Photographing Ceramics

What prompted the images here was both my need to photograph my Aunt Shelle Avecilla's unique ceramics, and well as David Hobby's referral to the new Lumiquest lightbox. More importantly he designed a "flap" that I would find useful in creating a gradient background for the scoop I was using.

BTW, this exercise was not part of Strobist 102.

My take away from this self-imposed exercise was 1) I need to plan all my equipment, 2) experiment, even though I think I have finished the assignment.

I kept on going back to my equipment/materials for more and more stuff. Being lazy, each time I figured I wouldn't need it. Then I just "had" to have it.

Equipment for a studio shot for small objects that I needed is below. Items 1-9 I had ready. Items 10-18 I had to scrounge around the house.

1. 2x3' table
   
2. 2x4 plastic sheet for scoop
3. lighting tripod
4. SB-800 on remote
5. SB-80DX on remote
6. flash stand
7. D200 built-in flash on Manual, with IR blocker ( xxxx )
8. ball-bungee cords for holding flashes
9. modeling clay to hold ceramics in place
10. Velcro strips for holding flags in place
11. extra batteries for flashes
12. various items to prop up ceramics
13. light stand to act as Over-head boom
14. gaffer tape
15. flags for flash
16. Lumiquest I softbox (no, I didn't buy III)
17. snoot (home-made fr plastic)
18. Car Window Sunshade (used as flag for overhead)

The first mistake I made was to use the bare flash with flags. The gradation on my scoop from this setting was crude. It looked like I had two separate gradations, no matter what I did. So for almost 2/3's of the time I just stuck with that setup, below. Note, I didn't really use the flash to the lower right, even though it's in the picture.


Here's the result, with pixelated background.

Just before I photographed my last object, a soy sauce container, I figured "Why didn't I experiment with something different for a softer light? Like a Lumiquest?" Duh....

It didn't take long to setup, I just had to overcome my resistance to take apart my main flash (overhead) and put on the Lumiquest. Really, it took about 80 seconds. Why was I so hard-headed? My first shot, without a flag on the Lumiquest produced silky soft shadows, just what I wanted for the objects:

Then I remembered David's contraption for a barndoor, right on the Lumiquest. I just put what I had on.

Adjusting the shadow gradation was a snap, an you see above.

Next time I'll use a wider barndoor, the width of the widest object. Most objects didn't need the wide barndoor; they were small enough that the light fall of on the sides were not noticeable in the pictures above. However, a wide plate did. So I will make up a wider barndoor with velcro, and a dose of gaffer tape, when needed.

NEXT POST: Flash Cross-lighting with Sunlight

Cooking Light - Strobist Lighting 102 Assignment

The assignment was to photograph kitchen utensil(s), an ordinary object, elevated to a form of "high art." Here's my entry:

Now, how did it all start? Using an opaque sheet, I tried to find the reflective angle. That was the hardest part of the assignment. The camera was set at one angle, and just opposite (at the reflective angle) was the SB-80DX flash, with Kleenex. I tried to use an 8 1/2 x 11" piece of paper, but had to gravitate to a 8 1/2 x 14 so that the entire set of knives were lit as shiny & sharp. Here is my poor effort:

Followed by an almost good effort. Note the background (the white platform on which the knives laid, looks gray).

To get the background white, I turned off the SB-80DX flash and put on the D200's built in flash at manual 1/8 power. That whitened up the background:

Now I turned on the SB-80DX (slightly more exposure than 1/8 power, after adjusting it for whiter sheen) , and the shot you see at the beginning was the result.

Time for experiment: 52 minutes, mostly spent on getting the angle of reflection and finding the right sized opaque sheet size.

Strobist Exercise 102-1-3 (Reflections off Glass)

There are 2 exercises here.

I will first light glass with Bright Field Lighting (Hunter/Fuqua in Light Science & Magic). I cut out a hole in a cardboard box, slightly smaller than an 8 1/2" x 11 piece of paper. That was going to be my opaque background. I would light the background w/ Nikon SB-80DX on remote, 1/16th power. I was supposed to frame the opening exactly, not less, not more. Easier said than done. First try was first mistake. I had the paper on the wrong side of the box, so the edge of the box was "blurry."

I changed it to the back, just 1/8" difference, but you need that for the edges of the glass to look black. Now I have everything okay, with the very white background (abt 1-2 stops greater than middle gray). I also found out my paper was pretty poor, as when I made it near middle gray, it showed lots of molting. Next time I should use a scoop with plastic.

