First Reflection Shot - Redux

[MiniChris]

Thanks, Jiro for reminding me to use a gray card - duh-uh...cannot believe I didn't do that the first time but I guess I got caught up in all the other preparations. I think this one is about 300% better and hope the next oen is 300% better than this one...this stuff is fun. I can see why Rob gets into it.

[MiniChris]

Black Velvet is the trick to a hard black backdrop.

[Colin Southern]

Black Velvet is the trick to a hard black backdrop.

Hi Chris,

The other approach - if you can't reduce the reflectivity of the backdrop is to simply reduce the light falling on it by moving the illuminating lights further away from it.

[MiniChris]

I did both on this one..and my lights are quite far from the subject, though still at a 45 degree angle. I have one main at 60W and one fill at 40W incandescent. the 40 watter is about three feet away and is diffused with some tissue paper (probably a full stop of light). The main is almost 5 feet away and turned away from the subject, bouncing off a wall.

[jiro]

Nice! Very, very nice! Now, Rob has somebody to wrestle with regarding table top photography! Start saving for a speedlite! Job well done, Chris.

[Colin Southern]

I did both on this one..and my lights are quite far from the subject, though still at a 45 degree angle. I have one main at 60W and one fill at 40W incandescent. the 40 watter is about three feet away and is diffused with some tissue paper (probably a full stop of light). The main is almost 5 feet away and turned away from the subject, bouncing off a wall.

I find in the studio that you have to give a lot of consideration to not only how far away the lights are, but also where they're pointing. I have a couple of black curtains I draw along to stop stray light bouncing off white walls - the other useful thing to have is some flags (black panels) that you can position carefully to stop light hitting backdrops.

[jeeperman]

This one is very nice Chris.

[MiniChris]

Nice! Very, very nice! Now, Rob has somebody to wrestle with regarding table top photography! Start saving for a speedlite! Job well done, Chris.

One of my students' father is an orthodontist and he donated me a ring light...I haven't looked yet to see if it will fit my lens.

[ilovelucydog]

The color difference is amazing. There's so much to learn here.

[Captured]

Nice! Very, very nice! Now, Rob has somebody to wrestle with regarding table top photography! Start saving for a speedlite! Job well done, Chris.

I agree, very,very nice!

[Nomadr]

nice picture Chris, was this one taken with black velvet BG ? there seems to be a reflection in the centre bottle, i cant make out what it is tho (i usually get me in glass reflections), one question is how do you use a grey card with flash ? i have one of those wibal plastic cards and if i try and take a reference pic it reflects , cheers martyn

[MiniChris]

I didn't use flash on this shot. This was a straight incandescent lighting array of a 40W and 60W bulb, one cool and one warm (it's what I had) in common reflectors. I did scrim the 40W with a sheet of tissue because it was closer to the glass and I couldn't get it back further. It worked...this time.

Ring light...quien sabe, I've never used one so not sure how it will or even if it will work. I am thinking it might work better with macro stuff.

And, for everyone who thinks Rob now has competition, I think Rob has forgotten more about this reflection shooting that I currently have a clue about, but it is nice to be thought about is such stellar company.

For this shot, I used a grey, white, black balancing set. The naughty little things don't like to stand up on the plastic, so I taped them together from the backside and laid them on a piece of black velcro to keep them in place in front of the bottles. Necessity really is the mother of invention.

[MiniChris]

Reflection is probably me and the camera...kind of hard not to get one of the two in the shot...but, I am working on that as well. I think Rob shoots from a higher angle than I did and like you have suggested, perhaps some darker screens around the object to ward off any intrusive color/shapes/objects. I did manage that on one wall and am thinking now to buy some black foamcore board and build a reflection box that is somewhat funnel shaped - still not sure how to get the camera out of the immediate scene short of really good cloning.