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Never heard of them!
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Photographing knives
- Thread starter Garry Edwards
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Never heard of them!
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I think a scrim is used to reduce output while a silk is diffusion material. Depending on material both can be made to do both jobs. Maybe.I thought they were interchangeable terms
Now I'll wait for Garry to correct me.
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In the TV & Film world scrims are usually mesh gauze type thing which fit on the front of the fixture. They have varying size of mesh too. A silk is a fabric which can be used to diffuse or reflect or sometimes to gently reduce the fall off, depending on how they are rigged. Scrims come in diameters to fit the various lamp heads, silks can be as big as 40' x 40' ....
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Scrims also come in graduated or 1/2.
But in the USA (and elsewhere?) a "scrim" is also diffusion material (taken from theater lighting). So yeah, they are rather interchangeable terms... at least here/now.
I guess the easy way to think of them is that "a scrim" adjusts power/intensity and "a silk" adjusts size.
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I'll explain it then
Only interchangeable in YouTube videos and online tutorials from "experts" - and from people with poor command of the English language, e.g. AmericansI thought they were interchangeable terms
You have now....
Not much correction needed.
Not far out. The only correction I would make to that is that scrims can be as big as you like too, in the film industry they are used almost as a neutral density gel, to reduce the amount of light falling on the subject as well as to diffuse the light, and this is done when there is a need to overpower the ambient light.
My definition:
A silk is a sheet of diffusion material, inevitably it will also reduce the amount of light reaching the subject but that's just a by product, just as a large scrim is used to reduce the amount of light reaching the subject but, as a by product, also diffuses the light.
Many people use a silk instead of a softbox, just to get a softbox effect at very low cost, or to get a bigger "softbox". Typically, a silk will be a bedsheet or a shower curtain, both of which work fine, and typically they will be stretched tight over a frame of some kind, to avoid sagging and wrinkles.
In my knives shoot, I used a silk instead of a softbox, lit unevenly, and without stretching it over a frame, in order to achieve a specific lighting effect.
A scrim is basically a light stopper, often made of mesh, and is available in all sorts of strengths. As Paul says, they are often fitted over the front of a light, to act as a ND gel, but because they are then made of metal they can withstand the heat of the lights, which ND gels can't (to the same extent).
In still photography, we use them for the same reason, for example an outdoor photo of a car in bright sunlight will typically involve a very large scrim that's held suspended over the top of the car, to reduce the amount of light reaching the bonnet, boot and roof.
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This is Garrys equivalent of an exciting cinema trailer, to get you in to see the rest of the film
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Only interchangeable in YouTube videos and online tutorials from "experts" - and from people with poor command of the English language, e.g. Americans
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Not having it stretched over a frame is just another, additional way of getting the lighting uneven, also the light that reaches the subject is coming from more directions - I think it will make sense when you see the tutorial.
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Here is an example taken using a softbox, this is a very shiny blade... Straight out of camera
Same knife, lit with the silk. This one has been cut out of the background, but otherwise is SOOC
Here's a cu, again SOOC except for the cutting out
The point that I'm trying to make here is that the silk has done a much better job - and has made the job much more easier and has also de-skilled it - than a softbox could have done. Using skill and great care, a softbox would have produced an acceptable (but different) result, but the light placement would have been so critical that there would have been a lot of fiddly adjustment for literally every shot - and when there are 90+ products, and at least 7 shot of each, that makes the difference between earning money from the shoot and swapping £ notes with the client
Using the silk made this job much easier, and all that really needed to be done on an individual basis was to move around the honeycombed flash heads that skimmed across the surface, which was the work of a moment or two.
I never show any retouched shots in my tutorials as I consider that to be deceptive. Yes, we've cut some of these out of the background (because from a lighting viewpoint it's much better to light the product only and not to try to get a white background in camera, which would have affected the lighting on the products. On the final photos there will be some retouching, but this will be limited to what I consider to be essential, e.g. in the shot above we need to clean up the bit where the handle is bolted to the blade, and there seems to be rust in the screw holes.
Same knife, lit with the silk. This one has been cut out of the background, but otherwise is SOOC
Here's a cu, again SOOC except for the cutting out
The point that I'm trying to make here is that the silk has done a much better job - and has made the job much more easier and has also de-skilled it - than a softbox could have done. Using skill and great care, a softbox would have produced an acceptable (but different) result, but the light placement would have been so critical that there would have been a lot of fiddly adjustment for literally every shot - and when there are 90+ products, and at least 7 shot of each, that makes the difference between earning money from the shoot and swapping £ notes with the client
Using the silk made this job much easier, and all that really needed to be done on an individual basis was to move around the honeycombed flash heads that skimmed across the surface, which was the work of a moment or two.