My 1st image w/glass shows that I need more care in positioning the camera angle to exactly frame the opening (my opaque background). Note, the cardboard is actually brown, but the exposure makes it appear black. Nice black lines around the glass. I was amazing the technique actually works! Although the bottom third of the image is gray due to exposure, I did put supplemental lighting (not shown) that lights up that bottom to better match the top 2/3s of the image.








Just to make sure 2 glass can both have definition of black lines, here's the proof. The back glass is not in focus, but that was not the point; just wanted to make sure the black lines defining the glass was there. Notice the reduce exposure in back, showing the molting of the cheap COSTCO paper I bought:

However, I spent too long trying to figure out now to get a reflection on Light-Field Lighting. Of course I couldn't--the reflections couldn't be light on light. Next time try a dark object; would that work?

Now on the the 2nd half, Dark Field Lighting. I pulled out a very large sheet of translucent plexiglass, and taped a large cardboard rectangle to block the light. No change in exposure that recorded my first image of dark field lighting:

Why were reflections there? My D200 built-in flash was on 1/128 power, which was not enough to record with Light Field Lighting, but with black field lighting it reflect that small bit of flash. So I put on my Nikon infared light blocker, the SG-3R. I paid $12 for it, so why not use it? Worked like a charm, especially after moving up the black card to include most of the glass. There are other slight reflections from not having the room entire dark, but I was satisfied with this final picture, w/o reflections. I now know it is glass....

Now for the final act--to show reflection in the glass. Getting these angles of reflection was absolutely impossible. I just estimated it, and here are the 2 images I came up with, far & mid. The near didn't make anything but a glob of reflections.


Next time to work on:

1. Make better props, translucent panels and black cardboard. Use a scoop, for heavens sake.
2. Create a seamless bottom, all black. Do I need to use a glass table?
3. Better position the camera to get really black lines on glass for Bright-Field lighting.
4. Figure out whether a dark object on Bright-Field lighting will show up as a reflection. It should, so I should also try some sort of color diffusions sheet positions.
   
5. Figure out a way to measure possible diffusion sheet positions for lighting Black-field lighting reflections.

Next Post: Cooking Light

Strobist Exercise 102-1-2 (Outside Flower)

After taking pictures of the grapefruit and the near-far pictures using the "depth of light," I decided to experiment with light modifier outside. All pictures were taken w/ Nikon D200 on Manual ASA=200, built-in flash to trigger Nikon SB-800 on SU-4 Remote. Built in Flash was at 1/128 power, not affecting exposure. No post-processing, jpegs straight from the camera.

First exposure without Flash, Aperture Priority f4.0 (I got a bit "arty" in this image, as I wanted the background t/b blurred. The exposure w/ f7.1, which I'll be using as a base, looks exactly like this one, except for DOF:

With Flash at 30-40 degrees to camera right, the next is D200 on Manual at f7.1 and 1/250. The flash was set about 1/32 power--my best guess after 1 chimp picture:


It's about the same, except--the the background rocks--are slightly darker. The results are better. The main daff and leaves were better exposed, with a better gradation in the background. That is, IMO the background was lit better. I didn't change the background exposure of 1/250, because I didn't want the background to be lighter. In example case, off-camera flash was not tremendously better, because I had an optimal day for flowers--light-cloudy skies.

Here's the picture I liked:

Here's another shot, with flash nearby, shot through a white screen (Impact modifier). Seems to have better sparkle of specular highlight in H2o:

Note, I didn't try other modifiers like the Nikon built-in plastic lens or the add-on translucent or the Lumiquest, because the soft light through the clouds provided a good picture to begin with. I would not have gained anything, if at all, with modifiers. I even tried the Impact White Screen, but it didn't do much, except darkening the flower--leaving the background light; in this case it didn't look natural at all.

On to another subject, some leaves that had fallen on our apple tree in back of the house. Here's the image in Aperture priority mode, f5.0 at -2/3 EV. The leaves are nicely lit, but the background is too bright for what I wanted:


So I put on a flash, with the small Nikon diffusion add-on. It added some separation between the leaves and background. The flash & camera were on Manual. My guess on exposure is coming closer, only 1 chimp shot needed to figure out the camera had to be on f7.1, and the flash was about 1/32 power--I'm not keeping notes, because the chimp is very close-on the correct exposure I wanted:
While some may feel the background is too dark, that's what I wanted. At least now I have some control of what the background should be--that was my goal of this Strobist exercise. The best exposure was when I put flash on the right, aimed upward, and used the Impact light white modifier circle as a bounce to the leaves. Great shadowless shot, but unfortunately one of the branches on the left got the shadow on the leave. I even tried to modify the modifier by folding it over. Oh well, the next time I will more carefully aim the modifier, and I really must get another light stand to hold the modifier!




