Shot With A Snoot (Three Photographs)
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A snoot is a funnel that narrows the light like a spotlight. The light is coming straight down. The bust of Lenin is from a trip to the Soviet Union back in the seventies when he was taken more seriously. The seashell is from East Africa. The silver bowl is an heirloom.
A Little Pepper (Two Photographs)
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This was a test of two things that generally apply in photography: hard light versus soft light and post-processing reduction of specular highlights. The shadows show the difference in hard versus soft light, and I think most would prefer softer lighting. Specular highlights are areas where the bright light almost obliterates the subject and leaves a white spot. While healing tools can fix this, to keep things natural I have kept the range of tonality.
More Fun With Backlighting (Three Photographs)
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I am shooting with my Fuji X-3 and Godox flash gear (AD200, 860 II, 350 F) and a Godox controller. Still life Photography set-ups are an area of photography that can be quite interesting (and challenging). I am trying various set ups with small things to see what works. In the third photograph only the fill light fired and my main light shooting from behind failed to shoot. Even accidents are lessons in photography.
Side-lit and Back-lit (Three Photographs)
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I tried side lighting, very much like window lighting (first colour photograph), and it worked especially with a polarizing filter to tone down some of the highlights. The black and white and second colour were back-lit. I am told this is done quite a bit with food photography (you bounce the light back into the front the subjects with a white board or reflector. The idea is the light pulls the viewer in as the light spills over the top or so I am told (certainly a lighting pattern to try again to see what other results I can get).
Backgrounds (Three Pictures)
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Backgrounds in still life are just as important as in bird photography. Here I used table cloths, (plastic and cloth) both helped with texture, luminance and added interest. In hindsight, in the photo of the pot I should have lowered my horizon by raising my camera or moving the objects closer, a lesson learned.
Shadows and Highlights (Three Photographs)
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With studio strobe lighting you get a very sharp tool as opposed to using continuous light, everything is a matter of inches. Realistic shadows are the next thing I will tackle. The shadows here are too subtle. I figured out a polarizing filter would help tone down highlights that were too bright. One step forward at the very least.
Dust and Other Issues (Three Photographs)
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Cleaning the metal objects turned out to be easier in Photoshop than in the real world. I was able to mitigate the glare on the fruit with a polarizing filter. This was the first time in a long time that I shot a piece of reflective steel. The angle of your camera relative to the light is key but I did not want the highlights to go completely so I compromised. Still more to learn on perspective and depth of field but my lighting experiments are coming along. An Xrite colour checker is coming in handy, when I remember to use it, for white balance, and I am tethering the camera to a laptop, giving an easier way to look at composition and lighting before taking the picture, and reviewing the results immediately afterwards.
Quality of Light (Three Photographs)
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Photography is as much about light as anything else. The best way to learn about light is to work with every kind and quality of light you have at your disposal. I have some studio gear I fool around with and it helps me learn about light. I highly recommend trying this even if it is only with window light or, much better, an off camera flash.
Victor Rakmil Photography 