Translucent Objects and Wrap Around Light

Well, it has clearly been too long since I made a photography post. So, I have something that I think will be good. I read about a technique for photographing shiny and translucent things where the light is designed to wrap around from the back. You don’t need a lot of fancy equipment to make this work. The first image of a Gatorade bottle was really because that was what I found first.

The setup shot is shown below. Like I said, it is pretty simple. I happen to have a Westcott translucent panel, but you could easily do this with something like a sheet or white nylon fabric. I put a single light behind the bottle. I then taped a small black piece of poster board directly behind the bottle to serve as the background. It is only big enough to fill the background in the picture. The bottle is sitting on a table covered by some black cloth. I put the camera on manual exposure and adjusted until I got a good exposure. All of the light is wrapping around the black poster board.

I made another similar setup, but this time, I wanted a reflection at the bottom. I placed a piece of crystal on some shiny black paper (I forget the actual name). The only difference in this picture is that I also placed something overhead to keep the keep the white above the crystal from reflecting in the shiny base.

I’m really happy with the results. I hope you get a chance to try this out for yourself.

MS Bike Tour – Help Me Raise Money

On June 23-24, 2007, I’m joining thousands of cyclists for the Harmons MS Bike Tour in Cache Valley, Utah. This two-day bike ride isn’t a race, but it does raise money in the race to find the cure for multiple sclerosis, and is held in over 100 cities across the nation each year. Last year, over 2,500 Utah cyclists raised $1.3 million to help 29,000 Utahns and others affected by MS, a degenerative disease of the central nervous system. Researchers are making progress, but the cause and cure are still over unknown. Utah has one of the highest rates in the nation, with nearly one in 500 getting diagnosed, as compared to one in 10,000 in Texas.

And that’s why I join the movement. With this journey, I’m helping the National Multiple Sclerosis Society fund research to find the cause, cure and treatment of MS. My participation also helps support services for people affected by MS. My personal fund-raising goal is $500, supporting the Utah ride’s 2007 goal of $1.5 million.

Please help me by making a one-time, tax-deductible donation by clicking here. Any amount you feel comfortable giving is deeply appreciated. With your support, we can make a positive impact today in the lives of men, women and children affected by multiple sclerosis.

Flashes of Hope

I haven’t been able to come up with posts lately, but I had a wonderful experience on President’s Day. I was able to work with an organization called Flashes of Hope (www.flashesofhope.org). From their website, “Flashes of Hope is a non-profit organization dedicated to creating uplifting portraits of children fighting cancer and other life threatening illnesses.” This was a truly wonderful experience. This was the first event for Las Vegas and is just getting started, so there is a lot more to come. It was done at the Sunrise Children’s Hospital in one of the conference rooms. The organization even provides a hair and makeup stylist so the people involved can look their best. The families receive a beautiful leather portfolio with the results of the photography session. As I already said, this was a special experience that I look forward to in the future. I have included two pictures. The first one is one of my top favorites because I think it very dramatic and powerful. Later I will talk about details of the setup.

Troy Paiva – Night Photography

Lost America is an awesome website done by photographer Troy Paiva. It is a “a collection of night photography of the abandoned roadside west”. Troy uses a combination of balanced moonlight, multicolored strobes, and even light painting with a flash light in old and abandoned locations. The website is full of images and even includes a how-to page on how it is done. Be sure and make a visit.

Strobist – Off Camera Flash

I have been going to talk about this blog for a while now and I just keep putting it off. I can’t say enough good things about this blog. Strobist is truly a gem of photography information. I have been reading this blog for some time now and I am truly amazed at what can be done without a lot of really expensive equipment. In fact, he always tries to see how it can be done the least expensive way possible. The main focus of the blog is learning about light and getting the flash off of the camera. If you are new to photography or just want to learn more, you should start with Lighting 101. After you learn the basics, you can see the principles in action in On Assignment. There is constantly something new on this blog with a lot of participation from photographers of all capabilities around the world showcased by a companion flickr group. This is one site you must visit.

Michael Grecco – Lighting and the Dramatic Portrait

Michael Grecco has written a book called “Lighting and the Dramatic Portrait”. I haven’t had the chance to buy or read it yet, but it is getting some really good reviews. The January 2007 edition of the Digital Journalist has a great article written by Dirck Halstead talking about the book. The article includes a number of pictures and lighting diagrams from the book. On a side note, I haven’t run across the Digital Journalist before, so I’ll be checking it out to see what it has to offer.

