How much do You understand light? Technical

[Scriabinesque]

softboxes are nice to use, softens bad skin and bad texture...softboxes are havoc for me, i usually remove the outer diffuser if i have to use one. i love direct sun gently softened by haze...or just the blazing sun shining through the blue. natural contrast, to compensate for my propensity to shoot on low contrast.

 

[lsisaxon]

That looks like the light came mainly from the back, kinda like almost directly going by the shadow on the table, whereas Sara's seems a lot more side, rear-side, or even side-frontal. Hmm...did that make sense?

Up to you where you want to put yourself and the subject relative to the light source.. Yes. It seems quite a lot of her shots are side-frontal. Good with 3D objects because it uses the tonal gradations to show the shape. You cannot achieve this if you used direct frontal lighting. Everything will look flat unless you control your light very well.. I just updated with 2 more images.

 

[Dream Merchant]

Scriabinesque, do you have any shots so I can have a better idea of what you just described? Low contrast ... sounds interesting!

 

[lsisaxon]

softboxes are nice to use, softens bad skin and bad texture...softboxes are havoc for me, i usually remove the outer diffuser if i have to use one. i love direct sun gently softened by haze...or just the blazing sun shining through the blue. natural contrast, to compensate for my propensity to shoot on low contrast.

Shoot first and adjust the levels later. ;p

 

[Dream Merchant]

Isisaxon, I think I may be getting an idea of what you're referring to.

I am looking at my window light as I type. Even tho the light is diffused, it's still 'hard'. I was thinking...what if I put up tracing paper on the windows? That would diffuse it more, but it might not change the ratio of highlights and shadow, so reflectors and fills seem to still be crucial, no?

 

[An drew]

This is getting more and more interesting, thanks to the contributions!

Yeah, yeah... show some pics to illustrate...thanx

 

[lsisaxon]

Isisaxon, I think I may be getting an idea of what you're referring to.

I am looking at my window light as I type. Even tho the light is diffused, it's still 'hard'. I was thinking...what if I put up tracing paper on the windows? That would diffuse it more, but it might not change the ratio of highlights and shadow, so reflectors and fills seem to still be crucial, no?

You'd be surprise. Because of the scattering you would get light from different directions. What you can do, take an apple or a similar fruit and shart shooting with and without the tracing paper or curtain and see the difference. Also wait for strong sunlight and cloudy diffused light conditions. Shoot from different angles and you'll see the difference.

It can even be done with a PnS on automatic mode, just got to switch off the flash. ;p

 

[Dream Merchant]

Hmm...might be a bit difficult to do the strong sunlight/diffused one as it seems perpectually cloudy/rainy these past few days. Gonna do the 1-12 o'clock still life study with apples tomorrow and see what transpires.

 

[lsisaxon]

Hmm...might be a bit difficult to do the strong sunlight/diffused one as it seems perpectually cloudy/rainy these past few days. Gonna do the 1-12 o'clock still life study with apples tomorrow and see what transpires.

Show us your pictures.

Just remember.. Light travel in straight lines. The most fundamental yet the most useful. A scattering surface is just a secondary light source that will scatter the light in certain directions. Just look at all the things around that scatters light... eg clouds, buildings, walls, curtains. Gloss and matte surfaces scatters light differently. And as DXNMedia pointed out, reflections and refractions will have to be considered if you want to pursue further.

You will get a shadow if a parallel source of light falls on an object. The shadow will be same size as the object. You will also get a shadow if a point source of light falls on an object. Point sources gives divergent rays, so the further the shadow is cast, the larger the shadow.

To reduce shadow size you will need to use convergent source of light. The only way to achieve this is to have your light source bigger than the object, that's why people use light boxes or multiple sources. If you observe stadium lights, you will see that a soccer player has 4 shadows due to the lights from 4 distinct direction. The shadow is not a full shadow because it is still illuminated by 3 of the light sources. The rest of the field is illuminated by 4 of the sources which is why there is a difference in intensity and this appears as shadow.

At the end of the day, light and shadow all boils down to the one statement. "Light travels in straight line". It's up to you how you want to harness it.

 

[Dream Merchant]

Show us your pictures.

'This is going to be soooo embarassing...!'

 

[lsisaxon]

'This is going to be soooo embarassing...!'

My pictures are never perfect either. ;p I'm still learning.

 

[psychobiologist]

 

[espion]

morning light from window and some fill in with flash to lift the deep shadows in the box

 

[Dream Merchant]

Thanks for sharing that espion!

PB, does it say WHAT kind of light? Omni-directional? Uni-direc? Scattered? Cold? Warm, or compensated for shadows? LOL!

 

[Scriabinesque]

Shoot first and adjust the levels later. ;p

I refrain from having too much post shoot work. I never had to do that much post shoot work not unless there's darkroom stuff. Digital images give me all the conveniences in case of some careless mistakes, but I still prefer the film way of working. Everything perfect in the camera. Out of the camera it should only be very slight cleaning up, why would I have to waste more time? Hehheh.

 

[Scriabinesque]

Scriabinesque, do you have any shots so I can have a better idea of what you just described? Low contrast ... sounds interesting!

You're welcome to check out the images in my fotologue

http://fotologue.jp/serviam/

 

[lsisaxon]

I refrain from having too much post shoot work. I never had to do that much post shoot work not unless there's darkroom stuff. Digital images give me all the conveniences in case of some careless mistakes, but I still prefer the film way of working. Everything perfect in the camera. Out of the camera it should only be very slight cleaning up, why would I have to waste more time? Hehheh.

My thoughts are the same as you actually. Film is still the same. Levels is something you do in the darkroom also. The only other way to get it perfect is to perhaps use the zone system. However, it will take more time to shoot, which is good because you don't end up with a lot of crap later to run through. ;p But in certain circumstances, eg weddings, action, etc, it may be inevitable to shoot first, PP later.

Sometimes also, the sensitivity curve of the sensor/film doesn't allow you to do so. I keep mine as linear as possible for greater possibilities. I try not to do any post and even when I do, it's kept to minimum also.

 

[lsisaxon]

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s227/edmwbabyangel/07606f44.jpg

You really want to solve partial differential equations ah? I am more familiar with the differential form rather than the integral form. ;p

 

[Dream Merchant]

OK, got down to it.

Took them this afternoon. Cloudy and drizziling all day. The lowest point of the window source light is about 2 feet above the table top. The table is about 5-8 feet away from the window.

Basically only cropped, curves and High Pass. Applied the same exact curve within a given set of pictures. Any variations in luminosity were in-camera. The dlack BG board was held approx 3 feet away from the table, and I moved in and out till I was sure it was not affecting the objects/shadows.


#1 - Open window, L side light

#2 - Closed window (med grey film on window like a ND filter) Rain on window like a slight diffuser

#3- Open window with Tracing Paper

 

[Dream Merchant]

SET 2

#1 - Open window - Rear 3/4 left light

#2 - Closed Window - Rear 3/4 left light

#3 - Open window Tracing Paper 3/4 left light