Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2009/09/08
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]thanks for taking a look Philippe. somebody said, "The only difference between Pornography and Art is the lighting." - Anonymous Not wanting to do pornography I spend a significant amount of thought time (when it's a gig) on lighting; both in the studio and on location. When it's not a gig - it's a more intuitive and spontaneous response to the existing light (only occasionally adding a diffuser or reflector). Study what the many different light modifiers actually do on various surfaces, colors, textures and shapes. When I watch films - I always studying the lighting. Also, always taking note of when and why things appear "beautiful" in day to day life.. The set up always takes more time than the actual photography. At this point if a client can accurately describe the subject (in terms of surface, color, shape, etc.) I can pretty much have the set up before they arrive. In this case I nailed it before they arrived because Mark gave me a very accurate description of the fireplace tool set. But I didn't know what the other subject would be and we needed to modify the set for the surprise flowers. The fireplace set had a 30? grid above the subject and a silver umbrella on the left and behind (for edge). The flowers had a medium sized soft box above the subject (the size of the soft box determines the size and shape of the highlights) and a soft box on the right and behind (for edge). The differences between the two sets were all about the differences in the subject's surfaces and forms. Both sets had a large (53") octagonal soft box on the left front for a main light (which is also large enough to also serve as fill - giving sort of a wrap around light). The real trick comes in dialing in the right intensity ratios to achieve contrast and detail in both the metal's highlight and shadow textures (the main light i= 1,000 ws, top = 250 ws, side = 500 ws all three are nearly infinitely variable down from there; and all three were tweaked down away from max - but I couldn't tell you how far - as I'm simply working the sliders without looking at them). Experience + trial + error until the subject looks wonderful. Regards, George Lottermoser george at imagist.com http://www.imagist.com http://www.imagist.com/blog http://www.linkedin.com/in/imagist On Sep 8, 2009, at 1:45 PM, Philippe Amard wrote: > Great job - always too small for me - Mark !!!! > ;-) > I really wonder how you do the lighting ... > > Admiringly > Philippe > > George Lottermoser wrote: > >> Had the pleasure of meeting >> Mark and Sylvia Mondloch >> and photograph Mark's metal work. >> >> <http://www.imagist.com/blog/?p=1559> >> you'll find links to the slide shows of additional views there. >> >> or you can go directly to the slide shows with these links: >> <http://www.imagist.com/mondloch_fireplace_set/> >> <http://imagist.com/mondloch_garden_accents/> >> >> Hope to see and photograph Sylvia's ceramics some day. >> ;~) >> >> Regards, >> George Lottermoser >> george at imagist.com >> http://www.imagist.com >> http://www.imagist.com/blog >> http://www.linkedin.com/in/imagist >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Leica Users Group. >> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >> >> > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information