I never show any retouched shots in my tutorials as I consider that to be deceptive. Yes, we've cut some of these out of the background (because from a lighting viewpoint it's much better to light the product only and not to try to get a white background in camera, which would have affected the lighting on the products. On the final photos there will be some retouching, but this will be limited to what I consider to be essential, e.g. in the shot above we need to clean up the bit where the handle is bolted to the blade, and there seems to be rust in the screw holes.
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Wow, what a difference. Very nice.
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Made it look a bit like Damascus steel...
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A little bit yes...
It isn't accurate and maybe it's a bit deceptive, but that's product photography for you
On the actual Damascus steel products, and indeed on everything that isn't highly polished, it doesn't obviously reflect the structure of the silk.
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Totally digressing from knives for a second. ...I've been asked to photograph a friend and her horse sometime next year. I know nowt about horses other than that they can be stubborn and can lash out unexpectedly.
I'd very much like to see how to do a proper shoot of a horse and rider.
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With a well trained horse and a GOOD rider, they're pretty predictable, and not only will they never deliberately hurt a human but they will also do their best to avoid hurting them, so you should be safe enough if you position yourself somewhere where the horse shouldn't be putting its feet...
The main problem really is that unless you really know your subject, it's odds on that the feet will be in the wrong position, the ears will be wrong and everything else will be wrong too
The best advice I can give you is to
1. Get the owner to confirm that it's looking right before you take each shot (always make everything that's wrong someone else's fault
)2. Take lots of shots.
3. If you're using flash, get the horse very used to the noise that it makes slowly (start with the horse a long way away from the flash) before you start taking shots
This is by no means the best of the ones I've got, there are some in a fast canter with the legs well extended and just the right amount of subject blur, but this is one that's actually on my computer - most have been sent to someone else for PP
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I presume "cu" is cutout?
The handle looks up in the air on the first shot, ie blade heavy.
The silk definitely makes a difference though.
The handle looks up in the air on the first shot, ie blade heavy.
The silk definitely makes a difference though.
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Thanks for that. Am I right in assuming that flash won't spook the horse (he's called Lennard!)With a well trained horse and a GOOD rider, they're pretty predictable, and not only will they never deliberately hurt a human but they will also do their best to avoid hurting them, so you should be safe enough if you position yourself somewhere where the horse shouldn't be putting its feet...
The main problem really is that unless you really know your subject, it's odds on that the feet will be in the wrong position, the ears will be wrong and everything else will be wrong too
The best advice I can give you is to
1. Get the owner to confirm that it's looking right before you take each shot (always make everything that's wrong someone else's fault
2. Take lots of shots.
3. If you're using flash, get the horse very used to the noise that it makes slowly (start with the horse a long way away from the flash) before you start taking shots
View attachment 77113
This is by no means the best of the ones I've got, there are some in a fast canter with the legs well extended and just the right amount of subject blur, but this is one that's actually on my computer - most have been sent to someone else for PP
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Personal experience is that flash does not bother horses, flapping soft boxes do in fact anything the horse can not understand - flash however disturbs the rider, horse reacts to rider and then you have issues - as Gary says intrduce the horse slowly to the area of the flash
depends what you are actually photographing, action or a posed horse like this
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cu = close up
Yes, the handle is up in the air in that example shot, in the actual shots I took much more are with the positioning, Blu-tak is king
Some horses do get spooked, it depends on it's temperament and training. But personally (not that I'm an expert) I've found that a bit of conditioning works wonders, i.e. just fire the flash at low power, and a long way away, until it no longer reacts to the noise, and then gradually increase the power, and then gradually move the horse closer and closer. Some horse owners are idiots though, and instead of ignoring the horse when it spooks, they reassure it, which tell it that there is something to worry about... We used a couple of our Safari units, 600 Ws each, and although they don't notice the actual flash, the crack that it makes does bother some of them.
Same approach when I used to train gundogs, years ago - I used to fire a blank from a little starting pistol, from 50 yards away whilst it was busy eating, and after a few minutes I could fire a 12 bore shotgun from a couple of feet away
EDIT: That's a nice shot Mike.
