Quickie light panel
Ever wanted to do a quick product shot and just didn’t want to pull out a bunch of equipment? I wanted to photograph a couple holiday ornaments. They’d be great for greeting cards or something similar and I wanted a white background. so I could get the following images without a lot of Photoshop time:
These are quick, I spent almost no time in Photoshop and this was the quick setup I used. Just a paper towel roll wrapped around a soda bottle and a remotely triggered flash behind the paper towels.
The Photography Tip of the Week #089
Modify Flash
089 Photography Tip of the Week (audio)
This is my last tip in my series of the basics of flash. In many respects this should have been the first tip, however I thought it best to be last. If you’ve kept up with my previous tips you know several ways to modify the flash, I’m just going to give you some more. It is rare that the basic flash attached to your camera will continue to give you great results in every lighting condition. Even as advanced as our camera bodies get, the flash doesn’t give you a lot of creative control as is. So you have to modify the light. Here are the common ways of light modification. Keep in mind, unless you add more lights to the scene, modifying existing flash units will reduce the amount of light hitting your subject. So you will have to take that into consideration when modifying your light sources.
- Light diffusion – This includes anything you put over the flash to change the look from a simple napkin, to a colored gel or munchie bag, to an umbrella. These all diffuse and/or modify the color of the light.
- Light direction – This includes any positioning of the flash with respect to the camera from bouncing the flash off the ceiling or remotely triggering the flash.
- Light shaping – This is anything you do to change the size or shape of the light. This can be done by using an umbrella or lightbox to make the light bigger to wrapping something around the flash to keep it from spreading.
I’d like to give you a quick example of light shaping. This first image of our vase shows using an umbrella off the side to create a diffuse light source. This in effect makes the flash bigger and allows the light to wrap around the subject. This is a very nice light and great for portraits or anything you want to light relatively evenly but still show some dimension.
But with a single sheet of paper and gaffers or painters tape we can quickly change our flash into a shaped diffuse light source. In this image you can see the possibilities. The light will be very different depending on the length of paper, color of paper, or even areas you black out on the paper.
You can simply use the flash to the side to make a light source that creates a strong sense of dimension. The amount of light that comes through the paper is far less than what would come through an umbrella, so you will have to compensate for that with flash power or distance.
Or you can put the flash overhead for a very dramatic effect. There are a great many possibilities in just a single sheet of paper and appropriate light placement.
The Photography Tip of the Week #088
Get a Slave (Flash)
088 Photography Tip of the Week (audio)
This tip is one of the best kept secrets of photography. In fact is such a big a secret I often forget it more than I remember. For under $30 you can get a flash that automatically fires when it sees another flash. A slave flash. It doesn’t have a lot of complicated controls, you just turn it on and go. It works with every camera that fires a flash, even point-and-shoot cameras. I often use it behind my subject as a rim light or above as a hair light. It’s also great for illuminating a back wall or any dark area in your scene that just needs more light.
In this second image there is a slave flash behind the model about a meter or so pointed up at about a 45 degree angle. This fills in the background to complete the wrapping effect and make the subject standout. This added separation allows us more flexibility in the photo. It’s a pretty reasonable image as is, but now the subject is more defined we can do a few quick things in Photoshop. In order to do the darkening and blurring of the background in Photoshop took me about 30 seconds. A simple selection was all I needed to separate the subject from the background.
Even if you don’t want to do editing in an image manipulation program like Photoshop, slave flashes are an inexpensive way to add lights throughout your scene.
The Photography Tip of the Week #086
Reflect the Flash
086 Photography Tip of the Week (audio)
Last week the flash tip was about bouncing the flash off a ceiling and a bounce card which is great if you are photographing on the run. If you have a bit more setup time, get something that you can position close to your subject to reflect the flash. The local hardware store has large styrofoam sheets that have a silver reflective surface for about $10. They are light, reasonably sturdy and if they get messed up it’s not a big loss. The basic and most often use is to have your reflector just out of frame. Remember that inverse square law? You don’t want the light from your flash to have to travel too far to reflect back on your subject. The idea here is to have enough light surrounding your subject to fill in the dark shadows. The reflected light won’t be as powerful so you don’t have to worry about the flash doing even lighting everywhere.
My first image has the flash on the right with a reflector on the left. In this case the flash was stopped down to -2. There was enough ambient light that all I needed the flash to do is fill in the shadows.
The second image is what’s typically called clam shell lighting. You often do this with two lights, but if you are using a reflective surface you can easily perform the look with just one flash suspended from overhead. This creates a nice rim light and creates a classic beauty look.
This final image shows that you don’t have to use the reflector to encompass the whole scene. You can use the edge to create a dramatic look. In this image I increased the power of the flash to overdrive the ambient light since we were in a well lit room.
I hope that you’ll reflect a bit on this and start reflecting your flash a bit more.
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The Photography Tip of the Week #085
Why up? Most indoor facilities have a ceiling, if not they would be outdoors. A lot of those ceilings are white. When your flash hits that white ceiling it becomes a large diffuse light source. Depending on the height of the ceiling and the power of your flash you will have fairly even light that surrounds your subject(s). This will get you a more natural look than just having the flash pointed forward as well as get rid of harsh shadows and dreaded red eye.
But this may not be enough. Pointing the flash up or even back will still make your images seem a bit flat. Some of that light still needs to go forward to add definition to your subject. But if your flash is pointed up, how can it go forward as well? More expensive flash units have a bounce card built in. If you have a less expensive unit, you can easily make a bounce card even if it’s not very convenient. Use a white index card, photo paper or just plain paper and attach it to your flash unit. Add gaffers tape to attach it to your flash or if that’s difficult to come by, blue painter’s tape can be found at most hardware stores. This tape is sticky but doesn’t leave a residue behind when you peel it off within a few days.
You will have to get used to using your flash this way. In essence it turns your single flash into two light sources, the big overhead light and a small forward facing light. In most cases you’ll have to increase the power so it can light up the scene. Remember last weeks tip about the inverse square law? That definitely applies in this situation. But once you master this technique, you should be able to photograph many indoor events with ease.
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I am a top photographer in the Mocksville, North Carolina Professional Photographers guide on MarketingTool.com.
