How much do You understand light? Technical

[Dream Merchant]

SET #3

#1 - Open window Front 3/4 right light

#2 - Closed window Frot 3/4 right light

#3 - Open window Tracing paper 3/4 right light

 

[Dream Merchant]

SET #4

#1 - Open window Right slightly behind light

#2 - Closed window Right slightly behind light

#3 - Open window Tracing paper Right slightly behind light

Seems like even the shots with the tracing paper diffuser is still quite hard for my liking. SIGH...

 

[Scriabinesque]

The black in the background creates hard contrast. You seem to be using a small aperature too, somewhere between f8 to f16? its a good start. try a light background, large aperture. overall softness is also affected by point of focus too. High passing will further sharpen pixels making everything harsher. avoid high passing if you don't need too.

 

[Dream Merchant]

Not being defensive, but I used the black board to block off my messy kitchen. LOL I didn't want to use the white side as that may have had a fill effect.

Apeture was f/7 as I wanted to get all the objects in focus for the test.

I used high pass as I normall set my in-cam settings to neutral, which is a tad soft.

I'll try what you suggested - lighter BG, open apeture and no HP.

 

[lsisaxon]

Not being defensive, but I used the black board to block off my messy kitchen. LOL I didn't want to use the white side as that may have had a fill effect.

Apeture was f/7 as I wanted to get all the objects in focus for the test.

I used high pass as I normall set my in-cam settings to neutral, which is a tad soft.

I'll try what you suggested - lighter BG, open apeture and no HP.

Are you getting direct light from the window? ie, the sun shines directly in? This will create quite a harsh lighting. It's best if the light that's coming in is diffused light from the clouds. In fact, the overcast days might be better to get what you wanted. Use a tripod because the exposure will then be quite slow around 1/15s if you use f/4 or f/5.6.

For your tracing paper shots, I think you can still reduce the exposure by 1/2 to 1 stop. The shadow details are still ok because it's no longer that harsh but you need to take care of the highlights. Scriabinesque is right in saying that the black background might have misled you into thinking that the contrast is still too high. You should base your judgement using the shadow of the subject.

 

[Dream Merchant]

Isisaxon,

Those were shot on Sat afternoon - heavy overcast sky with light rain/drizzle all afternoon. Light comes in obliquely from the upper top left of the window, fairly scattered through clouds, and there's also another block of apartments 'screening' off some of the light.

All pix, including the food shots I did the previous week were tripodded. For the food shots, e.g., this shot below, I waited till the 'sun went down' and the corridoor lights came on in the opposite block as I wanted the 'softest' light possible. I didn't think to use the tracing paper last week though. It was getting so dark at my shooting area that the opposite block was starting to look distinctively brighter!

Exposure was 30 sec, f/10 ISO 100 Mabbie I got a little too gung ho with the curves?

If you look again just at the peas on her opening page (http://www.sararemington.net/book1.html), you'll notice that the light is so soft and subtle, yet the colour intensity and details are so rich and captivating without being over-contrasty. Then look back at the earlier post of kopitiam cups, and the entire look and feel is different. I've also noticed that when I go a little under, or more subdued in contrast, everything basically just starts lookig flat and bleak.

I've long suspected that the quality of light in other places like the US and certain parts of Europe are distinctively different thatn what we get here at the equator.

Here's another shot that, if you look closely, should get you thinking (http://www.nytimes.com/library/photos/leibovitz/bourgeois.html). The shadow areas, especially around Ms Bourgeois' nose bridge should be completely shrouded in darkness, going by the light directions. However, I'm sure Annie Lebowitz had master printers to do her prints.

 

[lsisaxon]

Isisaxon,

Those were shot on Sat afternoon - heavy overcast sky with light rain/drizzle all afternoon. Light comes in obliquely from the upper top left of the window, fairly scattered through clouds, and there's also another block of apartments 'screening' off some of the light.

All pix, including the food shots I did the previous week were tripodded. For the food shots, e.g., this shot below, I waited till the 'sun went down' and the corridoor lights came on in the opposite block as I wanted the 'softest' light possible. I didn't think to use the tracing paper last week though. It was getting so dark at my shooting area that the opposite block was starting to look distinctively brighter!

http://clprodn.smugmug.com/photos/175128537-M.jpg

Exposure was 30 sec, f/10 ISO 100 Mabbie I got a little too gung ho with the curves?

Which make/model are you using? Canon curves are quite different from Nikon, so in the digital age, the brand does make a difference. If you're using Canon, don't use the 'Standard' picture style, I think using the Neutral might give you a more accurate reproduction based on my limited experience with the S80 PnS (I'm not a Canon user). For Nikon, if you're using D70/D70s, load in the sRealav2 curve, D80/D200/D2-series, Normal setting is ok. Did you PP also?

 

[Dream Merchant]

I used PhotoShop 7. Yes, there was touching up mainly of the shadows, a bit of dodging and burning, curves and HP.

 

[lsisaxon]

I used PhotoShop 7. Yes, there was touching up mainly of the shadows, a bit of dodging and burning, curves and HP.

Maybe tweaking the saturation might get you what you desire?

 

[Scriabinesque]

Isisaxon,

Those were shot on Sat afternoon - heavy overcast sky with light rain/drizzle all afternoon. Light comes in obliquely from the upper top left of the window, fairly scattered through clouds, and there's also another block of apartments 'screening' off some of the light.

All pix, including the food shots I did the previous week were tripodded. For the food shots, e.g., this shot below, I waited till the 'sun went down' and the corridoor lights came on in the opposite block as I wanted the 'softest' light possible. I didn't think to use the tracing paper last week though. It was getting so dark at my shooting area that the opposite block was starting to look distinctively brighter!

Exposure was 30 sec, f/10 ISO 100 Mabbie I got a little too gung ho with the curves?

If you look again just at the peas on her opening page (http://www.sararemington.net/book1.html), you'll notice that the light is so soft and subtle, yet the colour intensity and details are so rich and captivating without being over-contrasty. Then look back at the earlier post of kopitiam cups, and the entire look and feel is different. I've also noticed that when I go a little under, or more subdued in contrast, everything basically just starts lookig flat and bleak.

I've long suspected that the quality of light in other places like the US and certain parts of Europe are distinctively different thatn what we get here at the equator.

Here's another shot that, if you look closely, should get you thinking (http://www.nytimes.com/library/photos/leibovitz/bourgeois.html). The shadow areas, especially around Ms Bourgeois' nose bridge should be completely shrouded in darkness, going by the light directions. However, I'm sure Annie Lebowitz had master printers to do her prints.

You're almost there. Your f stop is still too small. try larger f stop. Watch reflections while working with mirror finishes, you may want to reflect some white into the fork. the highlights are still harsh, you might want to bring those highlights down, bring down the contrasts a bit.

With Sara Remington I have reason to think that she's also using another format apart from the DSLR. Thus longer focal length but yet a wider field of view. Different ratios.

Position of the globe is a very good observation, as the sunlight in hongkong is so much different from the sunlight in singapore at certain times / positions of the sun.

Keep trying!

 

[Dream Merchant]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

I seriously (still) think the quality of light further up North has something to do with it as it basically passes through much more atmospheric gunk before reaching the surface - aka, it's a lot more scattered. Which is also one of the reasons, together with the smog and exhaust fumes etc, why you get those absolutely breath-taking sunsets in the US. Now if only I can find something similar here.

 

[roger8]

Nice photos, she uses ratios to produce the 3D effect which studio lighting photogs should understand and work with. The same can be achieved outdoors using natural light and controlled reflectors.