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@mike weeks I hope Gary isn't upset at this intrusion into his thread. I was going to start a thread when the shoot is pencilled in, but saw the opportunity. It wo'nt be a paid shoot at all. She has the horse; I have the camera. I only have Canon 580 flash guns which will have to suffice.
Can I be cheeky and ask if you have any other horse shots available to view? I'll be quite open and say that I'm looking for ideas to copy!
Can I be cheeky and ask if you have any other horse shots available to view? I'll be quite open and say that I'm looking for ideas to copy!
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I'm sure that Mike can help, he photographs a lot of horses.
Garry only gets upset when people mis-spell his name
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I guess that's up to the client... but personally I think the "de-skilled" approach less than optimal for this particular subject.A little bit yes...
It isn't accurate and maybe it's a bit deceptive, but that's product photography for you
Nor are less reflective subjects as critical of softbox placement.
Don't get me wrong, I understand the what/why and I don't really have a problem w/ it...
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Steven, I take your point and I don't necessarily disagree with you but...
The reality is that when
1. When the client is happy, I have to be happy
2. There are a large number of products, each requiring multiple shots, using a system that works well and efficiently and that makes the products look good is what matters
3. Take a look at the business forum here, there are loads of posts from people who think that they're pro product photographers who are asking how much to charge for product photography, and other people are telling them to charge silly cheap prices - which is perhaps fair enough because most of them haven't got a clue how to photograph any products anyway, but the fact of the matter is that clients (small ones at least) are being "educated" into believing that anyone and everyone can do product photography at a low price.
4. Amazon are now selling horrible LED light tents themselves (at inflated prices) so that their sellers can produce "professional" photos to sell their products on Amazon.
Some people who call themselves pro photographers must be working for minimum pay or less, I'm never going to work for less than the pay of a member of parliament, because I'm worth more than that, so I devise and use workflow processes that are cost effective and efficient.
So I try to de-skill the job where possible, that is, when I can use a tool such as a silk that allows a fast workflow, I'll use it. Usually, "de-skill" means worse, but it doesn't need to.
For this type of subject it's every bit as good as a large softbox, and for many products it's better as well as easier and quicker. To be honest with you, the real skills here are the correct use of honeycombed lights, to reveal the texture of the handle etc and to reveal the engraving on the blade - that's quite enought to think about without having to worry about changing the position of a softbox for every shot
At an amateur level, i.e when I'm photographing something for a charity that I believe in, or for myself, I don't count my time and sometimes make my life difficult by overcomplicating things, but for a commercial job my time does count. This tutorial, when I manage to finish it, will really be almost as much about approach from a marketing perspective as about photographing shiny things.
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I understand and agree. Especially with the "fast and good enough" aspect, not that I particularly like it... I mean it is always (has always been) a balance of time/effort/money in business, but the emphasis has certainly shifted over the years.
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This tutorial sounds better and better.
Would you consider doing one about pricing and negotiating at some point?
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Sorry but no, there are other people who could do that much better.
I've been lucky in life, apart from some very lean periods many years ago I've always been in a position to turn away work that I don't want, and have rarely needed to negotiate with clients, they either accept my prices or they don't - and effectively I'm pretty much retired now, in the sense that it is now very unusual for me to take on any outside work at all, I have enough to do for Lencarta, and I'm going to retire from there in a few weeks anyway.
But I am going to make this into a series of tutorials covering various aspects that are much more business-related, most of it is still in my head but the areas covered will definately cover
1. Preparation
2. Lighting/photography
3. Graphics for the webpages
4. Post procecessing - which I keep to the absolute minimum but I plan to get a member of staff to produce a video showing how to cut the subject out of the background - necessary in my opinion because if people try to get a white background in camera they reduce the quality of the lighting, and a lot of people don't seem to know how to cut things out quickly, efficiently and well.
Marketing of the products, which is definately part of the photography process. This is a good subject for this, as a lot of people don't like knives and so they need to presented as the tools that they are, and not as weapons - just like guns.
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Sounds great. Really looking forward to this series. Thanks for making all this effort for us Garry, esp as you are looking to reclaim more personal time.
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Has this tutorial been posted yet? Not sure where to look.
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No, pressure of work...
But we're getting there, and it seems that we're planning to shoot the remaining part of the video today.
