The Product Table Or How I Learned To Love Under-Lighting

There are very few occasions when you see light coming up from under a subject in real life; some discotheques in the 80's had light panel floors, you can see it in the classical footlights at the burlesque theatre, and when you open the hatch of hell there is a sort of a lurid glow that comes up. The effect can be quite unsettling.

It is stock in trade for Disney artists and illustrators of fantasy and science fiction when they want to make a subject look evil.

But it is also a very valid technique when you are trying to illustrate products for advertisements. In many cases the art director wants the viewer to see all parts of the subject evenly lit for either sales appeal or technical illustration. In some instances this is difficult to achieve with the classic hard/soft light or even with a light tent. No matter where you place the lights, the thing always has a shadow around the bottom bits.

Enter the light table. A support for the subject that is sturdy enough to bear the weight, but either transparent or translucent to allow light to flood up from underneath. There are several ways of doing this for small subjects:

1. The Lastolite company makes a plastic light cubicle that erects with metal rods and provides a space above and a space for a studio strobe below to flash up through the floor of the photo tent. It is big and cumbersome enough to set up to make it a semi-permanent installation, but it really does do what it purports to. I would equip it with three mono-block lights to tackle any catalog item that you could fit in the cube.

2. The dear old film light table. These are made by Metrolux in Melbourne and you can get them in A4 and A3 size. The acrylic plastic surface is about 3mm thick and will hold a considerable weight. The boxes contain a circular fluorescent light that can do an even job of illuminating the underside of the subject, but you've got to accommodate the colour temperature of this to whatever you are illuminating the top bit with. Fluorescent can be tricky...

3. The Bunnings Steel Shelf solution. Bunnings sell any number of cheap modular steel shelving systems. Think $16 per upright and $ 12 per crossbeam and you can make a good product table for $ 64. Add on either glass or acrylic for the top and you are ready to rock. You don't get the light tent or cube up the top but you can get these from our shop  - Promaster and Glanz make them all the way from 40 cm sq to 120 cm sq. Not having a light cube also allows more contrasty lighting.

It is simple to put a mono-block flash down below the table on a small Manfrotto floor stand pointing straight up. I mount an Elinchrom light there and pop a Minisoft 44 beauty dish on it. Then a bit of trial and error...or in my case trial, error, bad language, and more trial...and you are there.

The series of pictures of the 1957 Ford Skyline show the progression from no under-lighting to full effect. The last picture also shows the look of holding a fill card near the subject to throw a bit of the under-light back. In all cases there is only one other Elinchrom light with a wide reflector doing the main lighting. In other words, this is a technique that even enthusiasts with a two-light Elinchrom D-lite kit could use.

For the people who want to make catalog illustrations, this technique goes one eye-catching step above the standard light cube - those who deal in glassware and jewellery will find it particularly useful. Catch an eye - sell a product.*

Remember, Manfrotto, Elinchrom, Glanz, Promaster, Metrolux, and Lastolite products are all stocked by Camera Electronic - and you can get them through our online shop as well.

* or catch an eye and give it to the cat to play with...

PS. The model in the green light is not evil. She is a very nice person. So is the Ford Skyline.

The Curious Case Of The Dark Grey Filter

Those of us who use cameras to take pictures in the bright noon sunlight get what we deserve - brilliant colours in the main subjects, overexposed skies, and deep shadows under overhanging objects. These overhangs can be eyebrows, noses, lips, chins, and bosoms. And that's just on cars - people are worse...

Well, it comes with the climate, and some days the climate picks people up and beats them against the lamp posts. It is different in cloudier or hazier places - if you have an atmosphere that you can stack for use later it will cut out a lot of the sun and diffuse the rest so that shadows are naturally filled in. In some cases it is a real boon to the outdoor shooter who deals with close and medium subjects. But for the Western Australian at 12:00 we need some artificial fill.

Reflectors are a good traditional idea - people can carry them, erect them. position them to advantage and bounce the ample sunlight pretty well where it is needed. Camera Electronic sell a variety of them from dinner-plate size up to Insanity-On-A-Frame size. Lastolite, Promaster, and Glanz are three brands to look for. You'll need a spare hand or two to use them to best advantage.

