Product photography light tent - Part 2: Flash

 In the second half of this two part post I look at incorporating flash with a light tent setup for product photography. It's only in the last year or so I've begun to explore the possibilities provided when using artificial light, up until this point, the endless options always seemed so complicated and intimidating with the vastness of choice. I always felt my equipment wouldn't be good enough, or if I wanted to achieve certain results that I needed specific things, things that would cost a fortune, but that's rubbish. Sure, having a top end camera is wonderful if you can afford one, and having a fully equipped studio is amazing, but a photographer's gear is only ever as good as the photographer. And personally, I think cutting your teeth on basic gear will teach you far more about photography as a medium than high-end gear used on auto settings ever could. 

Anyway, my point is, that these two flashes cost me about £30 each and I assumed that their cheapness equated to crappiness so I rarely used them, when in reality it's just that their settings are limited. They're manual flashes, they don't 'talk' to my camera, so I have to imput the settings myself. But that just taught me how to imput the settings myself! And sure,the batteries will probably run out faster and the bulb will probably die quicker and they don't have all of the bells and whistles like a super fancy Canon speedlight, but they get the job done and pretty well I think.

5. The first setup is the same as the very top image. Two flashes, both diffused by the sides of the tent. Both lights also had additional diffuser heads, just to try and even out the light but as you can see in the top shot, the right (Centon) flash was brighter than the left (Neewer) flash.

6. Two flashes with one side of the tent down. The brighter flash on the right paired with the lack of diffuser on the left made a more even exposure, but also an annoying double shadow on the upright bottle shot

7. Single diffused flash on the right which was bounced by the wall on the left.

8. Single flash on the left without wall up as a diffuser made my favourite shots in both the vertical and overhead shots of the bottle. I love the cross lines made by the orange shadow of the liquid. Theres nothing like a good single light shot!

9. Diffused flash (right) and silver reflector (left). Probably the best exposure for the overhead shot but made the vertical one a bit flat

10. These were taken by lying the reflector (silver side down) and aiming a flash up at it, bouncing the overhead light down into the cube.

11.The above, vertical shot was a single backlight, but for the lower image your guess is as good as mine. I think I laid the flash (left) down and shot surectly at the bottle from one side, but I can't be certain. It's pretty though and worth sharing :)

12. Backlit and with a flash to the right, both through the diffuser walls.

13. Bottle elevated to eliminate the 'floor' which was a considerably different tone and wasn't looking how I wanted. One egg-cup platform later and it was perfect.

And that's it! I hope you found this interesting, or at least as informative as I did. Until next time!

Product Photography - Part 1: Natural light

Light tent setup (Natural light)

 After some digging around in my loft for film cameras last week, I stumbled upon a light tent that I got so long ago that I'd forgotten that I actually owned it (reinforcing my argument that even storage space needs to be organised, though I'm sure my husband would disagree). Anyway, as I hadn't really got any ideas for things to shoot this week, I thought I'd do a light test with the tent that I could use a reference sheet when shooting product photography in future.

The shot (above) was the basic initial setup, with one side of the tent collapsed to use the natural light from my kitchen window. The tent comes with three sides, all made of a semi-opaque fabric that works as a diffuser as well as a backdrop, though when using all three sides, there is only a black base rather than a white one. There is also a foldable sheet of double sided fabric that works as an additional backdrop/floordrop. I had a whole host of objects that I wanted to use for the test, but decided the perfume bottle would make the best subject because of it's transparent qualities.

I did take notes to match up with the light setup sketches I'd drawn up beforehand so hopefully all of the setup descriptions are accurate! There were a few rogue ones I couldn't identify though so bare with me, and also excuse my complete lack of technical language :D

1. Natural light from the kitchen window (about 3 feet away). It was an overcast day, so I suppose that technically this light was diffused, but when I mention 'diffused' light in the descriptions, I'm referring to the use of a modifier.

2. Natural window light diffused with the translucent middle of a reflector disk. (Are they even called reflector disks? Who knows...).

3. Natural window light with backdrop sheet turned to grey side and placed over right wall. The grey side reflected less of the light from the window back onto the bottle, making darker shadows and more definition on the right side of the bottle.

4. Again, the grey sheet reflected less light onto the bottle, but as I used a diffuser in this shot, there were no distinct shadows to darken.

Overall I think that the natural light worked nicely, however it created noticeable colour casts on the backdrop and didn't create any dynamic highlights or shadows on the glass of the bottle because the light source was so evenly spread, though this was improved somewhat when the bottle was laid flat.

Using natural light also meant that I had to use settings to accomodate it's dimness. This meant a wide aperture and slower shutter speed, causing a softness to the picture as I wasn't using a tripod, but also creating a smoother background due to the narrow depth of field.

If the natural light is bright enough, it works well with the light tent, even when using both diffused sides, however it does mean you're relying heavily on consistent weather conditions so that some shots don't end up brighter than others, which isn't always possible.
 

