jeff_fiore Posted April 6, 2004 Share Posted April 6, 2004 Garry, Why is a zoom lens less than ideal for creative lighting? is it because a zoom has alot more lens elements as compared to a prime thereby causing a loss of contrast? Or is there a simpler reason. The reason I was asking was because I was planning to buy the Canon 24-70mm f2.8L USM lens for a flexible portrait light. It's a pretty expensive lens (over $1,000) and I don't want to make a purchase like that if I am going to get disappointing results. If it is not good for portrait, then I'd probably be better off getting a couple of good prime lenses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff_fiore Posted April 6, 2004 Share Posted April 6, 2004 Oopps... Sorry, didn't mean to post that question on this thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garry edwards Posted April 6, 2004 Share Posted April 6, 2004 Jeff, your Q may be a bit off-topic but surely it's relevant to studio lighting? There's a world of difference between a cheap consumer zoom and a Canon 'L' but IMO primes are still far better for still life subjects, where strong backlighting is the norm and simpler lenses with fewer elements are less prone to flare. Whether these concerns are equally relevant to portrait photography or not I don't know, I'm not qualified to form a useful opinion. One consideration however that applies to all types of photography is that their lenshoods have to be designed for use at their wide end, which means that they are far less effective at longer lengths. Hope this helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff_fiore Posted April 6, 2004 Share Posted April 6, 2004 Wow! Is this a tough excersize! you are absolutely right about the softbox. I tried a variety of techniques ranging from bouncing off reflectors to a small softbox and this is the best I got. I chose to use the wine bottle and glass because it is harder to get it right. I will keep working on it. May have to build a large lightbox like Jennifer did.<div></div> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brooks short Posted April 6, 2004 Author Share Posted April 6, 2004 Jeff, You need to make either a much larger softbox or scrim, at lease 2.5 times the size of your subject and position it as close to the bottle as possible without it showing in the crop. In the final image of the sample photos I posted, the overhead softbox was 3'x4' ie: 48 inches long and only 12 inches above the tomatos. The width of the tomatos and rocks in that sample shot is only about 14 inches. Bigger and closer is the answer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff_fiore Posted April 6, 2004 Share Posted April 6, 2004 Here is one with a Photek 60" softlighter II. As with Jennifer, I don't have a boom so I did it from the side with a 42" white reflector on the other side. This one came out much better because of the size of the softlighter. Only thing is the reflection shows the flash. Need a big softbox.<div></div> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brooks short Posted April 6, 2004 Author Share Posted April 6, 2004 Jeff, There you go. It's all about the size of the light source relative to the size of the subject. You could hang a large piece of tracing paper or vellum in front of your light to get a smoother highlight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff_fiore Posted April 6, 2004 Share Posted April 6, 2004 I know. I plan to try my white shower curtain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabman - montreal, canada Posted April 7, 2004 Share Posted April 7, 2004 The weekly lighting theme is a great idea. Thank you Brooks for initiating it, and thanks to all who provide worthy information. I look forward to more educational themes in the lighting (and other) departments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nghi_hoang Posted April 7, 2004 Share Posted April 7, 2004 Playing during my study break. One White Lightning X1600 with white satin 45" umbrella about 2' from subjects. That umbrella in the highlight really botheres me, but that is all the studio equipment I have. Need a large soft box. Shot with a Canon A70. This is fun!<div></div> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunilarch Posted April 7, 2004 Share Posted April 7, 2004 small studio home studio, I used my dwg room's north window as diffused light source and got this picture!!<div></div> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunilarch Posted April 7, 2004 Share Posted April 7, 2004 one more in same setting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunilarch Posted April 7, 2004 Share Posted April 7, 2004 the attachment<div></div> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garry edwards Posted April 7, 2004 Share Posted April 7, 2004 I took this shot a few years ago, using a single softbox. An example of the genre, not of good practice. I think it was taken as a test of a camera, or a light or something<div></div> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff_fiore Posted April 7, 2004 Share Posted April 7, 2004 I like they was all of us here chose glass to do this excersize. Shooting portraits does not have these challenges that glass can give you. I guess, on this theme, everyone recognizes that shooting glass is tougher. Tonight, I will shoot with a diffuser to hide the equipment reflection. After that I want to start working on getting brighter and better specular highlights on the cut-crystal wine glass - which was the purpose of using the cut wine glass - any suggestions? All suggestions will be appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brooks short Posted April 7, 2004 Author Share Posted April 7, 2004 Here's a shot from several years ago. This shot of Iced Coffee drinks was done on 100 ISO 4x5 transparency film. Mediun 3'x4' softbox on the left, small 2'x3' above, fill card on the right and a blue gel on a grey wall in the background. Exposure was around f-45 if I remember correctly. Strobe lighting and a single exposure.