Ripe

It would be nice to hear your opinion.

I like compo and light. Its a very good shot. Congrats and greetings Bente, from Mexico.

Interesting lighting, a good composition.

You have been doing some outstanding still lives...this being no exception. The lighting is exquisite, and I love the soft earth tones...

Lighting, composition, saturation, all perfect. Wonderful work, Bente!

All three are excellent still life images, Bente. My favorite is this one for the great sense of depth.

Very nice Still life shot Bente, beautiful colour tone and fine light, good harmony too.

 

Regards/allan.

Very nice postings, Bente. What is your set-up for lighting - all natural?

I join the others Bent, I like your still life images. it is a very nice one. I like the colors, light, and arrangement.

Kim .... you are asking about the light settings. First the technical details: F13 and 13 sec. It is takken at the end of the day by very low light and teh subjects are 'painted with light' from a flashlight/maclight. The lightpainting causes the shadows which I'm not so happy about. This 'studio' is situated in a corner of the barn. I'll put som pictures here of the flashlight I used and of 'the studio' with the window where I move around with the subjects to 'follow' the light. There is only bright light a few hours in the afternoon. so it's all very primitive as you can see . I have another photo of this set up without the light painting and without the shadows on the vase. The light painting was all for the fun. Thanks for your comment and for your interest in the light.

 

 

Here is the corner of the barn where most of my stills are taken. Primitive. It's on purpose I don't move the dirt .... it could become usefull Io:

Well, it works! I don't mind the shadows at all. This is quite rich and appealing, Bente.

Thanks to Jos頡nd D Are for taking time to comment here.

 

Linda - also thanx to you. Your comment means a lot to me.

 

Lou Ann .. you're the only one except me knowing how the barn looks and as you can see I'm still using it for my shootings. So glad you like it.

 

Paula ... so nice to see you here too and thank you for your very nice comment.

 

Allan .. long time no see so I'm very pleased you are commenting here and glad you like it. Your comment is very appreciated.

 

Pnina ... very pleased to have you commenting this one and glad you like it. Thanks.

Very cool lighting. Nice shot. Best regards.

This is interesting, Bente. I wouldn't have thought it was painted with a flashlight. I know it's difficult to describe the process, but did you roughly hold the light in the same position? Does the flashlight have a large beam diameter?

 

I would agree with the shadows and I guess you know how to handle that in a reshoot, the only thing I would suggest is to not create too much spill light on the table - at least not of equal intensity as the props.

Beware Michael ... you have just pushed the button.

 

First I'm very honored of you - being the expert - asking me for the working process here.

 

Last winter Emil Schildt showed some of his painted pictures on a Danish photo side and he was also very generous in teaching in his painting technic so I thought it could be fun to give it a try ... well knowing I'll never be able to make the great art he is doing.

 

My first poor attemts was shot in totally dark and with the F-stop set on 4.0 which didn't give much time for the light painting - 2.5 sec - smile.

 

It took some time for me to solve the problem with focusing in the dark. Then I started using the BULB setting. How do you keep the BULBsetting without touching the camera and the trigger and find the focus too when not having a remote controle? Lot's of things to figure here. The solutuion for keeping teh BULBsetting ended up being like this: a octagonal pencil hold in place by a fat rubber band right behind the trigger (not to self: keep in mind it's Michael being the amateur with the simple gear as a mist machine and perhaps a cooler for the mist)so after finding the focus in full light then turned out the light and held a peace of black paper in front of the lens while I roled the pencil over the trigger where the rubber band kept in place pressing down the trigger as long as I wanted and remembered to put up the black paper again before roling back the pencil. Then I roughly got 120 - 140 sec to paint in. It's too much time if you are shooting living beings even it can make some interesting effects ... such as moving around in the same picture etc

 

So here's to your question Michael - if you're still hanging on - I find it best to paint with a small beam. It can be placed more precisely where you want the effect and with more or less of it. For the technic I'm literally painting like I would use with a paint brush ... moved it around kept it for longer inplaces where I wanted more light ... and learned the lesson too that you have to be carefull of keeping the beam away from lense.

The 130-140 sec gave me time go close to teh scenery and paint form the side too.

 

What I would like to have is even more time and maybe I can get that with a pol filter. Would love to hear your suggestion here. Schildt is talking of shooting times as 20-30 minutes. Wonder how he is doing?

 

As said in the beginning it's pretty poor attempts but I'll put some up here. I won't say I got excactly what I wanted but I find it very interesting and I'll take it up again soon ... the long dark winternights you know.

 

As for this photo there was some light and i only painted to bring out the props some more and I agree in every of your word of too bright light on the table.

 

Thanks for your time and interest Michael.

130 sec ... focal length 72 .... I could have wished a little light on the background .. a black curtain in folds.

