Strobes, Studio Equipment, Etc.
A little while ago I posted a bit about secrets regarding the unsung heroes of photo lighting gear. The non-sexy stuff that in a lot of cases counts a lot more than the gear most people salivate over (including me) like the latest greatest ultra cool flash head, or that mega-buck modifier, etc. Just to recount it boils down to grip/clamps of all sorts, gaffer tape, cinefoil, and shit tons of black and white foam-core.
That discussion was prompted by two distinct things. First up was having to make a few pictures for another photographer and lacking the afore mentioned non-sexy gear. Sure I improvised but really if you think about it all that non-sexy stuff is all about making improvising far more efficient. The other thing was that the 4x8 “white” sheets weren’t at all white, they were obviously very blue relative to neutral. A small item I pointed out in that post was how using a piece of cardboard as a flag introduced a reddish cast that stuck out like a sore thumb. Below is a BTS shot showing that piece of cardboard laying near the shot after being replaced with a black card we found where it might be a bit more clear. See the reddish cast being reflected off that cardboard onto the background?
The other day I was bored to death waiting around for something or other from a client all day so I made a few pictures. Specifically of crap laying around my kitchen. Just for the hell of it I decided to mess around with color and instead of avoiding reflected color casts (a true nightmare if you are trying to get rid of them in some locations, hell even your shirt can cause issues), I decided to embrace them.
One can probably guess as to how these were done but I’ll spell it out since a couple people messaged me on IG to ask about the how-to…
- A small card that’s dark on one side and white on the other. I cut a hole about 1.5in in diameter in the back of it.
- A Profoto B2 on a tiny stand behind the card shining thru the whole and bouncing off the vegetable (later fruit).
- A D2 head on a small boom stand with a 10 degree grid to camera left ever so gently feathered onto the side and top of the vegetable/fruit to light the front.
- Black foam-core on camera right to eliminate the bounce back from the Profoto D2 that was now pointing at a relatively close wall.
This was actually an experiment for something else I have in mind a bit more work/fashion related on a larger scale truth be told. As usual grip (boom stand), cinefoil, and foam-core are the real heroes. The B2 was bare and the D2 was just a grid, no additional reflectors etc. The cine-foil was absolutely required due to the damned light leak/spill out of the side of the grid adaptor (my only real complaint about the Profoto OCF grid set made for the LED modeling lamp heads but actually happens with almost all grids fitted to reflectors just not directly out the side).
I wasn’t at all happy with the candle stick I grabbed as the closest thing handy that happened to be the right height. The peppers were very limiting in terms of background tone as any brighter and the B2 was like an X-ray machine as peppers are more translucent than one would think. The asparagus looked way better without any stand. Hmm, no more big veggies. How about some fruit? Now what should I use to hold them in front of the hole? Wire? Nope, that would mean I’d have to like photoshop out the wire. Too lazy as the JPEG’s from the Fuji look fine. Hmmm, how about a knife. Yeah, that will do. Of course now I needed to hold the knife. Replace the small table with a c-stand and a clamp.
I got a bit carried away with things as once I broke out the black foam-core and cinefoil and additional grip/clamps. Things soon became an exercise in precision lighting of reflective objects and variations in background tone. I made a ton of variations with the knife showing many variations of white or black surfaces. I’m not really setup for shooting tiny product type of stuff in a tiny area, not my thing but a great exercise to remind one’s self about tiny changes produce profound differences.
End Notes
For anyone that cares, shot hand held with my beater Fuji XT-1 and 55–200XF (one of the best bargains in terms of glass on the planet as long as you don’t need wide apertures). Strait out of camera JPEG’s using the Velvia setting (I think that’s the first time I’ve ever used that as I kind of like the Pro-Neg Standard).
