studio construction still in progress but getting closer. This is after the 2 phase of install and construction. Just finished painting and hardwood floors. Next phase, built in cabinets and desk unit along wall to right of this image.
garyroach- there is no thing quite like the Elfman, true
but, Dr Bongo D on a Bobatundi Olatunji memorial Ngoma drum on a full moon in Playa Negra, Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, Costa Rica accompanying the Playa Negra Social Club a whole nother thing- come on down, Pura Vida!
_______
I have found a small rolling cart like this craftsman to be most helpful in my little studio. I use it to store those little things you always need. And for all those batteries of different sizes and different chargers- it functions as a charging station. I pull it over to the shoot, and I'm charged.
The second set up was in the kitchen area of my studio, wanted some slow shutter water flowing photography but the tap was way too slow and the water not choppy enough..
I'm not sure if I'm seeing this correctly but it looks like you lifted all the products up using a plane of dark glass (i'm assuming it's glass) then lit the underlying floor or board?
Ervine, not not exactly. What you are seeing is the objects sitting on a sheet of smoked glass, there is nothing under it but the floor 3 feet below.
What you see in the glass that looks like a sheet of board is actually the reflection of the lightform panel above with the the light shooting through it. The material used for difussion is a sheet of drafting velum so there is no pattern or texture to it.
The light is actually about a foot behind the product. I shot down on the product at just the right angle to view the reflection of the glowing paper which is what you see in the final photo. That is not a light from below but actually a reflection from above. I used a stripdome in the front, kind of hard to see, to illuminate the actual product.
I could have used a light from below and shined it up to create the light area under my product but then I would have to be very careful how I lit my products or that light would get washed out. In the case of the reflection I can put all the light I want on the subject from pretty much any angle to light it without worrying about contaminating the glowing area beacuse that is based on the angle of incidence from the light above the panel. By moving the light up and down in relation to the panel I can soften or harden the edge of the glow, by moving the whole panel up or down I can increase or decrease the size of the glowing area.
All that other stuff around the set was used to block out the light from the skylight above. I used 3 each 7 foot lightform panels with black cloth to make sort of a tent, then attached some black velvet i had as the front flap over the camera to further shield and ambient light or reflections. Had I shot at night this would not have been required.
Give it a try sometime, you don't even have to use smoked glass if the area below is kept dark enough.
Ervine, here is a shot that I took many years ago on film with a 4x5 camera making the glow from below. I had to be very careful how I lit this or the glow would wash out.
Actually it was done with multiple exposures, The subject was floating above the same smoked glass as you see in the previous picture, under it was a sheet of white translucent acrylic sheet. The gelled strobe was below that aiming up to give the glow patern I wanted. The initial exposure of the electronic device was made with a sheet of black velvet covering the glass so there would be no reflections in it. The shutter was left open during these exposures and the flash was popped to make the exposure. With the shutter still open I turned off the strobes used to light the unit and turned on the strobe underneath and gave it a series of 9 pops to build exposure to the right saturation. Once completed I closed the shutter and developed the film, what you see is what is on the film, no Photoshop. Now it is much easier just to put in a glow after the fact, but when they want it on film sometimes you have to go the old route.
Great technique! I'm actually going in the opposite direction starting with digital and now moving into LF film so I'm trying as much as possible to learn how to get everything right in camera alone which I have come to realise is much much more difficult than it looks.
Thanks for the advice, now I just need to practice more..
Bump for a great thread and first post. Thanks to everyone for sharing their techniques. What a wonderful wealth of information. I'm going to be incredibly broke very soon and will be sure to post studio progress.
I will be finishing the studio this weeked with custom built cabinets and desk... 18 feet long. I also have two more AlienBee strobes (1600 & 800) with some more accessories on the way too.
I noticed that in my of my posts, the links to the embedded images were broken. I went in and fixed as many as I could find, so that now, the images show up.
If you happen to find any more posts of mine where the images don't show anymore, please PM me with the thread URL and I'll get the links repaired.