If you don't have a spare hand, you can fire an electronic flash from the camera position to do the fill. The business of balancing it to match or run slightly under the prevailing light is the tough part - tough even though TTL mechanisms in camera and flash take out a lot of the mathematics. But as the WA sun is bright and frequently cameras cannot go under 100 or 200 ISO, the exposures at synchronising speed frequently demand an f stop of 22 or even smaller. That's a tough ask of the average small electronic flash - you'll see professionals going the expensive step further of taking out field mono-block strobe heads to try to match or overpower old Sol.

The users of the  Fujifilm X-100 series of cameras or any others that use leaf shutters can cope better, as these cameras will synch their shutters up to 1/1000 and thus the aperture needed is wider  and the flash has a chance to supply enough light. But what of the mirror-less cameras that have focal plane shutters? 1/180 synch at the best and that means f:16 at noon.

Well, help is on the way - we mentioned a press release for a new Fujifilm flash later in the year. Re-reading the DP Review spiel says that it will have a high-speed synch that will up the speed, lower the f stop, and pump out more light as well. We can only hope that this promise is fulfilled because the chance of friendly and controlled cloud cover in WA in summer is pretty darn remote.

Note: Cheating by putting an ND8 in front of the lens and imagining that you have dropped the ISO by three stops is like pulling yourself up by your bootstraps.* If the TTL circuit is activated in the flash it just thinks it has to pump out three more stops of light and you've adjusted nothing. The circus trick only works if you have a manual flash out there or one of the old film types that depends upon its own thyristor to quench. Whether you do it or not depends:

1. Upon whether you own an old pre-digital flash or one of the new ones that will avoid TTL.
2. Upon the amount of tootling and fiddling you are prepared to do to add more light into the fill. Consider the fact that even the most basic image editing programs allow you to boost shadow exposure...
3. Whether you can be bothered to stand there and do the photographic version of high-school algebra before every shot. I know people who do, and do it gladly, but then I know some pretty random people...Hey, Guys...

And a sop to the management. Guys and gals, you CAN buy Profoto and Elinchrom units that will pump out more light than you can use. All it needs is money, and the gear is easy to use. If you want to do this lighting you need this gear. Come in and talk to Dom or Carlos. They know, you know. Also see our on-line shop.

* And I am prepared to admit that I tried it. Hell, I tried sea slug at a Chinese banquet and lived. How much dumber could anything be...?

The Yellow Bag Of Courage

Those of you who are dog owners and walk your animals in the city streets and parks will recognise the yellow bags in the image. You carry them with you wherever you go and do your civic duty after Fido has done his biological duty...and we admire you for your courage and cleanly behaviour.

But don't you long for a more discrete way to carry them to the pooing grounds? We have the answer.

These discrete little Glanz accessory pouches are perfect for the task. As we are also civic minded, we have decided to offer them to you for:

A gold coin donation to Telethon. One pouch per coin.

Come see us and do a good deed in a dark world.

Home Built Or Shop Bought?

I've just been asked whether it is better to buy things from the shop or make them yourself.  At the risk of giving the management asthma attacks, I have to say yes and no.

Yes, it is better to buy your lenses and camera bodies from the shop rather than make your own out of wood. Artistry and skill only go so far when the material is white pine and the end result is a DSLR. We have seen a rather wonderful little wooden camera made by Leica but it is a toy rather than an working instrument.

Likewise, knitting your own memory cards is fun but the failure rate is high - better to buy San Disk or Hoodman at the outset and save the needles for socks and gloves.

The question gets a little closer when you consider accessories for a studio. A commercial light tent is still a good buy if you need to have a portable environment for product photography. You could make one yourself but you'd end up with a big monster that would not pack away when you need to change jobs. Ask me how I know, and where I store the damn thing.

Likewise, if you are going to sling expensive strobe lights in the studio, sling them on proper light stands and boom arms. Home-made wooden devices can work but with a great deal more bulk and a great deal less security. At the very least, use Manfrotto or Kupo spigots and hardware.

You can suit yourself if you want to use cardboard sheets for flags and reflectors in the studio - the material will eventually break down but it might be cheap enough to start with. Be kind to yourself if you intend to use a reflector at the beach or out on a job - get a commercial folding one ( Be really kind to yourself and get either a Profoto or a Lastolite.)

Lights? Go look at the bargain types available at Bunnings and imagine what it will be like working with two 1500watt  workshop lights on yellow stands in your spare room in the middle of February...Suit yourself but don't expect to shoot ice cream or seafood shoots in any degree of comfort.

Is there anything you can make yourself? Yes - there are no end of specialist flags and shade boxes that you can make with matt board and gaffer tape that can be perfect for you. Get a Stanley knife and a steel straight edge and slice away. If some of your accessories have red, sticky fingerprints after this...well, you'll know better another time.