Next Post: Reflections on Glass

Strobist Exercise 102-2-1 (Single Fruit- Flash Diffusers)

Varying only light/modifiers. Angle of light/camera position the same. Nikon SB-800 Flash on manual, starting with best guess exposure (differed from Minolta IV-F by half stop, with Minolta tending to underexpose by 1/2 stop). Flash angle at 50mm, Camera at ~50mm (35mm equivalent).






Light Modifer of SB-800 built-in Plastic diffuser, which set flash angle to 17 mm. Needs 1 2/3 more exposure. Note slight softening of shadows.








Light Modifer of SB-800 add-on Plastic diffuser, flash angle 50 mm. Again needs 1 2/3 more exposure. (May need more, if angles are much less than 50mm.) Note more softening of shadows.








Lumiquest Modifer, flash angle 50 mm. Again needs 1 2/3 more exposure. (May need more, if angles are much less than 50mm.) Note even more softening of shadows, as lumiquest modifier is larger light source than those above.






Completely opaque white add-on modifier, flash angle 50 mm. Needs 3-4 stops of more exposure. Note even more softening of shadows, as diffusion is greater, due to opaqueness of modifier.

Next Post: Outside Flash for Flowers, using Various Modifiers

Strobist Exercise 102-1-2b (Self Portrait, Modifiers)

As you know, I'm following Strobist exercises. I'm now on 102-2-1, and am trying to "guess" off-camera flash exposures, w/o using my Minolta IV-F flashmeter. If I can "guess" by chimping, that would eliminate 1 more piece of equipment. BTW, the Minolta is quite accurate, and for serious portraits/family gatherings, I would use the Minolta if I had any doubts. Maybe with practice I will reduce those doubts.

So my first picture is my first guess. D200 set at ASA=400, WB=Auto, Mode=Manual f5.6 & 1/250 (the fastest synch speed on the D200. Off-camera Nikon flash SB-800 set at 1/8 power. On camera flash of the D200 was set at 1/128 power, mainly to trigger the SB-800. The on-camera flash did not really have any effect on the image. All images pure jpeg, no post-processing.

Well, my self-portrait was too bright, but only by about 1 stop, so I set the flash to 1/16 power. Actually I did an intermediate step by taking a shot (not shown) at f8.0, and judge the exposure of my face to be fine. So then I reset the aperture to f5.6 (to maintain that depth of field), and then set the flash to 1/16 power. Just an easy way for me to do this, as the flash was on a stand, set at 5 1/2 feet. If I changed the flash, I would have to lower the stand, etc. etc
.
I wanted to lower the speed, but as you can see from the background, the flash overpowered everything. I tried some images, but there was hardly a change--no surprise here. So I fashioned a plastic snoot with velcro. I took this picture w/o changing exposure, and guess what, the face came out just as theory said it would--perfectly. Of course the background was dark:


So now I could play with the speed. I put the speed down to 1/50, and the background became somewhat lighter.


For more control, I place the lightstand nearer. I guessed the effect was 1 stop, so this time I reduced the aperture to f8.0 from f5.6. Worked like a charm. Of course the background was wayyyy dark:

So I next decreased the speed to 1/50, to get the effect I wanted. Well, not exactly, but I could see the improving effect:



How accurate was my f8.0 when I moved the snoot nearer? I measured w/ the Minolta, and found I was at f8.8, or about 3/4 a stop off. But you know what? I like my "GUESS" portrait better than the measured one! Compare the measured one is below with my guess above. View only the head/shoulders portion, where the meter measures the flash. Don't judge the background.


Next Post: Single Fruit

Self Portrait, with Light Signature

I always wanted to take a self-portrait, with me waving a light stick to trace my signature over the picture. The last time I saw a picture like this, it was a Pablo Picasso. Lucky him--as a painter, he could trace his signature backwards. During the film era, this was too expensive for me to do. With digital, it became possible, cost-wise. But I could not do a backward signature. So I sorta had to cheat w/Photoshop. I'm documenting how I did this, so I can improve the next time.