Snow in Las Vegas!

I woke up at 5:20am this morning as usual and saw that the light was on downstairs. I thought that was very strange since I knew my kids stayed up late last night and that they didn’t have any school today. So why would teenagers get up around 5:00am in the morning? It turns out that it snowed quite a bit last night. My daughter’s friend sent her a text message since she was up getting ready to go to work. So my kids got up to play in the snow. Since it rarely snows at our house and they couldn’t miss out on the fun. I took my time getting to work this morning and here are some of the results. I would have liked to have spent more time, but it just wasn’t possible. Having grown up around snow, I do miss it. And unlike probably everybody else in the world, I love to drive in it!

Photoshop CS3

Adobe has done something that they have never done before and decided to release a public beta version of Photoshop CS3. Unfortunately, you need to already own CS2 to or another other qualifying product to try it out. That being said, there are still a lot of resources on the web for finding out more about this next version. Here is the link to get you started: Adobe Labs Photoshop CS3. This link explains who is eligible for an activation serial number and includes the release notes and discussion forum. Additionally, the National Association of Photoshop Users has created a whole Photoshop CS3 learning center.

Create your own flash gallery

It seems that there is no shortage of problems that keep me away from what I would like to be doing. That being said, I ran across an interesting announcement from Adobe today. They have recently released an opensource flash gallery development kit called ‘Adobe Media Gallery’. If you know how to program flash and you follow the standard, you can easily create your own web based flash gallery replacement for Photoshop Elements 5 and Photoshop Lightroom. That way, when you generate a web gallery with one of these products, it’s your design and not the default included with the software. You can even sell your designs to those who don’t have the time, talent, or inclination to make their own galleries. Hmmm, maybe I should learn more about flash.  Learn all about it here.

Nevada Childhood Cancer Foundation Gala Event

This last Saturday evening, my wife and I were able to cover the Nevada Childhood Cancer Foundation‘s 13th annual Profiles of Courage Gala held at the Mirage Hotel Casino Events Center. This is a fundraiser event and a chance to honor those who have made a difference during the past year. The event begins with a silent auction. During the silent auction, we walked around taking pictures of the participants. These are less formal on the spot pictures.

Last year, we used the Gary Fong Lightsphere-II products with the flash on camera. I have been working hard to get the flash off the camera, because no matter how you modify the light, it will always be a flat light when coming directly from the on camera flash. It can be a soft flat light, but it is still a flat light. In the words of David Ziser, “Save the shadows”. Highlights and shadows make all the difference in the world.

In order to get the flash off the camera, you must have an assistant. The other issue is how to move the light around without it being too much of a problem or getting in the way. I decided the best way to do that was to mount the external flash on a monopod along with a Lightsphere-II. This results in a softened bare bulb light effect. Since I am using a Nikon camera and I happen to have two SB-800′s, I also decided to use the Nikon wireless capability to trigger the flash. That means that I had an SB-800 mounted on the camera in commander mode. The on camera flash only told the external flash when to fire and didn’t contribute to the picture. For speed and convenience, I ran the flash in iTTL mode with a -1/3 or -2/3 compensation. Of course, I white balanced the camera to the flash!

So, where do you place the light? Well, basically, you want to be around 30 to 50 degrees from the camera. One note of caution, make sure that the light is not too far in front of the camera or you will get a flare from the flash. I also pointed the on camera flash toward the sensor on the external flash to help make sure that it would trigger properly. You also have to make sure that the person holding the external flash doesn’t inadvertently block the sensor.

How does it work? Well, I am very happy with the results. I’m not saying that they were perfect, but overall, very good. With that problem out of the way, it is more a matter of paying attention to the position of the people, their faces, and especially their eyes. The lady shown below is Paulette Stevens, who was named the Health Care Professional of the Year.

Do you have to use a lightsphere? Not at all. Some people don’t want to spend the money for a Lightsphere-II. You could also use some sort of a bounce attachment. In fact, David Ziser uses a shoot through umbrella when he does weddings. Whatever you choose to use, make sure that it looks professional. For example, I know of some people that didn’t want to buy a Lightsphere and were just using a plastic bottle (I think it was a rubbing alcohol bottle). There is nothing wrong with this (especially when you are not around the public), but I personally would not want to be walking around a prestigious event with an alcohol bottle on my flash. In other words, it looks professional and that can be very important.