PS: you can indeed light your studio with Leyden jars or a kite and a key in a thunderstorm...or with no-name strobe kits bought off eBay. If you choose the low-powered versions they can just barely kill you...

Yo! Here's Your Glanz DSLR SHoulder Rig!

For those of you who wish to use your DSLR or mirrorless cameras as vital parts of a video system, we have a range of excellent support platforms.

Manfrotto make delightful tripods - light and sturdy and fast to deploy. Cullmann makes a heavy tripod with a very good value-for-money fluid head. Cambo make an extremely competent and complex shoulder mount rig.

And dear old Glanz make the RL shoulder rig - as seen in the three awkward views in this blog. Forgive the photography - the product is a good one despite the pictures!

Okay, this is marginally smaller than the competitors, a little less complex, and a lot less costly. It supports standard-sized DSLR and mirrorless cameras and reasonably long lenses. If you wish to mount a Carl Gustav tube and go hunting tanks you'll need a bigger rig, but that can be covered in a later blog.

This one has all the articulation that you need for basic support and apparently there are follow focus units that can be attached. The build is sturdy, the slide of the components is slick, and the knobs are blue. You cannot ask for more than blue knobs...

For under $ 200 this is a good addition to the videographer's kit.

Reflections On The Model As A Subject

I'm not being literary or philosophical or anything. I am just struggling with reflections from the shiny surfaces of scale models in studio photography.

If it was just depiction of the scale models in a bare space the problem would be easy - I would take home a Glanz light tent, pop the car inside and flood the outside with flash light. The reflections that bounce back from the little chrome bumpers and shiny paint surfaces would be an even white with no hot spots. Good advertising picture but not the artistic effect I want.

I set the little cars in little scenes and then add more in Photoshop, but the surfaces of the cars can betray the position of the lights...and the surroundings of the studio...in little vignettes all over the model. Silver slab surfaces, flat windows, and chrome hubcaps are like little mirrors reflecting the tripod, camera, walls, curtains, and me. A dead giveaway that it is fake.

This recalls the story I heard at the AIPP convention a couple of years ago*. The chap who shoots roadways and scenes for Mercedes and Dodge so that they can strip in their studio shots of the latest cars also takes a panorama sweep picture behind himself so that the digital artist can put elements of the scenery into the shiny bits of he real cars. I thought it was a little over-complex when I heard it but I am not so sure now - I can see the problem.

I am going to have to deal with it in-studio and preferably in-camera in one shot - 'cause I ain't that good a digital artist. The next series of coffee-fuelled experiments will involve large panels of Superior backdrop paper in sky-blue or light-grey to simulate the sky in various forms and some vague shapes to suggest mountains or buildings pinned to the panels. I shall crouch behind them and fire the camera with a cable release.

And then we shall deal with the sun. Creating the sun in the studio with a flash tube that is larger than the sun in the sky...

* Name dropping.

This Is No Reflection On You, But...

Have you ever seen those cans of dulling spray that studio photographers use to control reflections in silver or glass surfaces? It's sort of a thin waxy stuff that you can spray on then wipe off later. I forgot to take my can of it when I went to photograph the Jaguar XKS 120 at the car show. The alternative - a high screed of cloud - was inconvenient to arrange as I have not paid my account with the Meteorological Bureau. I still owe them for a rain storm in July and they won't give me any more credit...

I decided to be brave and take the picture anyway - I figured if the flash bouncing back was too strong the worst it could do would be to blast my clothes off and burn my face. In the event, nothing bad happened. The Jaguar is polished aluminium and seems to fire the light off into all directions - it is curved enough never to present a flat surface. I think it would be a nightmare for fingerprints but what a fabulous shape!

If you are confronted with a similar problem in your studio on a smaller scale, think of a light cube from Glanz or Promaster. These act as an overall shield from direct light and in themselves are a smooth white . You can do silverware, gold, or jewellery easily and you never have blown-out highlights.

Now when it comes to cars with metallic paint surfaces, you tend to get a different reflection - more spread-out but more problematical in some ways. It can be difficult to get the smear that you get back to register in the right place. The safest thing if you have a slab side or a flat plane that has metallic paint is to position it at an angle and shoot the main reflection out in another direction. I tried this with the Alvis.

Whether I succeeded or not is another matter - I suspect that someone may have been laughing at me while I worked...

