I have often been asked how this photograph was done The execution was not
complicated or particularly difficult, but it definitely required an in- depth knowledge
of lighting and exposure control. No
automatic features of a camera, regardless of how sophisticated, would be of
any help here.
I have always been fascinated with the types photography where the photographer has to do everything, create the set and execute the proper lighting before any photographs could even be taken. Then of course, there is the correct exposure control and finally, when all is done correctly, the final result, the photograph.
I had the idea of this shot for quite a while; it was just a matter of taking the time to set it up. But how to get to the point of triggering the shutter to take the photograph?
I wanted the items in the
photograph to sit on a reflective surface with a blue background. But I also wanted a light fall off of the
blue toward the bottom of the photograph and the corners.
I started with a polished piece
of black Plexiglas. The gears and the
raspberries were relatively easy to arrange.
Direct lighting for the
blue background is impossible in this situation because it would show a
reflected image of the actual light source.
Instead I used a dark grey, flat material and lit it with a blue gel
attached to the light. The trick was to
arrange the grey material and its illumination in a manner that the reflection
off the Plexiglas was visible in the viewfinder of the camera. Once that was achieved, the shape of the blue
illumination was varied to show fall off to the corners and the bottom. A soft spot light makes that quite easy by
varying the distance of the spot light from the dark grey surface.
The camera’s lightmeter would
only work of it had a spot reading function.
In cases like this I prefer to use a hand held lightmeter with a spot
attachment. For the basic exposure
setting I used an underexposure of 1 ½ stops to achieve the intense blue color.
Even though the Plexiglass
was black, its shiny surface reflected substantially more light than the
subjects in the photograph and no nominal blue light exposure would show with
the exception of some areas of the gears.
Would a white surface for
the blue light have worked? Possibly,
but it has been my experience that a darker surface, even a black material,
makes it a lot easier to show the desired light fall off.
Next it was necessary to
light the gears and the raspberries.
This was done with a small soft box (an umbrella light would work just
as well), also positioned behind the set, but off to the right to avoid any reflection
of the light to be visible on the Plexiglas.
Since the exposure
settings of the camera were determined by the blue light, it was now necessary
to match the intensity of the light from the soft box to that of the blue
light. Again a handheld lightmeter with
a spot attachment was used. Taking a spot
reading of the three raspberries in the background allowed to set the light
intensity such that the light shining through the raspberries would be one stop
underexposed to render the intense read colors.
The light from the softbox
had the additional advantage of partially reflecting off the metal gears,
rendering a warm reflection besides some of the blue light from the background.
Normal daylight film or
daylight setting for the white light balance works well as long as an
incandescent light source is used for the subject lighting. That will result in the intense blue along
with a warm rendering of the subject exposure.
Could a white surface have
been used instead of the Plexiglas? Of
course, but the effect of the lights and the overall look of the photograph
would have been quite different.
Especially the reflection of the metal gears and the raspberries off the
Plexiglas would not have been visible.
Since both light sources
were behind the subject matter, the reflections have the advantage of being
almost black, thus not distracting from the subject matter itself, but still
adding an extra element to the overall photograph.
Only a small section of the gear to the right shows some of the warm side light being reflected. In addition there is the extra dimension of the cold blue as well as the warm reflections of the two light sources.
Any project like this is
not for anyone in a hurry. It takes a
fair amount of time to set up, the subjects as well as the lighting. But the end results can be very rewarding.Only a small section of the gear to the right shows some of the warm side light being reflected. In addition there is the extra dimension of the cold blue as well as the warm reflections of the two light sources.
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You didn't mention what camera this was taken with.
ReplyDeleteActually I took this shot before the digital age. I used a Sinar F1 4x5 view camera with a Schneider 210mm f/5.6 Symmar lens. Since Sinar is now part of Leica, I feel it is not out of place to use this picture on this blog. Besides, the camera is less important for this article than the execution of the shot. I should also mention that I used a Leica Digilux 2 to digitize the original 4x5 Kodak Ektachrome transparency.
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