Beginner Light Science & Magic - real world help.

Ajf350d

Ajf350d

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Andrew
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I bought the book last year and have been going through it and found it very helpful.
However I would like some advice on how to set up some of the examples in the book, especially where they use backgrounds with light behind them.
I only have a small room to work in, and also not really sure what sort of lighting, background etc I should look at?
It's mainly to try out the examples and also a bit of fun. It will only be smaller items - vases, flowers etc.
 
Difficult to answer that one :)

I think the best way forward is for you to simply do it, then post the results on here, so that we can identify the problems and make (hopefully helpful) suggestions
 
TBH I am not sure what the question is really. "Backgrounds with light behind them"?
 
I have had a quick scan through the blog and looks like it will be helpful thank you.

Perhaps I should have worded my post better.
In the book, primarily in the section on photographing glass they go through dark field and bright field technique, where they either use translucent background to the object with a light behind it which is diffused by the background, or a black background and a light behind it so the light only illuminates the edges.

As I have no lighting equipment at all, other than a flash I just really want to understand how people set these up and the sort of equipment used so I can look at investing in some.
I had thought maybe three or four small flashes (Yongnou or the Cactus which has rx/tx builtin) might work?
 
You can use a desk lamp(s), the exposures will just be longer. I know because that's how I first went through the lighting glass bottles with light/dark field sections of the book ;)
 
Well, if you scroll down the link to the Lencarta blog that you were given, you will find this one on brightfield lighting, and this one on darkfield lighting -simples.

I'm sure that LS&M does a much better job, mine are just very basic tutorials that hopefully explain the principles and show what can be done with an absolute minimum of equipment and in a tiny space - I did this basically because most of my tutorials involve much more space and more equipment
 
Thanks again.
I hadn't got that far through the blog, but those really help.
The setup photos are really what I wanted more than anything to see how the diagrams are setup in real life.

I think I may invest in a couple of lights and soft boxes.
I guess flash is more flexible as you can vary power more than with constant lighting.
 
ChrisHeathcote said:
The blogs Garry refers to helped me to get my head round the relevant techniques
Click to expand...
OFF TOPIC ALERT!

I was wondering who do you remind me on your avatar picture for a while now. I was watching "Would I lie to you" yesterday and now I know. David Mitchell! Nice to meet you. Though I do prefer Lee Mack ;)

/offtopic
 
Having read the book (and found it quite helpful in some ways), the easiest way to mimic some of their setups is to use a softbox over your flash/strobe. When you need a lightfield background, use the softbox as the background (it obviously needs to be big enough to fill the frame). Where you need to restrict the lightfield to just the size of the frame (plus a couple of cm) - e.g. in the glass lighting chapter - you'll need an assistant to help you mark the exact limit of the viewfinder frame dimensions onto the softbox with tape (you position the tape until they shout "can't see it" etc). Then cut a hole into a piece of black card to just these dimensions (plus a bit) - basically acting as a window frame for the softbox which is now your white (lit) background but precisely the dimensions of your viewfinder frame.

When you need a darkfield, you do the same but cut the hole slightly bigger than the area marked by the tape and keep the hole - this is your gobo to cover the softbox light so that only light around it passes towards the camera.

Not sure if that makes any sense at all, but hey ho! And yes, it's a real faff... sure there are easier ways!

Oh, and whatever you do, don't then go and nudge your tripod by accident after doing all of this! :eek:
 
pjm1 said:
Having read the book (and found it quite helpful in some ways), the easiest way to mimic some of their setups is to use a softbox over your flash/strobe. When you need a lightfield background, use the softbox as the background (it obviously needs to be big enough to fill the frame). Where you need to restrict the lightfield to just the size of the frame (plus a couple of cm) - e.g. in the glass lighting chapter - you'll need an assistant to help you mark the exact limit of the viewfinder frame dimensions onto the softbox with tape (you position the tape until they shout "can't see it" etc). Then cut a hole into a piece of black card to just these dimensions (plus a bit) - basically acting as a window frame for the softbox which is now your white (lit) background but precisely the dimensions of your viewfinder frame.

When you need a darkfield, you do the same but cut the hole slightly bigger than the area marked by the tape and keep the hole - this is your gobo to cover the softbox light so that only light around it passes towards the camera.

Not sure if that makes any sense at all, but hey ho! And yes, it's a real faff... sure there are easier ways!

Oh, and whatever you do, don't then go and nudge your tripod by accident after doing all of this! :eek:
Click to expand...

IIRC one way to get the "mask" dimensions is to use a small powerful torch and shine it through the veiwfinder of the camera - it "projects" the light out, past the (say) bottle, and onto the backing sheet - the shadow cast is the outline of your dark/lightfield mask... It does need a very focused beam torch - I used yo use a mini-maglite, but these days I guess i'd be using something like the little Cree LED jobs, provided it had a pencil beam.
 
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pjm1 said:
Having read the book (and found it quite helpful in some ways), the easiest way to mimic some of their setups is to use a softbox over your flash/strobe. When you need a lightfield background, use the softbox as the background (it obviously needs to be big enough to fill the frame). Where you need to restrict the lightfield to just the size of the frame (plus a couple of cm) - e.g. in the glass lighting chapter - you'll need an assistant to help you mark the exact limit of the viewfinder frame dimensions onto the softbox with tape (you position the tape until they shout "can't see it" etc). Then cut a hole into a piece of black card to just these dimensions (plus a bit) - basically acting as a window frame for the softbox which is now your white (lit) background but precisely the dimensions of your viewfinder frame.

When you need a darkfield, you do the same but cut the hole slightly bigger than the area marked by the tape and keep the hole - this is your gobo to cover the softbox light so that only light around it passes towards the camera.

Not sure if that makes any sense at all, but hey ho! And yes, it's a real faff... sure there are easier ways!

Oh, and whatever you do, don't then go and nudge your tripod by accident after doing all of this! :eek:
Click to expand...

The bit about the darkfield is pretty much exactly how I do mine black background shots, except I just lean a piece of black foam core against the soft box and make sure none of the white is visible in the viewfinder
 
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