Trying to get back up to speed – need a kick in the pants
- This topic has 18 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated Aug 27, 2009 at 4:21 pm by
.
-
Posts
-
Will . . . IMHO these shots are great, although I know where you are coming from with the macro flash struggle. I have had great success with high macro shots using Nik Software and Viveza. It does wonders with pulling the colors out and the masking is superb. Nik Software bundle with Pro Contrast and/or Tonal Contrast is also a deadly comnination. Kind of advanced post processing but it really brings out amazing tonality to the macro flash pictures.
Again, I think your images at that particular resolution (i.e. 1:1 or greater) are about as good as it can get in practical financial terms.
Nice shots, as always Will. IMHO, it looks like your shots are slightly over exposed. The shadow area is a give away as they seemed wash out a bit. You may want to just step down the EV or use the inverse sq. law, in respect to the focal range of light, and move your light source further away. If you look at the blacks, they seem a bit more like a matt appearance. Remember that your older 2 dimensional looks came from the fact that the darks made your specular details pop better.
Also, you may want to place some solids on the scrim to help narrow the light source some, as the broad light on a close background seems to flatten the subject some. Look at your older shots and you will see that the separation of your subject was pronounced by the difference in reflective density with your subject and the background.
One other note: I am not sure how far you have the scrim to your subject but it appears as though you have to much wrap around light. Moving that further away will help give you a better shadow-diffused transfer which is where the definition of a subject lays.
The D200 is more than fine and the D300/D700 would make no difference at all, it is all 100% in the lighting.
I know what you mean about wanting to try something different, I too love the darker side. Personally and respectfully, I can’t help but feel that you over compensated with your determination to go brighter. If the background and subject have the same focal ratio, the images will appear flat and wrap around lighting, from a distance to the source, will over expose the subject. Remember that more light intensity will also desaturate the tonality, you can often compensate by stopping down the EV value.
The camera sensor is 1 dimensional so it is up to the photographer/lighting engineers to create/manipulate the reflective and incidental light in such a way that it paints a 2 or 3 dimensional capture. Using a very broad diffused light, that delivers the same focal range of light, will almost always deliver a single dimensional rendering. Strobes and lenses share the very important similarity in that they are built upon the foundation that they only deal with light, because of this they share the relationship of focal ratio (f) in character. The lens can be set for focal zone, meaning everything within that focal ration will be in focus, the further we move from the subject the greater the focal zone. As we know, the focal zone hits the sensor as bounced light in the RGB. Strobes, how ever, send the light but the focal ratio is the same principal and we measure this through the inverse sq. law. The closer the light source is to the subject, the shorter the focal range. As the light travels, each new focal ratio range is double the length of the last. What this all means is that we can set lights closer to a subject and have 1 complete f stop loss in a matter of inches, yards for subjects further from the light source.
I don’t mean to make this more complicated than it is but lighting is actually even more complicated. I think that a better and less complicated solution, for you, may be a snoot. I know that a diffuser inside of a snoot is suppose to be a taboo but breaking these stupid rules is half the fun of photography. I might suggest a diffuser dome inside of the snoot, to allow you better versatility and make it easier for you to do hand held lighting while photographing. Also, place a white boarder inside and at the end of the snoot, this will help to feather the outline of the specular. You may even try shaping the snoot to form some really nice dynamic light shapes across your subject.
One other thing that you can try: If you look at the size and shape of your light, on a subject, you will notice that when you get to the perimeter of its shape, it has fall off. This is the lights feathered edge and is very similar to the focal range of light, meaning that it too will provide a full stop loss in focal ratio, in mere inches.
Hope this helps some.
Almost forgot: If you are using your strobe with ambient light, remember that you can use the ambient on your background with strobe on your subject. If this is the approach, you can adjust the ambient focal ratio by adjusting your SS and the strobe by adjusting the A. Really fast and artistic way of capturing some amazing shots with very dynamic lighting effects.
Will: Quick question – in the D200 picture controls, are you setting saturation mode III and +Saturation? If not, give that a go.
Shooting menu > Optimize Image > Custom > Saturation
Will,
I like where you are going here and that is surely a very rich and warm image. Couple of comments – what about a hair light in the background (i.e. even a white paper bounce card to fill in the camera right eye) and out of curiosity, why did you choose f4.6 for this particular image? I ask the last question because of my personal interest in the artsy macro stuff and the creative dof. While it is often pleasing to me, people generally want tack sharp images of bugs. Something like f11 or smaller? However, that is when I start cursing and throwing a tantrum because of the loss of light and need to jack up ISO and/or flash which gets tricky with the inherent side effect of desaturation.