<div></div> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garry edwards Posted April 7, 2004 Share Posted April 7, 2004 An apology. I thought that these weekly themes were a great idea but I had some reservations. I felt that it was asking a bit too much for people to even attempt to carry out some of these exercises without extensive and expensive lighting equipment. So when I was asked to contribute a theme I thought I'd go for something that requires little or no lighting gear, in the hope that more people would have a go. But I clearly got it totally wrong - this week we have a theme that really needs a medium to large softbox with maybe 3000J of power, and although relatively few people are likely to have this equipment, so far we've had a TV screen, a home-made softbox, a home-made scrim and a window used instead - and all with brilliant results! And results aside, these themes are disseminating real knowledge and real confidence to people who have never tried serious studio photography before. I wish now that I'd made next weeks' theme a bit more complicated.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tom_menegatos Posted April 7, 2004 Share Posted April 7, 2004 Gary, I didn't get a chance to send you out a note after reviewing your theme. Let me just say, Gary has done an excellent job for next week and I was just thinking how well it's going to fit well with the current home-made ideas. There is one little trick in there that is really cool too. So no need to appologize. :) Next week will be really great follow up to this week's theme. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff_fiore Posted April 7, 2004 Share Posted April 7, 2004 Today's attempt<div></div> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tom_menegatos Posted April 7, 2004 Share Posted April 7, 2004 Jeff, your images keep getting better and better as the volume in the bottle gets less and less. I wonder if there's some sort of relation :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garry edwards Posted April 7, 2004 Share Posted April 7, 2004 Jeff, just look at the improvement between your first and latest attempt! Just a couple of suggestions, although a bit off topic. 1. The bottle shouldn't be empty, although of course I understand how it got empty.... 2. Some backlighting on both the bottle & glass would make a tremendous difference and would be a big help with the cut glass. If you don't have another light you could use a mirror to kick some light back from your softbox, or you could use a shaped, undersized piece of white paper fixed to the back of the bottle to at least get some light coming back through the bottle 3. The glass needs to be perfectly clean, and preferably it should never have been attacked by a dishwasher 4. The contents of the glass are usually better diluted (for photography at least) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brooks short Posted April 7, 2004 Author Share Posted April 7, 2004 Jeff, Your latest shot is probably a bazillion percent BETTER than your first attempt. It looks like you might have discovered a way to facilitate placing your scrim closer to the bottle. I was going to suggest placing your bottle as close to the left and front edge of your table so that you can put your scrim right next to it. Looks like you discovered that yourself. Nice. Garry's suggestions above are good also. Some color from a light/reflector behind the bottle would be nice. I think your glass looks pretty good by the way. Here's another idea if you're interested. Try a lower position for your camera, so that you're looking up a bit at the bottle. If you place your lens well below the center of the bottle you'll get a perspective which makes the bottle look heroic. You'll have to move your scrim higher to lay a continuous highlight on the side of the bottle but that should be easy. Try another shot with a reflector behind the bottle, cut to the shape of the bottle and angled to the left to catch the main light and use a lower point of view to look up at the bottle. You've come so far, a couple of small tweaks could take it over the top ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff_fiore Posted April 7, 2004 Share Posted April 7, 2004 Thanks for the suggestion, I'll give them a try. Unfortunately I have to do some work tonight so I'll do it tomorrow. As far as the wine disappearing, it's evapo*hic*ration. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff_fiore Posted April 7, 2004 Share Posted April 7, 2004 THE HELL WITH WORK! This is more fun! How's my latest attempt?<div></div> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brooks short Posted April 7, 2004 Author Share Posted April 7, 2004 Jeff, Very nice ! It's amazing the progress you've made in this excercise. With a couple of more lights you could bring out the detail of the label on the wine bottle and do some kind of treatment with the background. Maybe an overhead soft fill......So many choices, so little time ! #8^) For the point of this theme, you've certainly fullfilled the objective. The lower camera angle really makes the bottle be the hero, don't you think ? This is what I like about still-life photography. You can try out many different techniques and types of lighting. The subject matter doesn't want to get up and leave after 10 minutes and you can really work on the details and tweak the lighting, perspective and, maybe as the subject of a later theme, the propping and arranging of objects. Jeff, I bet you learned more about lighting and photography doing this theme in these past few days than you've learned in the past 6 months. Good job ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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