Time for a Shave - Part 2

[Manfred M]

Getting into more modern technology, a Braun Series 8 electric shaver. I thought I cleaned it meticulously, but I was wrong. Same lighting as my other series, but here the shadows are more pronounced and the shaver looks like it is floating.

[Wavelength]

Yes; this image is not as impressive as the previous image of shaving articles; but all the recent images of yours are truly inspiring, showing how someone can be creative and engaged even in this strained time...

[DanK]

A shot of your lighting setup would be very interesting, at least for those of us much less skilled with studio lighting.

[Manfred M]

A shot of your lighting setup would be very interesting, at least for those of us much less skilled with studio lighting.

Unfortunately, my studio is quite temporary and I need to set it up and break it down to put everything away again. That's the problem when the studio is in the family room and the family uses it every evening.

I'm really busy right through to the weekend, but I expect that I will be doing some more shooting over the weekend and into early next week. I'm going to be using a very similar setup.

I use a sweep of seamless paper for many of my shots (1.35m / 53" wide). Lately I have done much of my work using white paper, which was used in this image.

My lighting was my "classic" starting position, a key light at a 45° angle to the subject pointing down at 45°. My key light was an 8" reflector with a 30° honeycomb grid on the camera right side. My fill light came in from the camera left side, also at the classic 45°/45° position, but with a 7" reflector, also using a 30° honeycomb grid to control the light spill. I used an incident light meter to set up the lights; the key light was set to f/11 and the fill light to f/8; so the left hand side of the shaver is 1 stop darker than the right hand side. The lights were equidistant from the subject and were just out of frame (so very close to the subject).

Full frame camera with my f/2.8 24 - 70mm lens using a 70mm focal length; f/11, 1/160th second exposure at IS) 64.

[DanK]

If you have any interest in showing your setups, an easy way to do it is to take a phone photo of it before taking it down. I’ve done that a number of times with macro setups. The pictures aren’t great, but they are fine for the purpose.


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[Manfred M]

If you have any interest in showing your setups, an easy way to do it is to take a phone photo of it before taking it down. I’ve done that a number of times with macro setups. The pictures aren’t great, but they are fine for the purpose.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Yes, easy to do, but one needs to think about it and expect that someone might actually be interested in seeing the setup. I'll keep that in mind and record my setups in the future.

[Manfred M]

Okay Dan - here is the lighting equipment / setup I used in pictures.

1. Key light is the larger (8") reflector and the fill light is the smaller (more cone-shaped, 7" reflector). Both lights were roughly equidistant from the shaver, with the camera right one 1 stop higher than the camera left reflector. Both were at 45° pointing downward and at a 45° angle to the subject. This is my "go to" lighting setup I almost always start with. The images show two different views of the lights and camera.











The next three shots are of the 7" reflector and grids.

1. 7" reflector with modeling light on





2. 7" reflector with 30° grid installed and modeling light on





3. Set of grids for the 7" reflector - 40°, 30° 20° and 10° grids, from left to right. The smaller the grid angle, the tighter the beam of light.

[DanK]

Manfred,

thanks very much. Am I right that you set the 7" to a substantially lower brightness?

Dan

[Manfred M]

Manfred,

thanks very much. Am I right that you set the 7" to a substantially lower brightness?

Dan

Correct. The 7” was the fill light and I often set it to be ~1 stop lower than the key light. That tends to be my default starting position.

I usually use a flash meter when setting up multi-light shots.

[DanK]

I usually use a flash meter when setting up multi-light shots.

I might finally have a use for my ambient light meters, which as of now I only use on rare occasions to check the ambient light when I edit!