Shiny surfaces

This exercise looked at dealing with the challenge of photographing objects with surfaces that reflect brightly - a problem that I've experienced on a number of occasions previously but not worked how to achieve a decent result. I chose a brass lid placed on the floor to photograph and set up a tripod and a light positioned close to the camera. I took a couple of photographs for reference:

P401:  f36 @ 1/3sec  ISO 3200  55mm - side light

P402: f36 @ 1/3sec  ISO 3200  55mm - overhead light

I then created a cone out of tracing paper and fixed the tapering end around the lens of the camera. The difference that this made to the resulting photographs was significant:

P403: f5.6 @ 1/3sec  ISO 3200  55mm

The cone did reduce the reflection significantly but to my mind the lid became flatter and lost some interest so I experimented further by moving the position and angle of the light to see if this added anything to the image:

P404 : f36 @ 1/3sec  ISO 3200  55mm  +  side light

P405:  f36 @ 1/sec  ISO 3200  55mm + light in front 

In P405 above the lighting revealed some texture which I quite liked.

P406: f36 @ 1/3sec  ISO 3200  55mm + light in front @ 45 degree angle 

P407: f36 @ 1/3sec  ISO 3200 + light above at 45 degree andle down from the left

In P406 and P407, the lighting is more intrusive..in P406 it reveals some texture on the handle and some shadow whereas in P406 the glare from the light source distracts..

Contrast and shadow fill

Again the idea here is to experiment with a still life with the light to the left at the level of the object and at right angles to the camera's view to see the impact of different approaches on contrast and shadow fill.The light and the camera remained unchanged throughout the series of photographs. The images are in order of contrast :




P395: f5.6 @ 1/6 ISO 100 24mm

In the above image ( P395), the shiny side of the foil replaced the dull version and produced the greatest difference.



P397 : f5.6 @ 1/6 ISO 100 24mm

Lastly, for the final image taken , ( P397 ), I crumpled the shiny foil, then smoothed it out and place it against the reflector






P394: f5.6 @ 1/8 ISO 100 24mm

For P394 above I covered the white reflector with some foil ( the dull surface facing the object



P393: f5.6 @ 1/5 ISO 100 24mm

The white reflector was moved half way towards the object in P393



P392: f5.6 @ 1/4sec ISO 100 24mm

In P392 above a white reflector has been placed three feet away from the object on the side opposite to the light and facing it.



P391: f5.6 @ 1/6sec ISO 100 24mm with a diffuser




P390 : f5.6 @ 1 sec  ISO 100 24mm without a diffuser










With a diffuser

Without a diffuser





The lighting angle

The following images are the results of experimenting with using a single diffusing light from different directions.

P379: f5.6 @1/10   ISO 100 30mm

P379 was lit from the side with the light at the same height of the object.

P380: f5.6 @ 1/8  ISO 100  30mm - lit from the front

P381: f5.6 @ 1/6  ISO 100  30mm

The diffused light here was placed behind the object on the left at 45 degrees.

P382: f5.6 @ 1/20  ISO 100   30mm

In P382 the lighting was placed directly behind aimed at the subject

P383: f5.6 @ 1/10  ISO 100  30mm - lit from the right side

For the following images the diffused light was raised so that it pointed down at an angle of 45 degrees.

P384:  f5.6 @ 1/8  ISO 100   30mm - lit from the right  side

P385: f5.6 @  1/13  ISO 100  30mm

P385 was lit from the front with light next to the camera just to the right.

P386 : f5.6 @ 1/6  ISO 100   30mm

In  P386, the light was placed ahead of the camera to the side at a 45 degree angle to the object.The last three images were taken with the diffused light suspended overhead pointing down.

P387: f5.6  @ 1/20  ISO 100  30mm - lit overhead but behind

P388:  f5.6  @ 1/10  ISO 100  30mm

P388 is lit overhead from slightly in front of the camera.

P389: f5.6 @ 1/4  ISO  30mm - lit overhead 

 Looking at the last three images, P388 seems to give the best 3-dimensional effect. And looking back at all of the images taken, I think that I prefer P386  as the lighting gives a good sense of the form of the object, the material and colour...a more atmospheric image.  



Softening the light

Photographic lighting is really unknown territory for me so this part of the course was particularly intriguing and I approached it very warily wondering what kind of equipment I might need.

The first part here was an exercise in softening the light. I chose a single object for the still life and used a fabric softbox as the diffused light source.

P377: f5.6 @ 1/4  ISO 100 22mm



The lighting direction for P377 was a naked light overhead pointing downwards with the soft box at the side to the left of the jug. There is a distinct shadow.

P378 : f5.6 @ 1/3  ISO 100  22mm



In P378, the naked light and soft box were in the same position but translucent material held between the naked light and object. The  exposure setting is different from P 377. The shadow has almost disappeared and the edges of the object in P378 have a slightly less sharp appearance. There is more contrast in the image where there was no translucent material between the naked light and the object. Looking at the two images I'm not sure that diffusion in this instance has improved the second image in any way.