Is that moth live and wiggling?
Will, I LOVE that last shot!!!!!!!!!! Very cool application of a “juxtapose” application!
There is good amount of juxtaposing photographs on the web but most of them missed the true application and definition of it, it is best seen in the abstract art community.
I love the way that you have side by side wing comparisons of contrast and I am even more impressed with the way that you chose to put the specular on the far wing, allowing for better contrast and tonality on the closer wing. The narrow DOF was a GREAT way to finish the shot off, as it is more common to have the brighter side in focus. The way that you chose to put the light on the opposite side of the in focus area is GREAT!!! Nice use of the snoot as well 🙂
This truly is a work of art Will!! I am very impressed and do love this shot!!!!
As a side note: For the background lighting, use ambient and remember that you can completely control the intensity of it with your shutter speed, this allows you more freedom and creativity while staying within your boundaries of “one light”
WELL DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’ve been through a lot this year Zack and spent a lot of nights awake and afraid that I would get a call in the middle of the night, telling me that one of my 2 family members has expired. I take offense to the attack for doing nothing more that offering honest and very accurate information in response to a request for same.
You have singled me out in the past and I now take exception to your insult to everyone in this thread, as unreasonable people. I’ll go ahead and make this my last post on your forum.
Ben –
Dude. My post to Will was entirely meant to be an attaboy to him. I did not even bother to read the intervening posts. I was simply responding to the idea that Will’s work is anything but excellent with a joke. Clearly Will’s work is amazing.
I am completely unaware of ever having singled you out. I have always valued your contribution to this board and I respect your work as a photographer. I would suggest that you have read some general comment somewhere, which was either aimed at someone else or not aimed at anyone (much more likely) as some kind of slight. Please keep in mind that you can never read tone of voice on the internet, and sarcasm only with difficulty.
In short, there’s really, 100%, no reason for you to be offended. I am sorry if you have been offended by my not being careful enough.
Zach
Thanks guys and it seems that a miss cue should be met with bilateral apologies, I offer mine as well. Seems that my stress level is very high and temper very short, as these past nine months have been some of the worst of my life. I am the POA for 3 family members and legal guardian for another person that the family adopted, a man with mental and physical challenges. Seems that all 4 of them have been in the hospital during this time with one being in for the entire 9 months. She has almost died 5 times and I even had to fight with the Dr.’s about why I refuse to do a DNR and will commit all that I have to making sure that she both lives and regains her quality of life. Had one Dr. call me during an assignment at the National Theater and want nothing more than to talk to me about why I should do a DNR on her. During this time I also had to fire 2 Dr.’s and one is now being sued for the horrible things that he ended up doing her. Bad part is that the local hospital almost killed her, literally their fault, and my Uncle so; I have been having to commute 120 miles a day to see and take care of them both. Both of them have been critical for a good while but FINALLY it seems that they both are finally recovering and have a very good shot at regaining their old cherished quality of life.
During this time my mother also had to go in the hospital for respiratory problems and the person that I am now legal guardian for was also admitted for severe blood clots. I was on an assignment in Atlanta, a while back, and at 4:00 in the morning on the weekend, I am still getting phone calls from the hospital, trust me, every time my phone rings now, my heart races and I fear that the final resolve, for one of them, will be the content of the call.
Seems that my life has been completely dedicated to everyone other than myself, 100%, over the past 9 months and I am fine with that. Most of my work is in Europe and I have had to sacrifice that due to the fact that my family and their lives are far more important. Now that they are finally getting better, I feel that I am holding an empty bag and realize that I now have to start from the ground up as the AD’s that I used to shoot for do not like taking chances on rusty photogs. This too is something that I completely understand and will overcome.
Hopes this better explains how one simple character word, in a post, could really set me off. I admire and respect that fact that you left everything on here Zach and didn’t sensor it: This tells me that you are a man that has earned my respect. I am sorry for flying off the handle and I too have made posts without reading the other reply’s so, I see how this was all one of those miss communication deals. So, does this mean that you are finally going to invite me to your secret fishing hole? That would be reasonable
Hi Brett- I’m doing RAW/Adobe RGB/Mode 11/……
What advantages does Mode 111 plus upping the Sat in cam offer when working with a Raw pipeline????
Will
This is just a small suggestion, since I think you’ve received some good advice already on the lighting.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.