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We ran out of time today, so the video hasn't been done yet. For obvious reasons, the written tutorial can't be published yet, but let's see whether the software here allows me to publish the contents... OK, it sort of does, but without the photos. Never mind, it may be better than nothing, so here it is. Even though the photos aren't showing, TP thinks that they are and won't allow so many, so I've split it into 2 posts
Let's be clear about this - knives come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and finishes and no one tutorial can possibly cover every minute detail of this large subject. And the more closely I've looked at this subject, the more obvious it has become to me that we need to cover it as fully as possible, so I'm splitting this tutorial into various very different but very important parts...
Part 1 deals with the lighting and photography of sheath knives, otherwise known as fixed blade knives.
Part 2 deals with the lighting and photography of folding knives, or pocket knives, because there are differences in approach.
Part 3 deals with the post processing work - although the finished photos are presented against a white background, for quality reasons we cut them out of the background in post production and I think it will be helpful to show how to do this efficiently, quickly and well.
Part 4 deals with the marketing aspects. Marketing is very much part of the photographer's job and is always vitally important, and with a subject such as this, which needs to show them as tools rather than weapons, it is vital that the photographer produces photos that help with the marketing.
Lighting and photography, sheath knives
Some knives have a very, very shiny surface - kitchen knives for example - and there is little or no detail to be seen on the blade - these are photographed differently to the knives that I've photographed here, which are basically what I would describe as outdoor knives, as used by farmers, campers, climbers, shooters, hunters and so on. Kitchen knives are typically photographed with light bounced off of large reflective surfaces such as 8' x 4' polystyrene insulating sheets. This simple and effective method produces pretty pictures that make the products look good.
Most of "our" knives have a surface that is shiny, but unlike kitchen knives the blades usually include detail too, whether it's a maker's logo or something else, and the name of the game here is to produce shots that show all of this detail, because it's important to the customers.
All that I'm attempting to cover in this tutorial is the studio photography of these knives, for the seller's website. Generally, websites need to show consistency and uniformity. The first job of a website (for any product) is to show the potential customers exactly what's on offer, so the main pic shows the product's general qualities. If that's what the customers are looking for then they will usually drill down and look at more detailed shots. Because of this, the shots are all against a white background, whether or not that's the ideal background colour for a particular product.
Preparation
The first thing that we need to do about any product that we're going to photograph it is to understand it - let's not be 'precious' about our role as photographer, we are in reality just a technician who understands how to photograph things, but if we don't understand the qualities and important benefits of that product then we can't photograph it well.
Some photographers work in isolation, with the client simply delivering the product and leaving it to the photographer, but unless the photographer is a real expert in the subject (and nobody can be expert at everything) s/he cannot appreciate what needs to be shown in the photo. Sometimes, research can help and we may find something like this, which shows not only the names of the component parts but also explains their significance. However if we, as photographers, don't have that info then it makes sense to have the client, or a senior member of their marketing team, present at the shoot to advise. Not only does this improve the quality and value of the photos, it also makes it the client's fault if the photos don't show what really matters to them
Products for photography must always be scrupulously clean, and so before starting the photography all of the metal parts were thoroughly cleaned, using isopropyl alcohol. You'll see that I'm wearing gloves in the video. I hate wearing gloves, but it isn't optional, as every tiny fingermark will show on the photos, and the name of the game is to photograph clean products, not to deal with avoidable problems later in post processing.
Approach
The approach to the job is identical to every other photography job.
1. Work out exactly what it is that you need to show in the photo
2. Work out the exact angle needed for the shot, place the product in that position and mark it in some way so that you can replicate the angle for the other products (a bit of sticky tape, just out of shot, a line drawn on the surface of the shooting table or similar, or a laser beam, which does the same job.
3. Get the camera in exactly the right position and at exactly the right height, and lock it firmly in place with either a really stable tripod or a studio stand.
4. Arrange the lighting. The lighting comes last because light position is affected by both position (No.2) and camera height (No.3)
None of these shots are "artistic", instead they are technical shots that show the customers what they're going to get if they press the "buy" button, and hopefully they will look at the more detailed shots before making their decision. More arty shots, typically showing the knife with a log or something similar as the background, are fine but they don't do the complete job. Shots like these, which may also include props such as fishing rods, climbing boots and so on will be taken later, on location. If, for example, the knife is made by Browning, then I may include a Browning shotgun in the outdoor shots. For these shots, the product ends up looking good but the detail won't show well enough.
