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Monday, January 07, 2008

Still-Life Tabletop Photography Made Easy!

When it come ups to simple basic Still-Life Tabletop Photography, as far as the novitiate 'wanna-be-photographer' is concerned there is often a mental block, when really it's quite simple, so much so that if you start to make it professionally, after a few old age the fast one is to remain awake.

I asked United Kingdom photographer Phil Selfe why he sold his very successful studios a few old age back and he answered, "I just got bored Rog".

I retrieve when he was my helper back in the seventies, I would put up the first still-life shot, then state to him, "Shoot off the remainder Phil" and travel out for the remainder of the day.

Of course not all still-life is so everyday and in fact some still-life shots are very exacting, requiring careful planning, building of the set and attending to lighting details, which would include running diagnostic test shots to get the consequence that was needed. Sometimes this could take a twenty-four hours or two to successfully complete.

If you were shooting room sets as I utilize to make some time back, this would necessitate a batch more work and would affect the usage of many assistants, carpenters for set edifice and in many lawsuits taking years to successfully complete. You would also necessitate some serious studio space to carry through this type of specializer work, as I utilize to have.

But as United Kingdom comic Ronnie Jim Corbett would state "I digress", allows acquire back to the rudiments of still-life tabletop photography.

For lighting you will necessitate an fond regard to your studio flash unit of measurement called a 'Soft Box'. This is as it sounds, a box constructed in fabric, which is brooding on the inside, with a diffuse panel at the front, providing a directional soft defused visible light to light the subject. An umbrella fond regard is not sutible for this work as the spreading of visible light is to wide.

If you don't have got a studio flash unit of measurement you can purchase a soft box that volition attach to a hammer caput flash gun. If you have got a 2nd flash caput you can set this to good usage by simply bouncing it off the ceiling, to assist fill up any shadow area.

What you will necessitate for Still-Life Tabletop Photography.:

1. Medium Format Camera and a 'macro' lens system (close focusing). Better still a 5x4inch. Position camera, which have tilt and swing presence and rearward panels for easiness of focusing.

Did you cognize that lone 1 in 15 NEW photographic photographic cameras sold to day, are movie cameras, this agency there are great deals to be had in the usage movie photographic photographic camera market, take advantage of that right now.

2. Soft Box Attachment.

3. Tripod, a good solid one.

4. Light Stands, you will necessitate two or three.

5. White Person Card as reflectors or as a background, size 1mtr.x70cm. from your fine art shop, acquire three.

6. Background. muslin or material, off achromatic or neutral in color.

7. Low table about 2ftx2ft. 18 ins high.

8. Light Meter for flash exposures.

What to do:

Set up your soft box at an angle of 45 grades to the left or right of photographic camera and slightly to the dorsum of the set. This should be for little still-life physical objects and the visible light should be no more than than a metre away from the subject, so you are able to halt down, (set the lens system aperture), to at least f22, to acquire arsenic much depth-of-field as possible so the mental image will be in crisp focus. If you have got a 2nd flash head, usage it bounced off the ceiling to assist to fill up any shadow area.

Fix your reflector, (white card), the opposite side to the flash and an further reflector the other side underneath the soft box.

Use a good lens system system system hood, such as as a blower lens hood, to maintain the visible light from the soft box hitting the lens. It's also good pattern to repair a little piece of black card, suspended over the lens system system of the photographic camera to forestall any visible light causing flame up from the lens, taking attention that the black card doesn't nip the image area, or consequence you metre reading.

Make diagnostic test exposures to happen out the best result and after some experimentation, you will happen the results that you want. It's also good to "bracket" your exposures, which intends to do three exposures, one at one-half a stop, (f.stop number), above the reading and one at one-half a halt below, choosing the best denseness of the three exposures made. Most professional photographers, even after a tests, usage this as standard practice. Movie is inexpensive and digital is nothing.

Now if you believe that there is some other 'magic' formula that the professionals utilize to hit simple still life, your WRONG. This is the most used pro photograph still-life set up, but of course there many exclusions to the rule and not all still life work is table top.

Final comment: The best manner to travel an complete photographer in still-life Oregon other work, is go work for one as an assistant. It's the manner most good professional photographers do it.

Happy shooting.

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