Taking the Picture was easy. I just had to set up my flash so that I could pose as if I was at the end of my signature. At least I thought it was easy--you'll soon note I had some small mistakes, that I had to correct.



To take "the signature," I setup my Nikon D200 on a tripod in my darkened garage. It was set on a timer at 30 seconds, f6.3, manual focus. Don't try to set it on autofocus, as there's nothing to focus when you trip the shutter. At the point you trip the shutter, auto exposure and autofocus is set. So you may not get a focused picture.


Then the fun began. I traced my signature, time and time again. It just looked too scrunched up or too bright. I finally got the hang of the signature (backwards, of course) about the 15th or 16th shot. It was dark enough that not much other stuff showed, after I cleared up more space.

Then came the cheating part. I loaded "the signature" into Photoshop, then rotated the image horizonatally. Bravo! the images was now frontwards. But the background was black. So I selected the signature, with a narrow band. I didn't want to have "the signature" have too much flourescing. I transferred that to a new layer by CUT, and then inserted my picture above into the image. After placing "the signature" on top of the picture and blanking out the black background of the garage, I started to have the elements of the picture.

I had to go back and reduce the size of "the signature," as mine was too large. Notice something strange of the picture above--I'm posed to my right (where I originally drew "the signature") but it looks like my hand is at the beginning of "Wei." It is, because I forgot I rotated "the signature" horizontally! Of course I could have rotate my picture horizontally, also, but then everything would be backwards with me. There's a signature Naoki in the gyotaku, so that wouldn't have worked. I had to reposition the flash to my left, and also end my "stroke" to my left.


Next time I'll better sketch what I need to do, and plan it, step by step, rather than wing it. Luckily I had digital, so I could accomplish this in 90 minutes of trail and error.

Next Post: Self-Portrait, w/ Modifiers

Copying My Baby Picture Frame

During the past 2 years I've documented my family history, including my paternal and maternal grandparents, and their ancestors. I'm now writing about my youth in Hawaii. To do this, I've had to scan whatever pictures I could gather about my past: parents, uncles, aunts, grandparents, pets, homes, and, of course, me.

One of the pictures my parents kept in their bedroom was a sequence of pictures taken by a photo house called Babyland. Back in 1947-48, my mother carted me off to the professional photographer to have my pictures taken. Four pictures were placed in a simple white frame. Despite the ravages of time, these 60 year old pictures still retain much of the charm my parents enjoyed.

I could not scan the pictures in the frame, because the frame was much larger than my scanner allowed. I did not want to scan the individual pictures, because what I will always remember is the sequence of pictures in my parents' bedroom.

So I decided to digitally photograph the pictures in the frame. That is, I would "scan" the pictures with my Nikon D200 DSLR, and then crop the frame to suit.

First I setup a comfortable place to lay the frame. I couldn't easily make it vertical, but I chose our fireplace, because it gave me a lot a working room. Putting the frame on the floor presented more problems with my tripod, so I didn't go that direction. Second, I setup 2 flashes at about 40 degrees, each from camera axis. One, on the right was a Nikon SB-800 set on SU-4 mode. I measured the light w/ a Minolta IV-F flash meter, and it read f5.6.5 with ASA 200 and at 1/16 power (this was a good guess, because I wanted f8.0 for depth of field. The second flash I hand-held, because I didn't have another stand. This flash was a Nikon SB-80DX, and it read f8.0 at 1/16 power. How did I rationalize the flashes? The SB-800 was stronger, so I made it's power 1/16 -1/3, or down 1/3 stop from 1/16 power. Now when I measured both flashes w/ the Minolta, I got an exact f8.0. This was nice and lucky. Usually there is some plus/minus in tenths from what I want.

How did I sync the flashes? I used the D200's manual mode at 1/128 power (actually, no effect on exposure). The SB-800 was on SU-4 mode (triggered by a flash, not the Nikon CLS system), and the SB-80DX was on Remote (triggerd by a flash, not on-camera). the SB-800 was set at 50mm, while the SB-80DX was at 28mm (by oversight). This really didn't matter, because the camera was at 45 mm (67mm by 35mm stds), so the extra spread of the flashes evened out to be unnoticeable.

