#lighting201

[frogmanslightschool]

This is my first official product photography gig. Nicole wanted her super cool crocheted dude to have nice pictures for her online store. She gave this one to me and I call him Rags. 

Let's go over how I got these pictures.

First, the equipment used:

Canon 60D

Canon f/2.8L 100mm macro lens

3 AlienBees B800 strobe lights

40 degree honeycomb grid

A brown/orange lighting gel

A homemade scrim

A white translucent sheet of acrylic

1 stripbox with grid

The Lights

The main light is a strobe with a standard reflector shining through a homemade scrim.

A scrim is just a white sheet that acts like frosted glass. It causes a graduated fall off, meaning it will edge light brightly, and the light will fall off more the farther away it gets. This causes things to have much more dimensionality. This technique is great for small objects because you can  adjust your lighting very precisely. 

The material I use for the scrim is called translum by Savage. It is more sturdy than tracing paper and more precise than a bed sheet, yet gives the same effect. 

The final effect shown here. 

The second light is an edge light. I used a stripbox with a grid.

This light creates a very fine edge light that defines the shape of the other side of the doll. It is slightly behind and angled forward. Unlike a scrim, the light only shows up on the edge. It doesn't have any gradual falloff. 

Here is what the light looks like by itself. 

The final light is a background light. It has a 40 degree honeycomb grid and a brown/orange lighting gel. This light is behind a piece of white acrylic. The honeycomb grid confines the spread of light to a smaller circle. I had to test out different degrees to find the right size. 

This creates a warm glowing ball behind the subject. Because it is shining through the acrylic, the light has fuzzy edges. Lighting from behind also means it has a subtle glow rather than just a light reflecting on a white background. The acrylic used can be found here in many sizes. This also works great as a reflective surface to set products on. 

Here is just the background light. 

Here is a blurry corgi that interrupted.

And here is the final setup. 

Small products require precise and specialized lighting. It can be a lot of fun if you really enjoy puzzles and detail work. Every object is a test of your problem solving skills. If you do it right, you'll have a very happy client. 

Photos by Froggie

You can find me here: [tumblr | wishlist]

[frogmanslightschool]

I've gotten a few messages asking for lighting setups. This is one of my favorites for studio portraits. 

The main light is a beauty dish. Just above camera, pointing down a bit. A beauty dish is a great modifier because it mixes hard and soft light and sculpts the face in an interesting way. 

The silver reflector just bounces light from the beauty dish to fill in shadows from below. This is pretty subtle. You can use a white piece of card if you don't have a reflector. 

My rim light is a stripbox with a grid. This gives a very soft light, but it is well contained so it doesn't bounce all over the place. By placing this a bit behind and aiming forward you can create a rim of light on the side of the face, hair, and shoulders. This adds a ton of dimension to the lighting and makes your subjects pop from the background. You can even do a second stripbox on the other side to see if that adds any benefit. 

The background reflector is just a small attachment that throws a ball of light on the background and keeps light from escaping in the wrong direction. It essentially creates a practical vignette which can look more authentic than adding one later in Lightroom or Photoshop. 

I shot this at 35mm, but on a crop sensor camera. So it ends up being around 56mm. Some might say that is still a bit short for a studio portrait, but for some reason I have found that focal length suits my face pretty well. I did the same for a picture of my dad and I found the same thing. It could be that melon headed individuals just look good at 56mm. 

Photos by Froggie

You can find me here: [tumblr | wishlist]