A typical softbox arrangement, not used here
If you've spent time in our Learning Centre then you'll know that, to photograph any shiny surface, it's essential to light it with a light source (usually a softbox) that's at least 3 times the size of the subject and as close as you can get it. All is explained here but we don't want to use such a blunt lighting tool for our knives, because the diffused specular highlight (the reflection of the light source) is too bland (and maybe too technically correct) for our subject.
Also, regardless of the angle of the softbox, it's difficult to get an attractive result with something that's as shiny as some of these knives.
The shot lit by the softbox, below, illustrates this. I could have fiddled around to get a better result but I knew that it couldn't produce what I was actually looking for, and also if I used a softbox for this I would need to adjust its position for nearly every shot, so I used a silk instead*. A silk is just a large piece of diffusion material, and the cheapest (and one of the best) is a plastic shower curtain. People often use silks instead of softboxes, not because of their special qualities, but because they can get a really big silk for
A closeup of the silk used, which is actually a shower curtain from Tesco
a fraction of the cost of a softbox, they then make up a simple wooden or plastic piping frame, stretch the silk really taut and then light it with a softbox shining through it, to get really even lighting, and there's nothing wrong with that, but their reasoning is different to mine.
I used a silk because I didn't want the smooth, even lighting produced by a softbox, not only did I not make it taut, I got myself a fancy one with stripes built into it, this has produced subtle patterns in the blade of each knife, which helps to both enhance and reveal its texture.
The photo above is lit with the softbox and the photo below is lit with the silk. They were photographed at different times and their position isn't identical, but the exposure is identical.
Straight out of camera, lit with Silk
Cut out of background, but with no retouching yet
And here is the next stage of the shot of this knife, after cutting it out of the white background. We find it easier to get consistent results by cutting the subject out of the background to achieve a white background, and more importantly, by cutting it out rather than underlighting the background to make it white, we avoid all risk of lens flare, and also avoid all risk of excess light eating away at fine edge detail.
*Some people use the word Scrim as an alternative to Silk. A Scrim is in fact a totally different lighting tool, which is normally used outdoors in bright sunlight, and which was developed for the movie industry. A silk is a sheet of diffusion material, inevitably it will also reduce the amount of light reaching the subject but that's just a by product, just as a large scrim is used to reduce the amount of light reaching the subject but, as a by product, it may also diffuse the light.
A scrim is basically a light stopper, often made of mesh, and is available in all sorts of strengths. They are often fitted over the front of a movie light, to act as a ND gel, but because they are then made of metal they can withstand the heat of the lights, which ND gels can't (to the same extent).
In still photography, we use them for the same reason, for example an outdoor photo of a car in bright sunlight will typically involve a very large scrim that's held suspended over the top of the car, to reduce the amount of light reaching the bonnet, boot and roof.
BTS shot, showing the lighting arrangement used for most of the shots
And I didn't light the silk with a softbox either, I just used a flash head with a standard reflector fitted, and I did this because, again, I didn't want the lighting to be too even. The BTS shot shows that the lighting made the silk bright in the centre, and fading out to unlit.
This was a commercial shoot, with a lot of similar but different knives to photograph, and to make it cost effective I needed to set up a system that allowed me to work efficiently, which I'll come back to later. If you're doing it as a lighting exercise, or because you want to photograph just one or two knives, then you can get by with a lot less equipment than I've used.
Let me explain that.
The silk produced overall, fairly soft lighting, from behind and above the knife, and the light is hitting the knife from a multitude of angles, and doesn't blow out the shiny blade surface. But although that's generally all that's needed for the actual blade, extra lighting is needed to reveal the details. Here's the first shot, with just the lighting silk
In each case, I used an extra flash head fitted with a really tight honeycomb, with a 10 degree angle, to light a specific part of the knife from a specific angle.
You can see the effect of these in the photos below. As with all of the shots in my tutorials, these are literally straight out of camera, with no post processing work carried out, because I want you to see exactly what the lighting does. Obviously, necessary post processing work, including cutting the subject out of the background, will be done later and we will show you exactly how this is done in part 3.
Let's be clear about this - knives come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and finishes and no one tutorial can possibly cover every minute detail of this large subject. And the more closely I've looked at this subject, the more obvious it has become to me that we need to cover it as fully as possible, so I'm splitting this tutorial into various very different but very important parts...