131 sec . a little too much light on the props ... but better background

209 sec ... better balanced in the light and with a better background

 

Any comment and advice on painting with light and long shooting times is appreciated.

I'm no expert, Bente, and my process is pretty much similar to yours - that of experimentation and discovery. My approach began by examining Emil's work to identify elements and characteristics I found appealing, then visualizing a scene of my own, how I wanted it to "look", followed by thinking of techniques to achieve it. So let me start by my take on Emil's work.

 

One of Emil's markers is creating a sense of texture through the interplay of lighting and shadows. It's an intangible that's difficult to quantify but I think it's something viewers will readily appreciate. It's not hard to identify where he puts light but the trick is seeing how the placement of highlights and shadows interact - there appears always a soft transition between the two while maintaining relatively high contrast.

 

The second marker is color temperature, the toning that gives his images a distinctive signature (or "look"). This is of course personal, but an important element in conveying a strong mood.

 

Finally, the (usually) dark overall presentation, strong composition, and additional texturing through scratch-and-burn all contribute to the uniqueness of his images.

 

I'm sure there are details I've missed but these are things I've identified as primary contributors. My attempts were not to replicate his work, rather to draw on his technique and approach to realize my own way of seeing.

 

In this picture, Bente, I think the "problem" is that it looks too "clean", too much the look of a studio still life thus rendering a modern appearance (albeit very well executed). If I was to approach still life, I might choose items without readily identifiable colors and avoid greens and blues - it's psychologically difficult to adjust to a fresh bundle of flowers looking ancient because we all know how fresh flowers "should" appear both in colors and texture. It might be useful to examine Emil's The Rose that Wouldn't Die for its color, light/shadow, and histogram distribution.

 

On the technical side, I usually go with Auto WhiteBalance. A low power flashlight will contain incandescent bulbs giving the image a strong brown/yellow cast which can be a great start. The idea is Not to make the colors natural in appearance but to further tweak the strong color cast to achieve an aesthetic look. I will go with a noisy camera at higher ISO (if I can) to take advantage of grain and noise in an aesthetic way; the noiseless characteristics of your Canon D30 might be a disadvantage especially at low ISO where the picture is exceptionally clean. This is where some fog/mist might help - you can use an ultrasonic humidifier or even a hidden cigar to give it some noise/texture. Alternatively, you can also severely underexpose then bump it up in software if necessary. This will add to the noise level.

 

The total exposure time is less of an issue if you can work quickly. Any combination of ISO, time, light intensity, painting speed (and motion) will achieve the same result, but more time does allow greater care and control. As for a remote, I can't think of anything better than Canon's TC80N3 for your camera... wish I had something like that.

Wow - I'm taking Dylan out now to look for the White Barn Owl that I found 'hanging' out by day in a local barn - I'll be back later to read all this - I want to learn how to do it too ... !

 

seeyousoon ...

Thanks for the tutorial! I need to print this thread so that I can remember all that you and Michael have said. Bente, can I come use your barn? :) It looks like a great place to try this out.

 

Leslie

Very much thank you for your thoughts and knowing of the painting with light technique. It's worth gold I think and I'm not done with the subject yet. I have been looking at Canon's TC80N3 ( thanks for the link) and has put it on my present list for X-mas. I'll bet it works better than my rolling pencil.

 

Your thoughts of how to add the effects in the shooting is interesting too ( the smoke and the grains) and I'm quite with you that it's not about to make it clear too bright in the colors.

 

I have seen a video where Emil is demonstrating his technique but I dont think you would get much out of because he speeking a lot - in danish. BTW he is never shooting digital and many of his effects are done in the afterprocess with coffee and bromoil and curling the negative ( Kill your darlings) Yes .. I'm quite fascinated by him and his work.

 

Michael .. again thanks for taking your time ... it's very appreciated.

 

 

You should be so welcome to come and use my barn ..... big smile ..... and I'm looking forward to see you painting with light. I ppromise you ... it's grapping one when first starting experimenting with it.

 

Thanks for taking your time too Les

It's me being the student here ... I don't think you are!!!!!

 

A white barn owl .... wow .....

 

I wonder if it was you or the barn owl that were hanging out in the barn ( What ever I wish it was in my barn there were a white barn owl hanging out)

 

Did you happen to show Dylan the owl ... and what about some pictures?

 

Makes me think of last winter there was a snowstrom going on around midnight and for some reasons i looked out and saw 5-6 deer eating apples beneith the apple tree in my back yard. I still wonder how to get a photo in that situation ....... It's absolutely not to be done with a flash - SILLY ME.

 

The cat was not invited - sol ...' ... ha , well some times it can be very nice with not invited visitors I think.

 

Nice to see you Ken.