Table Topple

I like table tops. You can take pictures on them, you can eat your dinner off them, and you can sleep on them after 18 bottles of beer. Actually, these days I can get there in 6, which means I can afford a pillow for the tabletop...I generally use a pile of old chip wrappings.

As photographic supports, however, they can leave something to be desired - mainly a backdrop behind your main subject. If you are doing pack shots or product photography you frequently need a bland or invisible backdrop so as not to encroach upon your subject. Herewith several suggestions:

1. Get a large sheet of cardboard from the newsagent or Jackson's art supply* and tape it to the front of the tabletop. Let it run back as far as you need for the subject to sit and then curve it up. Support it with a pile of books. Light the subject with $ 2000 worth of studio monolights or $ 1000 worth of speed lights and the pictures will look good. Light it with the sun and the pictures will also look good but you will have to contend with flies and wind.

2. Put your subjects inside a Glanz or Promaster light cube and light as before. The tent will shelter the subject but will itself catch the wind. Be cautious outside but don't be discouraged - many people light jewellery successfully with a light tent and a reflector and the Western Australian sunshine.

3. Promaster product table. Now you're talking. Attachment points for lighting supports and a translucent curved base - you can fire a flash up from below to eliminate shadows. Not expensive and folds out of the way. Our preferred product platform. in store now. No, you can't have the one on the floor because WE need it...we have more upstairs.

* Same cardboard but you can get Lotto tickets from the newsagent. And a smile.

Hair's A Darn Good Idea - From Glanz

If you don't like puns, go look at cat videos on YouTube. We do puns here - Dad jokes as well - it is a form of pun-ishment.



Okay, we noticed a rival shop has put out some useful studio light sets in their flyer this week and one of our salespersons remembered that we have several of the same sets sitting up in our storeroom. Ever keen to whale the tar out of the competition, we have set them out on the floor and priced them $ 50 cheaper than the other guys.

You've got to be fast, because there are only two complete three-head kits available - plus a single head kit. They are the Glanz 160 Di kits - three heads per kit with a radio trigger included, stands and umbrellas, in a fitted carry case. Variable power, variable modelling lamp, charge signal, hard wire points and IR trigger if needed. 160 w/s per head.

Perfect for a small portrait or product studio - combine this with a Glanz light tent and you have a catalog illustrator's dream setup for a very cheap price. The 160 Di kits are $ 450 complete.

Soooo - why did I include the other manufacturers in the labels for this post? They are pretty prestigious firms and they make fantastically good big studio flashes....Well, the Glanz 160 Di heads have a wonderful property that recommend them to users of these other systems - they are light weight and just the right sort of power for a hair light. You could boom these up or suspend them from a backdrop stand easily without straining the system and they could stay up there permanently.

You don't need three hair lights? Buy the singleton kit. You got two friends with studio ambitions? Buy the three-head kit between you and split the cost - you get a hair light, a stand, and an umbrella for $ 150 then, and you can toss a coin for who gets the big old carry case.

Now - how would you grid or flag off that hair light...? I would look at some of the Rogue accessory grids at the front of the shop - or a Honl snoot.

Portable Power - Glanz LP-750 Battery Pack

Users of mains-powered equipment have often been jealous of their counterparts who use smaller portable systems; the photographer who would dearly love to use their studio monoblock in the field but cannot come to a power point – the operator of a computer who wants to use a separate monitor for colour control on the beach. Now they need be jealous no longer.

 

Glanz have introduced the LP 750 Leadpower battery/inverter for just these people. It is contained in a sturdy case with carry handle that provides three universal 240V AC sockets on top under weatherproof covers. There is a removable Ni Mh battery in the side and an on-board cooling fan to clear the case. Of course it has a rack of fuses to prevent inadvertencies.

The battery will charge up in 6 hours from dead flat and can then provide the full 750 watts and 3 amps – we tested it in our workshop and were able to fire 250 shots one after another through a Bowens 500w/s head – that’s a lot of flash power. And it has a fast recycle time.

If it is steady power you need rather than flash peaks there is a switch on the side for this. The discharge rate will be slower but there is a standby option that will prevent any charge leak over a long period.

If you need more power in this pack, just buy a spare battery - it can be changed instantly by sliding up a sealed panel and pulling out the exhausted one – but remember that 250 full shots is a lot of flash power.

Expensive? No - $ 799. Now your studio lights can follow you out into the wide world. Another burden to load onto the photo assistant....