Part 1 deals with the lighting and photography of sheath knives, otherwise known as fixed blade knives.
Part 2 deals with the lighting and photography of folding knives, or pocket knives, because there are differences in approach.
Part 3 deals with the post processing work - although the finished photos are presented against a white background, for quality reasons we cut them out of the background in post production and I think it will be helpful to show how to do this efficiently, quickly and well.
Part 4 deals with the marketing aspects. Marketing is very much part of the photographer's job and is always vitally important, and with a subject such as this, which needs to show them as tools rather than weapons, it is vital that the photographer produces photos that help with the marketing.
Lighting and photography, sheath knives
Some knives have a very, very shiny surface - kitchen knives for example - and there is little or no detail to be seen on the blade - these are photographed differently to the knives that I've photographed here, which are basically what I would describe as outdoor knives, as used by farmers, campers, climbers, shooters, hunters and so on. Kitchen knives are typically photographed with light bounced off of large reflective surfaces such as 8' x 4' polystyrene insulating sheets. This simple and effective method produces pretty pictures that make the products look good.
Most of "our" knives have a surface that is shiny, but unlike kitchen knives the blades usually include detail too, whether it's a maker's logo or something else, and the name of the game here is to produce shots that show all of this detail, because it's important to the customers.
All that I'm attempting to cover in this tutorial is the studio photography of these knives, for the seller's website. Generally, websites need to show consistency and uniformity. The first job of a website (for any product) is to show the potential customers exactly what's on offer, so the main pic shows the product's general qualities. If that's what the customers are looking for then they will usually drill down and look at more detailed shots. Because of this, the shots are all against a white background, whether or not that's the ideal background colour for a particular product.
Preparation
The first thing that we need to do about any product that we're going to photograph it is to understand it - let's not be 'precious' about our role as photographer, we are in reality just a technician who understands how to photograph things, but if we don't understand the qualities and important benefits of that product then we can't photograph it well.
Some photographers work in isolation, with the client simply delivering the product and leaving it to the photographer, but unless the photographer is a real expert in the subject (and nobody can be expert at everything) s/he cannot appreciate what needs to be shown in the photo. Sometimes, research can help and we may find something like this, which shows not only the names of the component parts but also explains their significance. However if we, as photographers, don't have that info then it makes sense to have the client, or a senior member of their marketing team, present at the shoot to advise. Not only does this improve the quality and value of the photos, it also makes it the client's fault if the photos don't show what really matters to them
Products for photography must always be scrupulously clean, and so before starting the photography all of the metal parts were thoroughly cleaned, using isopropyl alcohol. You'll see that I'm wearing gloves in the video. I hate wearing gloves, but it isn't optional, as every tiny fingermark will show on the photos, and the name of the game is to photograph clean products, not to deal with avoidable problems later in post processing.
Approach
The approach to the job is identical to every other photography job.
1. Work out exactly what it is that you need to show in the photo
2. Work out the exact angle needed for the shot, place the product in that position and mark it in some way so that you can replicate the angle for the other products (a bit of sticky tape, just out of shot, a line drawn on the surface of the shooting table or similar, or a laser beam, which does the same job.
3. Get the camera in exactly the right position and at exactly the right height, and lock it firmly in place with either a really stable tripod or a studio stand.
4. Arrange the lighting. The lighting comes last because light position is affected by both position (No.2) and camera height (No.3)
None of these shots are "artistic", instead they are technical shots that show the customers what they're going to get if they press the "buy" button, and hopefully they will look at the more detailed shots before making their decision. More arty shots, typically showing the knife with a log or something similar as the background, are fine but they don't do the complete job. Shots like these, which may also include props such as fishing rods, climbing boots and so on will be taken later, on location. If, for example, the knife is made by Browning, then I may include a Browning shotgun in the outdoor shots. For these shots, the product ends up looking good but the detail won't show well enough.
A typical softbox arrangement, not used here
If you've spent time in our Learning Centre then you'll know that, to photograph any shiny surface, it's essential to light it with a light source (usually a softbox) that's at least 3 times the size of the subject and as close as you can get it. All is explained here but we don't want to use such a blunt lighting tool for our knives, because the diffused specular highlight (the reflection of the light source) is too bland (and maybe too technically correct) for our subject.
Also, regardless of the angle of the softbox, it's difficult to get an attractive result with something that's as shiny as some of these knives.
