Innovative light painting technique

[bradleyheathhays]

Hi I'm new and just getting back into photography to help promote the tables I build. I found another furniture maker on the net who explains a light painting technique where he uses a black background, 10 sec shutter speed and a flashlight to make professional looking photographs on a tight budget. I just bought a new T7 with the usual 18-55 kit lens and I plan on trying to duplicate his technique the best I can. But before I put a lot of effort into it I thought I'd run it past the knowledgeable people here for some advice and direction. The video will explain it better than I can. I edited it so it pretty much gets explained in the first minute of the video...

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7TYyO78XlU&feature=youtu.be


Any advice on how I can improve on his technique?

 

[Bobsyeruncle]

Have you tried it yet?

 

[Garry Edwards]

Light painting is a brilliant, creative technique, very useful for some specialist applications, for example artistic nude photography.

But it has serious drawbacks, not least of which is that it's impossible to obtain any type of consistency, and this rules it out for product photography, simply because every product needs a series of photos (usually 7 in total) that show it from various angles, and absolute consistency is vital.

Also, product photography needs to be honest (or at least not dishonest) and if the photos make the product look very different to what it is the customers will be unhappy.

By all means try it for yourself, but your solution here is to either employ a specialist furniture photographer to do it for you or to buy the lighting equipment you need and learn how to use it well.

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

I would agree with Garry. Consistency is your problem.
The technique is hardly innovative. it is almost as old as photography itself.
It can also be done with flash to light the exteriors of entire buildings .

In the 60's. the company I worked for specialised in manufacturing shop fittings, I was required to shoot their work all around the country largely by available light so as to not destroy their ambience. I also shot all the products and components in the studio for catalogue use.. Only on very few occasions was it appropriate to use a moving light as part of the lighting. however they also had a subsidiary that made occasional furniture for the retail market this included tea trolleys.

Tea trolleys are an abomination to shoot in a studio. they are far better done in a room set or live on location.
however the MD liked them to be shot on a white background with no context at all..
These particular pieces were the typical 50's 60's chrome and Formica monstrosities. all legs, shadows and excess highlights however you lit them.
They also had the problem that even in a large studio with a long lens and higher viewpoint, they looked all leg and no top. Now here I did cheat. I had special versions made with slightly shorter legs. that looked more like the real thing. than the things themselves.

When it came to lighting I used "reversed light painting". mostly I shone one stationery flood on to one of the studio walls, that gave a semi directional light, so as to give a degree of form to the trolley. The second flood was painted on to all the walls and ceiling. in a predetermined pattern and set time.
By experiment an ideal pattern and timing was established. that in effect provided a giant light tent.
This produced consistent results and virtually shadow free lighting. with both the trolley surfaces and shiny legs looking very natural.

However table tops of all kinds tend to reflect light and lose much of their surface detail. and needed the help of a polarising filter to bring out detail. this cut out most of the reflected light from the white background paper.

Furniture shooting always has special problems that need to be overcome. over time one can gain the necessary skills. but do not expect it to be easy.

I would rather see a table such as his in an up marked domestic location. with such pieces you are selling life style not a product.

 

[sirch]

You can do a lot with a single flash gun (speedlight to the yanks) for not much money and with a a long shutter you can manually fire it multiple times to get more light if needed but generally a bounced flash will happily light a room including a table.

 

[Garry Edwards]

However table tops of all kinds tend to reflect light and lose much of their surface detail. and needed the help of a polarising filter to bring out detail. this cut out most of the reflected light from the white background paper.

Furniture shooting always has special problems that need to be overcome. over time one can gain the necessary skills. but do not expect it to be easy.

I would rather see a table such as his in an up marked domestic location. with such pieces you are selling life style not a product.

Personally, I've only rarely found polarising screens to be either helpful or necessary, but I agree with your other comments.

You can do a lot with a single flash gun (speedlight to the yanks) for not much money and with a a long shutter you can manually fire it multiple times to get more light if needed but generally a bounced flash will happily light a room including a table.

Sadly, a single flashgun just isn't up to the lighting needs of this type of subject.

 

[HoppyUK]

Hi I'm new and just getting back into photography to help promote the tables I build. I found another furniture maker on the net who explains a light painting technique where he uses a black background, 10 sec shutter speed and a flashlight to make professional looking photographs on a tight budget. I just bought a new T7 with the usual 18-55 kit lens and I plan on trying to duplicate his technique the best I can. But before I put a lot of effort into it I thought I'd run it past the knowledgeable people here for some advice and direction. The video will explain it better than I can. I edited it so it pretty much gets explained in the first minute of the video...

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7TYyO78XlU&feature=youtu.be

Any advice on how I can improve on his technique?

Go for it! It's not a new technique but there is modern equipment and methods that can make things better and easier. You will need a variety of views so heed the warnings about consistency, accuracy and realism. This is not a walk in the park, far from it TBH, but it allows you do do things that would otherwise be impossible in a difficult situation or with limited budget.

The most common use of this technique is when you have a large subject and a small light, often when working space is tight. You can do it with flash, either speedlight flashgun or studio head with softbox, or with continuous light from an LED panel or even a torch. (Beware of colour accuracy with cheap LEDs.)

Flash is very bright so you don't always need to work in total darkness, but the current version of this technique is to take multiple single frames and merge them in Photoshop. This provides a lot more control, way more - and you'll need it. Common examples on YouTube are cars and real estate interiors.

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

Personally, I've only rarely found polarising screens to be either helpful or necessary, but I agree with your other comments.

Sadly, a single flashgun just isn't up to the lighting needs of this type of subject.

I would agree about polarisers for most studio work as they only work in a single plane.. However like shooting through water, many plastics and wood finishes on work tops, have a top polished seal of plastic or resin that prevents seeing the surface well at oblique angles. And a Polarizor helps show the detail in these situations.

 

[bradleyheathhays]

Thank you all so much for the great advice!

Firstly, no I haven't tried any shots yet; should begin within a few weeks. I have a large area to shoot in and a large black background so hopefully those will help in creating this shot.

Any suggestions for a good light source...torch?

And second, maybe for HoppyUK, I'd like to see this technique explained more...multiple single frames merged in Photoshop. Are there any tutorial or example videos you know of?

 

[HoppyUK]

Thank you all so much for the great advice!

Firstly, no I haven't tried any shots yet; should begin within a few weeks. I have a large area to shoot in and a large black background so hopefully those will help in creating this shot.

Any suggestions for a good light source...torch?

And second, maybe for HoppyUK, I'd like to see this technique explained more...multiple single frames merged in Photoshop. Are there any tutorial or example videos you know of?

As I mentioned above, search videos on shooting real estate interiors and cars, they're both subjects that commonly use multi-flash and compositing techniques in Photoshop. But unless you are well down the road on this - in terms of photo equipment, a fast PC and software, and most importantly some basic knowledge and understanding of photography - then you may need to decide if you're a quality furniture maker or a photographer.

 

[HoppyUK]

As I mentioned above, search videos on shooting real estate interiors and cars, they're both subjects that commonly use multi-flash and compositing techniques in Photoshop. But unless you are well down the road on this - in terms of photo equipment, a fast PC and software, and most importantly some basic knowledge and understanding of photography - then you may need to decide if you're a quality furniture maker or a photographer.

And as I also mentioned above, why not give it a try? A torch is far from ideal, but if you use that on a much smaller subject - maybe some household objects on the kitchen worktop - that will give you an idea of what's involved and a feel for the challenges.