I merely had to adjust the angle of the camera to be coincident with the angle of the frame on the fireplace. Note, the flashes were about the same height as the camera, and equidistant from the picture frame. If I had to do it again, I would put the right-hand flash on a light-stand, something I should purchase soon (think, Manfrotte 3373 (5001B) lightweight). Note that I'm holding the left-hand flash with my left hand, and I attached a remote cord, which I used to trigger the camera/built-in flash. If I had the extra lightstand, I would not have had to use the remote cord.

Next Post: Self-Portrait w/ Light Signature

Lighting Slices of Fruit -- Experiments

I tried my hand at lighting fruit this past week. We received some blood oranges from a friend. I first arrange the halved oranges on a plate and took off-camera flash pictures. The flash was at a steep angle from the camera, off-left about 70-80 degrees. I could not seem to get the right amount of "sparkle" on the fruit. Either too much glare, or too little. I still gotta work on the angle, to rake the fruit.

To experiment more I sliced a thin piece of fruit from one the the blood orange halves. Because I didn't have a sheet of clear Plexiglas, I put the slice in a whisky glass, fashioned a blank piece of paper in front of my flash, and took a picture using TTL at +0.7 with my Nikon SB-800 as main. My on-camera D200 flash merely triggered the SB-800. There was no exposure coming from the on-camera flash. You can see the deep red colors of the blood orange, as well as some reflection from the glass.

To finalize the experiment, I went outside to the bright afternoon sun. I used a huge (24x30 inch) sheet of white opaque Plexiglas. After hydrating the slice with water (I didn't want to use oil or glycerin), I place the slice on the Plexiglas. I put the sun behind the Plexiglas/slice and took some images. Using matrix metering obviously underexposed the shot, due to the strong white back lighting. I then used spot-metering, and came up with the best exposure of +2.0 EV. However, the slice looks a bit washed out.

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Next time I will better plan the shot, including using a tripod...duh....Handholding the figuring out things on-the-fly just doesn't seem to work as well as a planned shot with tripods and lightstands.

Next Shot: Copying My Baby Picture Frame

Family Get-together, Kathy Wong's in Napa - January 2007

Taking Group Pictures
Family Get-togethers are priceless. How do I remember them? Is it the food, or the conversations, or the laughter? It's all three. So I try to get the message of togetherness by having all the family/friends gathers for a group picture. Group pictures on the spur of the moment are hectic to get. Not everyone knows what to do, and yet you've got to get everyone together in 15-20 minutes, or the attention-span withers. That's after you've selected an appropriate setting in which to place everyone--and to take the exposure/make the composition beforehand.

In this case we were at Kathy Wong's home in the Napa Hills. I knew the crowd was about 40-50 people, so I needed an area that would accommodate infants to 80+ year olds. While the front of her house allowed for a warm late afternoon sun, everyone would be too crowded, and I would have to have multiple rows of people. In this situation, someone is always hiding behind another's head, and the composition is fairly stiff. So I selected her back porch and stairwell. As the kids/infants were so much smaller, I elected to place them at the bottom of the back porch, and the adults, almost single-rowed, on the porch and stairwell. It worked out as a better composition.

Technical Stuff:
I had previously set up my Nikon SB-800 Flash on a lightstand, left of the camera at an angle of 30-40 degrees. I had taken an exposure with a Minolta IV-F flash meter, and made sure the aperture was as f8.0, one stop under for my camera setting of f5.6. The flash was on the manual setting of SU-4, which allowed remote firing from a flash from my aboard flash. Because my Nikon D200 was in the shop for repair, I was using my son's Sony F-828 digital camera, set on Aperture Priority, f5.6.

There's Always Something
Just before every shoot, there's many people who want you to take a picture, or who want to take a picture themselves. Of course, they need to be in the picture! That's the reason for the groups shot. So I had to polite tell those that I would send them pictures, because they needed to be in the picture...and everyone's getting ansy about having to wait and wait. Luckily, I relented with Danny Loh's camera, because it was like my Nikon; his was a D80, which I set on ASA 400 at f8.0, aperture priority.

Shoot Came Out Fine
The picture came out fine, but I re-composed my Sony F828, without realizing I had cut off people on the left. Luckily, when I shot with Danny's D80, I included everything, because I was used to the Nikon controls and viewfinder.

Afterwards
Danny Loh came up to try to understand how my flash fired with his camera. I gave him a lesson on Nikon Commander Mode, which he really wanted--for the first time he really understood what it took to make a camera with multiple flashes, on- and off-camera.

Next Post: Lighting Slices of Fruit