Life Observed

Sometimes the subject dictates the technique, and here's an example. I spotted a single leaf caught in a web across the greenhouse door, and I immediately saw an unusual photo opportunity.  I need to get in close to isolate the leaf from the background so it is the sole item of interest in the frame, so this requires my trusty Zuiko 50mm macro lens. Next I need to light it properly as the daylight is fading and the leaf is spinning to and fro in the wind. I press my old Sunpak off camera flash into service with the cheap ebay wireless trigger, and opt for manual flash mode at 1/16th power. The flash will have a consistent output despite the confusing dark background and the short flash duration will freeze the leaf's motion. The scale on the flash says I need f11 for 3 feet, so I decide on a shutter speed of 1/160th which will mute the background but still retain some detail.  Now it is just a matter of repeating the shot until I have the leaf in a good position an...

Oh dear - I've been playing with Blog Labels and this previous post ended up here, dated today. Its a mystery. Look on it as a little bonus... One of the joys of taking up a new discipline is the opportunity and the need to learn new specialised terms. This means you have become a member of the club. You can now use these words to confuse your friends or impress your clients. There are plenty of strange words in the science (or art) of lighting. I now casually drop terms such as Key, Fill, Kicker, Barn Door, and Separation into conversations to the consternation of those around me. So, here is another strange term: Snoot. I suspect this is actually derived from snout. Anyway, it is a tubular item added to a light to direct its output and reduce Spill or increase Separation. In this case the primary or Key light is the only source. It's an overhead flash fitted with an expensive custom Snoot* used to highlight the subject and leave the rest of the scene unl...

I rather like these small and compact flowers. We have some in the garden and they are a magnet for bees and other insects at this time of year. All very natural.  What isn't natural is this picture, as it is partly faked. The sunlight is actually off camera flash. The shutter speed was chosen to make the background dark, and Photoshop finished off the process. (I like a bit of black in my pictures, you will find evidence all over the blog: Here's a random example... ) Now you know the secret you can see this one comes from the same neck of the woods, with flash and selective darkening used to isolate the bloom and add impact to the image. I show all of this to remind us that nothing we see in print is quite what it seems any more. The digital revolution has given us an endless flow of potentially perfect images. I do wonder if that is a good thing ...

Here's an unusual view of one of our hanging baskets. I chose the upward looking perspective so I could include the sky. I then added some diffused off camera flash to lift the flowers and selected a shutter speed that would balance the flowers and the sky. Here's another picture along the same lines: Both of these images were taken in so called "strobist" mode. That's where you reject any technical assistance and set the camera to manual exposure and the flash to manual output. Now you are reduced to guide number, luck, or trial and error. There is a blog devoted to doing flash the hard way... There are other examples of this method in my blog - even this one ..

Well, I was asked to do a load of portraits for our church PCC recently. This involves creating mug shots for all committee members quickly and efficiently before one of the meetings. This sounds like a job for Strobist Man, so I took along my three old Sunpak flashes, a home made lighting stand, two home made lighting modifiers and a light tripod to act as a second lighting stand. The home made modifiers are folded matt mylar with velcro, as shown below. They spread the light a bit more, they fold flat and they make it look like you know what you are doing... OK, so I do use flash occasionally for set piece images like these two: I have a set of cheap radio triggers already, and I have read portrait lighting theory carefully :-)   However I don't generally photograph people , and portraits shots are even more challenging. Astute readers will know I have done a fashion shoot a few months ago. The outdoor shots with key and fill flash were OK, but the ...

Here's a mean and moody shot of a storm threatened crop.  Well, all is not quite what it seems, as I took my portable sunshine with me and created the mood myself. It was an overcast day, but I felt the look needed enhancing. This is a standard strobist trick. I used an off camera flash to put light down onto the corn from overhead, giving the look of a shaft of sunlight. It is then just a matter of adjusting the flash power and the camera exposure so that the background goes dark while the foreground is over-lit. The trick can also be used in a more subtle manner. In this case the post box has a small splash of light to lift it, while the background is once again allowed to be dark and brooding. In addition to the lighting trick, narrow depth of field also separates the post box from it's background.

Aah, the humble Chive flower, one of my favourite subjects. Our Chives are raided by the local bees continuouslly, and this flower is slightly on the turn. It was photographed, as always, with my excellent Olympus 50mm macro lens.  Provided you and the subject keep still, then this lens will deliver the picture for you... And here, just a few meters away, is the middle of a giant poppy, also caught up close with that lens. Lovely...

The giant poppy. Aah, these start as a promising green bud, then suddenly burst forth as an uncertain crinkly red flower. This matures into a beautiful bloom for a while, but it soon fails and fades. The pure red begins to turn, and flower is past its best. Finally the petals fall on by one until it is no more.  Some days I feel like I am past my best, and I'm waiting for the petals to fall.

If you pile enough old fashioned toffee together you can exceed it's critical mass, and it starts it's own chain reaction, glowing white hot and emitting Alfa Particles*   This is another exercise in lighting. The more I try, the more I learn: Here I am using remote flash to light a subject from underneath. Combine this with a suitably short shutter speed to get this glowing coals effect. *As any owner of Italian cars will know, Alfa Particles cause painted steel to rust spontaneously from underneath. By the time the paint bubbles, the steel has already gone. This also explains why old fashioned toffee is suspiciously rust coloured.

I decided  to try a picture of these indoor Orchid blooms yesterday. The challenge is to illuminate the flowers with a fairly soft light, while keeping the rest of the room dark. Clearly I could bounce flash off the ceiling, that would be nice and soft, but the background would then be visible. To get this degree of separation I will need to get the camera and flash in close to the subject. In fact the camera is about 15cm from the blooms and the flash on radio trigger is about 30cm away. In order to soften the light from a flash that close I added my folding home made diffuser to the front which expands the effective light source. Simples!

Outside your comfort zone, that is... Generally I photograph landscapes or buildings, and sometimes abstract shapes. I am not really a people photographer, and the few occasions I have photographed a wedding, it has been a very trying experience. So, what to do when asked if you can do a small fashion photo shoot for company that sells equestrian clothing. They can call on the services of Sienna, a local model. All I have to do is sort out the pictures. The first thing is to buy some second hand off camera flashes from e-bay. These are the sort that can be operated in manual mode. Next, I need to learn about lighting and the Strobist blog is the definitive pace to start. Now I need some light modifiers, in this case, those large springy circular diffusers.   Finally, its just a matter of going for it and adapting my methods according to the results on the camera rear screen. It was an awful rush in poor light against the clock, but I think I learnt a lot and...

I was asked to take a picture of a rented office to form part of the  for-rent flier recently. I know the room has windows on two sides, but it would clearly need more than that to make it look good. Furthermore the interior lighting is the usual nasty fluorescent tubes. I took my two off camera flashes with their cheap radio triggers and the widest lens I have and I partly opened the blinds to let a fair amount of daylight in. The first flash was set on a stand at head height off to camera right and set to 1/8th power and aimed at the white ceiling. By setting shutter to 1/30th this balanced quite well with the daylight, but the view through the open door was dark and uninviting... So I rigged the second flash out in the hall, also pointing upward. It needed 1/4 power to balance the lighting, I guess it was darker in there and the ceiling is higher. All done and burned to a CD in 15 minutes. Lessons learned: I need more gear (!) like a flash umbrella, a third ...