christopher broadbent

Meg,

You won't get much help from a polarizer because the light source is diffused. If you tent

everything, the metal will look like aluminium. So here's my tip:

Make one large screen - bed sheet size - stapled tight onto a light wooden frame. Mine is

covered in 'frost'. Place the screen horizontal to the set and right up against the camera

(mine is clamped to the table top). Light it from some way off on the side. You change the

look of the watch by changing the placing of the lamp. There should be smooth transitions

from light to shade. There's just a little but not too much light on the edge of the screen

close to the camera - that's what gets reflected in the watch glass but it's neccessary for

the watch'shands. Turn the watch to keep the reflection of the camera just off the front

edge of the glass. The important part: The metal case lives if it reflects black and grey as

well as white. Use a mobile light grey panel on the other side of the watch and leave the

cieling dark. Afterwards, you get back the missing contrast in the watch face by selecting

the face and tweaking the curve in photoshop. Have a look at http://www.panerai.com

Christopher.

69. When I started in 1969, you couldn't show a portfolio to an ad-agency in anything

smaller than 10x8 (20x25 to us). So I got a Burke&James. It needed a tripod both ends.

There was always also format snobbery. For instance, 5x7 was considered only good for

furniture catalogs, 5x4 for packshots. I believe 10x8's mounted in a big black board were

just nicer for the agency to present to the client. 10x8 kept us all in debt for years - not for

the camera, but for the flash. Everything gets shot at f45 meaning four 5,000 W/sec.

generators. Scheimpflug never did real tabletop.

The polaroid back does NOT fit. The lump on the busy end comes up against the reduction

plate. I got round that one with a very crummy holder for the polaroid 545 which goes into

the 5x7 spring back. You only get one side of the picture but it's enough for exposure. I used

it every day for 10 years and sold it off with the Technica. You will probably still find one in

Germany or in Italy where we still all use 13x18.

I can tell you all the bad things that have been done to silver. Worst: Krylon, then filling the

jugs with icy water, then closing it in with white boards, then putting it in a white tent.

You can' t light silver; it just has to reflect the surroundings. so good silver needs good-

looking, gently lit, surroundings with real shadows that give the metal weight. My advice is to

take it outdoors and use the sky.

The same answer another way: Find out what stop your flash wants at at low power. Fix the

aperture 3 stops smaller than that; and shoot on automatic (aperture preferred). Or ask a

wedding photographer.

Wouldn't it be cheating to contact print from a digital negative? I read the posts but nobody

seems to worry much. Though I could imagine a fine arts gallery snubbing a platinum or azo

that sarted out digital.

Get a used cine reflector and stand. the weigh a ton but don't blow over. Recover with matte

foil.

The sun is warm and hard, the sky is cold, soft and ideally about three stops less than the

sun. So try using the gold three feet off behind your left shoulder and the silver really close

behind you and the camera so it casts no shadow. Cut the silver's power to a quarter. I even

use a blue gel on the sky lamphead. (And - don't point the umbrella down at the sitter, point

it straight ahead).

Here's what I do - it's just one of a thousand ways. I've got a video lamp with a daylight

(dichroic) filter to match daylight. I'm indoors so I've got a wall plug. I put it on a tripod and

bounce it off the wall just off my left shoulder. The result is just like a window. How close to

the wall depends on how contrasty you want the picture. This is so much easier than using

flash. Cheers.

Max has the right answer. The nicest way is to fill softly bouncing your green light of a white

surface behind the camera. 2 to 3 stops lower than the main light.

If you have video light with battery, shroud the reflector with some black paper. Use a tripod.

Leave the shutter open and aperture stopped down all the way and paint the tunnel as you

walk along. Just keep the light moving and lighting the far side and never point it towards the

camera. It takes about 15 minutes. If the tunnel curves, you are in luck because you get

beyond the curve and backlight. I've done it on5x7 film. The longer you expose the nicer it

comes.

I use a fixed-focus 5x7 box for landscape. The lens, a SuperAngulon 120, corresponds to the

short side of the film, which is about the limit when there are cars and buildings towards the

edge. I've done stuff in the same places with a Technorama, a CamboWide, a Technika 5x7, A

SeitzRoundshot and a Gandolfi. The box camera is just lighter, faster and less worrisome. See

it here: www.broadbent.it/box/