Shooting milk from overheard in natural light?

[chrsgrhm]

<p>I want to set up my camera so that it's directly overhead a plate of milk (50mm lens, so I'll be about a foot above the milk). I have no professional lighting equipment. The only artificial lights I have in the house are incandescent lamps. And I'm shooting with film, so I can't really alter the white balance to offset the orange that incandescent lights give off. So I'm pretty sure I just want to shoot in natural light. And not outside, though, because I don't want the reflection of the sun in the milk. Can anybody suggest a homemade set-up that will maximize the amount of natural light in a room? Like, I don't know, maybe hang a white blanket or something on one side of the plate of milk as a reflector? Anybody have experience with this sort of shot?</p>

[brooks short]

<p>You could use tungsten balanced film and shoot with your tungsten lamps.</p>

<p>You could position the plate of milk close to a sunlit window and use a piece of translum, white shower curtain or white plastic to diffuse the light. Another white foam-core on the other side for fill if needed.</p>

<p>You could shoot outside on an overcast day when there would be no bare sun to reflect in the milk.</p>

<p>There are a lot of easy ways to do this. Think about it a bit.</p>

[devon_mccarroll]

<p>You can also shoot next to a window on an overcast day that provides enough light, and bounce the light with a white foam core for fill, or a silver reflector for brighter fill. I have a white foamcore board with foil adhered to the other side, which makes a great white/silver reflector, depending on what I need.<br>

Is your plate of milk going to be white on white, meaning a white plate? If the plate is dark, then you'll need to be careful to expose it properly because of the high contrast.</p>

[albert_richardson1]

<p>You can change the white balance for your film by using an 80A filter over your lens if you can still find one the right size to fit. Tiffen still makes conversion filters for color photography in a variety of sizes. </p>

<p>I agree that you might find a way to use natural daylight or experiment with daylight balance CFL bulbs to find one that gives good results if your lens won't accept screw in filters. CFLs might take some trial and error to get the best result you can. The approximate color temperature of daylight is 5500 K.</p>

[rodeo_joe1]

<blockquote>

<p>"...I don't want the reflection of the sun in the milk."</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Wait for an overcast day (you can have some of ours - 3 days now without seeing the sun) or invest in a piece of muslin or a proper photo diffuser?</p>

<p>BTW the milk will reflect whatever colour surrounds it, so working in a brightly coloured room, even in daylight, will be an issue. You'll also run the risk of the camera and lens being reflected in the milk. Shooting at a slight angle and correcting the distortion in afterwork would be an option, or using a shift lens or camera with movements to offset the lens axis from the milk. Another "trick" would be to shoot through a small hole in a large piece of black card; that way the milk can't "see" the lens or camera. Then you'd need to increase the exposure to avoid grey-looking milk.</p>

[chrsgrhm]

<p>Dang, I didn't know all these responses were here. My email wasn't alerting me even though I set up the alerts and stuff. Anyway, thanks everybody. I never thought about shooting outside when it's overcast. Duh. And the other ideas are good too. I'll try them if I don't like the results of the overcast shots.<br>

Thanks again!<br>

Chris</p>