I love experimenting with light and shadows. And this is one such experiment. The experiment is very simple: What would happen it the same subject was shot under the same light conditions using no card/reflector, a silver reflector, a white card, and a black card. You might be surprised with the results. Lets take a look.
The image above of the new bike frame was shot under day light conditions with light coming into the room from a very large (south facing) window just behind the camera and slightly to the right. This was shot on an overcast day in late afternoon so the light was very soft. There is no reflector to the left of the bike frame.
This shot has a silver reflector to the left of the bike frame, just out of frame. The round 74cm silver reflector is just a few inches away from the subject. Notice how the Specialized “S” logo is much cooler looking because of the silver reflector is being reflected by the bike frame itself.
In this shot I used a 20″ X 30″ sheet of white foam board in the same position as the silver reflector. Notice how the shadow on the left seems to look washed out because of the reflection of the white card on bike frame. This clearly shows that white cards and silver reflectors have different fill light properties.
And finally, here I used a 20″ X 30″ sheet of black foam board. Notice how dark the shadows look. The Specialized “S” logo almost fades to black. The black card makes the shadow very dramatic.
What have we learned? Silver, white and black reflectors/cards have very different reflective properties and can be used to achieve very specific looks. This is just a very basic look at reflectors and fill cards and experimentation is key. Grab an object (or even a person) and try to get different looks using different color reflectors and cards. In this experiment I only used silver, white and black. Try it with gold, or even better colored reflectors/cards. You’re bound to get a very interesting shot.
The above video shows how I set up my Nikon D300 as the commander and my SB800 as the remote. It’s pretty simple and quick to set-up. This was my first time setting up and using the CLS system. It’s very straight forward to use and I like the fact that the camera can actually be used to fire the remote flash and I don’t have to buy a separate unit to put on the camera (unless I want to). I’ll be posting the test shoot shortly.
Since this video was shot, I have used the CLS system outside a couple of times during two shoots. At first it was hit and miss with the remote flash firing and then getting the exposure dialed in. But, after getting use to the way things work I was getting pretty consistent results.
Let me know your experiences and techniques for using Nikon’s CLS system.
I spent part of my day creating this Exposure Adjustment Chart:
The chart is pretty straight forward and I hope the instructions are clear and easy to understand. The PDF is sized to 4″ X 6″ so you can print it out and keep it in your camera bag.
If you wish to post the video and the PDF on your site, Please feel free to do so. The only thing I ask is that you do not alter the video or PDF file in any way.
Yesterday after I made my beauty dish, I got to use it in a promotional shoot I did for a local restaurant. Below is a sample of a small group shot (3 people) sitting at a bar. The beauty dish is about 8 - 10 feet away (2.5 - 3 meters) from the subjects. I’m glad I brought the beauty dish with me. Since it is on about 12 inches (30 cm) in diameter it was much easier to keep it hidden from being seen in the mirror behind the group. This would have been impossible to shoot with a soft-box or an umbrella.
I have included a shot to show the light drop off of the beauty dish. The dish about 6 feet (1.85 meters) away from the wall.
Here is what you need to make a simple beauty dish; white plastic bowl, foam board, zip-ties (zap straps), aluminum tape
Trace around the front of your flash. Make sure it is centered on the bottom of the bowl.
Make 2 diagonal cuts to make the flaps
Fold the flaps back 90º. (Trick - once the flaps are cut, fill your sink with hot water from the tap, let the bottom of the bowl sit in the hot water for about 5 min. to heat up the plastic making it easier to fold back)
Check to see how your flash fits.
Front view of fit.
Draw circle on foam board, about 1/2 the diameter of the bowl.
Apply aluminum tape on other side of foam board, making sure the aluminum tape covers a larger area than the circle on the other side.
Cut out circle with sharp box cutter knife.
Cut slits just big enough for the zip-ties to fit through every 90º.
Bend the zip-ties (you’ll see why)
Insert zip-ties through the holes you cut into the circle so the bends in the zip-ties face outward (radiating from the circle)
Front view
Cut slits into the plastic bowl just big enough for the zip ties to fit through every 90º (Trick - you might have to insert a small flathead screwdriver into the slits to stretch them just enough to get the zip-ties through, the zip-ties should be held in place by the friction from the slits) DO NOT MAKE THE SLITS TOO BIG SO THE ZIP-TIES MOVE FREELY!
This is how it looks finished.
With an omni-bounce on the flash.
Front view.
Illuminated (with omni-bounce on flash).
I might not be beautiful, but the light from the beauty dish looks good!
Any questions or comments please post them in the comments.
Day 9 I’m starting to feel like a monkey using Aperture 2. It’s probably me, I’m just getting overwhelmed with everything Aperture can do. The learning curve seems quite steep. The tutorials show 2 different screen modes and I can’t seem to get to the one I like. I might be too familiar with Adobe products and the Aperture 2 interface is a bit different from what Adobe offers. I think a bit more time using Aperture should get me more comfortable.
Today I watched all the tutorials under the “Compare and Select” heading on Apples website. I’m trying to get to the point where I start “getting” Aperture 2, but I’m not there yet. I’m seriously thinking of joining Aperture Users Professional Network just to understand the program. But, I’m holding off until I decide Aperture 2 is worth the purchase and I decide to commit to it.
In the mean time here is an image I worked on that I took with my Canon G9 while out ski touring behind Whistler Mountain. I’m didn’t want to make too many adjustments before I really get to know the software. You can see the adjustments I did make on the left side of the images.
Days 5 & 6
“The Weekend From Heck” I did manage to import 34 reasonably decent images (not my best ones) into Aperture 2. At least I’ll be able to show the adjustments and features of Aperture 2.
Day 7
Tried to recover the “lost” images on my computer. No luck! I trying to figure out a solution. Maybe, loading the images on to a PC and converting them to DNG might work. I’ll keep you informed.
Day 8
Watched more tutorials (see list below). I’m starting to see the power Aperture 2 has under the hood.
Cropping and Straightening
Recovering Highlights
Setting Levels
Setting Advanced Levels
Using the Retouch Brush
In the next post we will explore some of the adjustments and use sample images.
The tutorials I watched today on Apple’s web site were; “Adjusting White Balance”, Adjusting Exposure”, and “Enhancing Your Images”.
I wanted to show you a more dramatic effect with the adjustments I did today, but my white balance and exposure for the image were dead on (I know, I’m perfect… kidding). It does help tremendously if you use a gray card and a light meter. I think I will have to revisit white balance and exposure adjustments in Aperture 2 with another image, maybe something I took with my Canon G9. I didn’t make any adjustments to the whitebalance and exposure, but I did bump up the saturation to 1.25 and the definition up to .50. The color saturation setting from yesterday’s trial adjustments have been removed, but the edge sharpening settings were kept.
The two images below show the “master” image (no adjustments applied) and the adjusted image. I like the feature of being able to toggle between the adjusted image and original “master image” in Aperture 2.