The shot lit by the softbox, below, illustrates this. I could have fiddled around to get a better result but I knew that it couldn't produce what I was actually looking for, and also if I used a softbox for this I would need to adjust its position for nearly every shot, so I used a silk instead*. A silk is just a large piece of diffusion material, and the cheapest (and one of the best) is a plastic shower curtain. People often use silks instead of softboxes, not because of their special qualities, but because they can get a really big silk for
A closeup of the silk used, which is actually a shower curtain from Tesco
a fraction of the cost of a softbox, they then make up a simple wooden or plastic piping frame, stretch the silk really taut and then light it with a softbox shining through it, to get really even lighting, and there's nothing wrong with that, but their reasoning is different to mine.
I used a silk because I didn't want the smooth, even lighting produced by a softbox, not only did I not make it taut, I got myself a fancy one with stripes built into it, this has produced subtle patterns in the blade of each knife, which helps to both enhance and reveal its texture.
The photo above is lit with the softbox and the photo below is lit with the silk. They were photographed at different times and their position isn't identical, but the exposure is identical.
Straight out of camera, lit with Silk
Cut out of background, but with no retouching yet
And here is the next stage of the shot of this knife, after cutting it out of the white background. We find it easier to get consistent results by cutting the subject out of the background to achieve a white background, and more importantly, by cutting it out rather than underlighting the background to make it white, we avoid all risk of lens flare, and also avoid all risk of excess light eating away at fine edge detail.
*Some people use the word Scrim as an alternative to Silk. A Scrim is in fact a totally different lighting tool, which is normally used outdoors in bright sunlight, and which was developed for the movie industry. A silk is a sheet of diffusion material, inevitably it will also reduce the amount of light reaching the subject but that's just a by product, just as a large scrim is used to reduce the amount of light reaching the subject but, as a by product, it may also diffuse the light.
A scrim is basically a light stopper, often made of mesh, and is available in all sorts of strengths. They are often fitted over the front of a movie light, to act as a ND gel, but because they are then made of metal they can withstand the heat of the lights, which ND gels can't (to the same extent).
In still photography, we use them for the same reason, for example an outdoor photo of a car in bright sunlight will typically involve a very large scrim that's held suspended over the top of the car, to reduce the amount of light reaching the bonnet, boot and roof.
BTS shot, showing the lighting arrangement used for most of the shots
And I didn't light the silk with a softbox either, I just used a flash head with a standard reflector fitted, and I did this because, again, I didn't want the lighting to be too even. The BTS shot shows that the lighting made the silk bright in the centre, and fading out to unlit.
This was a commercial shoot, with a lot of similar but different knives to photograph, and to make it cost effective I needed to set up a system that allowed me to work efficiently, which I'll come back to later. If you're doing it as a lighting exercise, or because you want to photograph just one or two knives, then you can get by with a lot less equipment than I've used.
Let me explain that.
The silk produced overall, fairly soft lighting, from behind and above the knife, and the light is hitting the knife from a multitude of angles, and doesn't blow out the shiny blade surface. But although that's generally all that's needed for the actual blade, extra lighting is needed to reveal the details. Here's the first shot, with just the lighting silk
In each case, I used an extra flash head fitted with a really tight honeycomb, with a 10 degree angle, to light a specific part of the knife from a specific angle.
You can see the effect of these in the photos below. As with all of the shots in my tutorials, these are literally straight out of camera, with no post processing work carried out, because I want you to see exactly what the lighting does. Obviously, necessary post processing work, including cutting the subject out of the background, will be done later and we will show you exactly how this is done in part 3.
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Lit with the overhead silk only, it's lighting the blade but a lot more needs to be done
With a honeycombed light added from the right
And with another honeycombed light added from the left
I didn't want these extra lights in literally every shot, so instead of moving flash heads around to achieve specific lighting effects, I placed a number of them in position and just switched them on and off as required, and adjusted their power, using our Wavesync Commander remote control system. This is where you can manage with much less equipment, because you can simply move a single flash head around as necessary.
Each main shot was taken from the same basic angle, regardless of the design of the knife, with the handle slightly towards the camera. This creates consistency and also shows the design and qualities of the handle, which is important because the handle is what people actually hold, and if the handle is badly designed people will find the knife uncomfortable to hold, and perhaps even dangerous.
We started off with fixed blade (sheath) knives, and then moved on to folding knives. There are differences in approach, and we'll cover the folding knives in our next tutorial, in a week or so.