I'll be posting the second set of images taken using flash next week so the posts aren't too long and text heavy.

Birmingham Seasonal Market - The Bond Digbeth

In October I'll be shooting a wedding at The Bond in Digbeth, Birmingham, and since Chris found himself with a Saturday off when we thought he'd be working I had the opportunity to go over and get a good look around the venue while it was open for one of their quarterly Seasonal Market events.

 

The setting is a really harmonious mix of, urban and vintage and I can see how it would make a perfect spot for a wedding with all of the romantic twinkling ceiling lights, cobbled stones, ivy covered walls and views of the waterfront contrasting against the colourful yet industrial backdrop. So yeah, it's safe to say I'm extremely excited about this one!

The market itself was fantastic, everything looked delicious, so much so in fact that it took me almost the entire time we were there to decide what I wanted to actually eat. Of course having the sweet tooth that I do I ended up grabbing some MadeWithFudge candies, but only after spending an additional 10 minutes lurking around their stall hungrily eyeballing the donuts. I don't even like doughnuts, but look at them.

 

Whoever dreamed up the heaven that is strawberry milkshake flavoured fudge, I thank you from the deepest depths of my sugar loving soul.

All in all a great day was had by all, we ate amazing food, weren't too badly harassed by the threatening rain, the vibes were great and the people were lovely. Also, lets take a moment to appreciate this lady, who stopped and posed for my picture like an absolute boss where most would merely hide away or pretend they hadn't seen me.

 

Until next time. I'll most certainly be back.

Post-Production: The Clone Stamp

After studying feminism at university along with photography, I developed something of a love/hate relationship with Photoshop, but I think we can all agree that when it's used for good, it can be a photographer's real saving grace. So while I'm not a huge fan of using it to make people look 'perfect', to remove wrinkles or change body shapes, there are an infinite amount of other uses for this tool and I'll never be done learning how to use it to improve my images. I certainly don't consider myself to be the most gifted post-processor in the world, in fact I only really use the most basic and minimal approach to post-production as I prefer to do as much in camera as I can to save time. But I thought it might be handy to share some of the techniques I use in my own work, for those of you who might be trying to learn Photoshop yourselves, or for anyone who might be interested to know the work that goes into my photographs after the initial photo session.

 So the first tool I wanted to look at is a very popular one for me, the 'clone stamp'. This tool allows me to select an area of an image and them replicate it to another area, 'stamping' a sample of the image elsewhere. I normally use this for removing things that I don't want in the picture, such as rogue limbs from passers by, blemishes on skin, etc. It's incredibly helpful for weddings, where I prefer to take a more documentary approach which means I might have my subjects in beautiful light, capturing a beautiful moment, but there's a glass of wine in the background that I can't remove without missing the shot, so I remove it in post instead.

In the above shot, it was such a bright day that I didn't even spot this passer by until I got the images onto my computer. It can be tricky using the clone stamp when there's a busy foreground and background, as you have to work with smaller samples to make the editing appear seamless.

I was kicking myself for this one, the image was posed, I could have just moved the bag. Why didn't I just move the flipping bag?

This shot was taken with lots of others without the two registrars in the background, however this one was actually my preferred one of the bride's expressions. This one took a lot of time, but thankfully, the panes of the windows meant I had lots of places to take samples from without it appearing too obvious.

The key to using the clone stamp is to take time and the smallest samples possible, matching the right texture, colour and light. It's a really simple and effective tool if you have the time an patients to use it!

My little home studio photography setup

It took me a long time to get to grips with studio photography. When I was studying, my campus had this huge and incredibly intimidating studio with more equipment than I could possibly get my head around and while it would be a real playground for me now, at the time I just didn't know where to begin. So I built my photographic approach around ambient and natural light, which was fine, since I've always had a preference for reportage style work anyway. But sometimes, circumstances (typically the weather) or the clients (the teeny tiny ones) are better in a more controlled environment where the lighting is more predictable, and we can take the time to get a great shot.

I always thought 'studio' photography meant a large, dedicated space with tonnes of expensive gear. But my first 'studio' shoot took place in a tiny, white walled bedroom, with one light and my camera. And those shots are still some of my favourites.

I still don't have a huge dedicated space filled with expensive gear. So far, I haven't found that I need one. My little portable set up works brilliantly in my house and it's great being able to pack it up and take it out on location whenever I need to. For the above shoot I took around 12 headshots, and so being able to pack up my kit and take it along to a rehearsal was much simpler than having everybody come to me. 

When working with babies, having this little setup works perfectly, allowing me to take my time to get the best shot in an environment that is less overwhelming than an outdoor space would be and meaning they can have as many breaks from the camera and the lights as they need.

While I'll probably always prefer shooting in natural light and surroundings, I really love having an alternative space to work in when I need to and it's a lot of fun learning all of the new and interesting ways to light my sitters.