Photographic studio lighting: Wood – Photofocus

Here’s the most recent in a collection on lighting within the studio. Wood is the topic and we’re constructing depth and dimension by lighting from behind.

This was assigned by Dr. T from Platypod. Note that I’m a Platypod Ambassador and have been given gear with which to work. Here’s a hyperlink to the metallic lighting and glass lighting shoots.

The set

Here’s an outline of the lighting and helps for the wooden {photograph}. A scrim is used to create a bigger mild supply from digital camera left. The proper facet has an RGB panel mild with diffusion materials to create a specular rim from behind. This serves as the principle mild. It is partially masked off with a gobo to maintain mild from flooding the set. In addition, a small flashlight is kicked in to the entrance of the wood bowls and shadow space to maintain it from being blocked up within the shadows.

The gear

I used an OM System OM-1 digital camera with a 12-100mm M.Zuiko f/4.0 lens. It was mounted on an Elite Ball head. I positioned it on a bar stool verses utilizing a tripod. I discover that the much less legs from tripods and lightweight stands maintain me from messing up my set. The Platypod gear makes it simple to maintain a really clear set.

My favourite RGB panel lights are from Falcon Eyes. F7 Pocketlite. They have a excessive Color Rendering Index (96) and the ability might be adjusted down to 1 %. I added some 1/eighth inch plastic diffusion materials to unfold the LED lights out. Using battery powered lights helps maintain the set clear. I bear in mind once I was working with powered lights prior to now and located that it considerably restricted mild placement and the cords added tripping hazard.

There’s a flashlight which is wrapped with some Cinefoil. Cinefoil is a thick black aluminum foil that makes it potential to create customized snoots to direct the sunshine.

Finally, the background colour comes from an RGB strip mild. To get the wealthy deep colour, I used black paper and underexposed the sunshine slightly. A black card flag was additionally used to maintain the sunshine from glowing again on the product

Final ideas

When you might be build up your lighting, I like to recommend setting one mild at a time. As you add every mild, be sure it’s only enhancing what you need. Look at lighting angles and maintain some science guidelines in thoughts. These embody the Inverse Square Law, which says the depth of the sunshine decreases as the space from the supply will increase by the sq. of the space. Another stable one is the angle of reflection equals the angle of incidence (The Law of Reflection). It could sound a bit difficult however getting the science of sunshine understood makes it simpler to create the sunshine you need.

Yours in Creative Photography,

Bob