Different knives, same lighting:
Using a lighting silk in the way that I did has created some patterning and interest on each knife blade which, with the accent lights from the honeycombed lights both left and right, has revealed and emphasised the detail on the very shiny Browning knife I talked about earlier. But it worked well enough on other types of knife too. The one below is made from Damascus steel. If you're not familiar with Damascus, it's a very old process that involves placing different metals (steel for strength and iron for hardness) together, and a highly skilled worker then folds and beats the metal, time and time again, and ends up with a strong, hard metal that also has a distinctive pattern to it.
Damascus knife, straight out of camera
A different type of Damascus knife
Another Damascus knife, straight out of camera
Depth of field
These knives vary in length from about 5cm to maybe 20cm - all of them are pretty small and when we shoot at close distances we have a potential issue with depth of field. I used a "full frame" Nikon or Canon camera for these shots, and shot all of the main photos at f/16, which gave the maximum depth of field combined with acceptable image sharpness - in theory I could have closed down to f/22 but doing so would have introduced a degree of diffraction limitation, which would have made the images unsharp.
Cut out of background, still with no retouching
Cut out of the background, still with no retouching
With the closeup shots, I had to add an extension tube and was shooting at very close distances, where the depth of field is even less, and because of the extension I was typically shooting at around f/8, which reduces the depth of field even more. I could have used a tilt/shift lens to shift the plane of sharp focus and (effectively) increase the depth of field but I didn't, and instead chose to get only the part that I was trying to show in sharp focus, letting the parts that were not important to that particular shot go out of focus, which draws the eye to what I want people to look at.
If it's important to get front-to-back sharpness, it’s best to avoid the depth of field issue either by using a tilt shift lens or by getting the subject square to the camera.
With a honeycombed light added from the right
And with another honeycombed light added from the left
I didn't want these extra lights in literally every shot, so instead of moving flash heads around to achieve specific lighting effects, I placed a number of them in position and just switched them on and off as required, and adjusted their power, using our Wavesync Commander remote control system. This is where you can manage with much less equipment, because you can simply move a single flash head around as necessary.
Each main shot was taken from the same basic angle, regardless of the design of the knife, with the handle slightly towards the camera. This creates consistency and also shows the design and qualities of the handle, which is important because the handle is what people actually hold, and if the handle is badly designed people will find the knife uncomfortable to hold, and perhaps even dangerous.
We started off with fixed blade (sheath) knives, and then moved on to folding knives. There are differences in approach, and we'll cover the folding knives in our next tutorial, in a week or so.
Different knives, same lighting:
Using a lighting silk in the way that I did has created some patterning and interest on each knife blade which, with the accent lights from the honeycombed lights both left and right, has revealed and emphasised the detail on the very shiny Browning knife I talked about earlier. But it worked well enough on other types of knife too. The one below is made from Damascus steel. If you're not familiar with Damascus, it's a very old process that involves placing different metals (steel for strength and iron for hardness) together, and a highly skilled worker then folds and beats the metal, time and time again, and ends up with a strong, hard metal that also has a distinctive pattern to it.
Damascus knife, straight out of camera
A different type of Damascus knife
Another Damascus knife, straight out of camera
Depth of field
These knives vary in length from about 5cm to maybe 20cm - all of them are pretty small and when we shoot at close distances we have a potential issue with depth of field. I used a "full frame" Nikon or Canon camera for these shots, and shot all of the main photos at f/16, which gave the maximum depth of field combined with acceptable image sharpness - in theory I could have closed down to f/22 but doing so would have introduced a degree of diffraction limitation, which would have made the images unsharp.
Cut out of background, still with no retouching
Cut out of the background, still with no retouching
With the closeup shots, I had to add an extension tube and was shooting at very close distances, where the depth of field is even less, and because of the extension I was typically shooting at around f/8, which reduces the depth of field even more. I could have used a tilt/shift lens to shift the plane of sharp focus and (effectively) increase the depth of field but I didn't, and instead chose to get only the part that I was trying to show in sharp focus, letting the parts that were not important to that particular shot go out of focus, which draws the eye to what I want people to look at.
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Really interesting, reasoned and detailed post, thank you Garry. Looking forward to when the entire one goes up.
It seems to be so hard to find good, detailed commercial photography information yet it is such an interesting subject.
It seems to be so hard to find good, detailed commercial photography information yet it is such an interesting subject.