Why, hello there. I am so happy to meet you!
Allow me to introduce myself. I am the new Worth1000. Is this your first time meeting the new me? We should get reacquainted then. So many things are different about me now. Come and learn more :).
We don't have a good lighting tut here at Worth, and although I'm hardly the most qualified to write one, I had a few spare hours on Wednesday. Life lesson: last minute bookings don't always work out. Anyway, this is a basic tut on what lights do to your subjects, and what you should think about.
I'd like to introduce you to my 1:24 scale Porsche 959 :) It will serve as our subject for this shoot. Here it is:
Doesn't exactly seem that gorgeous, does it? At least the photo isn't blurry... but let's point out some obvious errors here.
* First, I haven't bothered to clean my subject. It's not going to even be shown at its best if I don't take the time to at least wipe the grime off it.
* Second, that's a hideous background.
* Third, I haven't bothered to adjust the white balance. This is what is causing that awful yellow cast. Can you even tell that car is blue?
* Fourth, it's a bit of a bad angle. Remember to consider your subject as a whole, a mass with angles and silhouettes. It will help you find a "pose" for the subject.
Also the light is not that interesting, it's just the overhead lights in my room, casting a hard shadow straight down. Not very exciting.
Let's clean the subject a bit, get a lamp that I can move around, and adjust the white balance for the light source being used. Voilą!
Well that's better.. it's a bit of side lighting, bringing out the shapes of the car. Get used to looking for shadows and reflections, because it will tell you where the light comes from. It's a great way to learn from other people's photographs. For example, the right seat here has a shadow along the side, and even more tellingly, you can see the shape of the car in the shadow going top left in the picture.
If we move the piece of card the car is standing on and lift up one end of it so it curves down, we suddenly have a studio!
Okay, better. But we don't want horrible shadows like that that look like they've been cut with a cookie cutter. Diffuse your light! Diffuse! Use a bed-sheet if you have to but spread you light source over a larger area:
Now I bet you're thinking.. that's not such a huge change. Sure, the shadow is a bit softer and blurry, but so what? Well, you'll notice we're dealing with a reflective surface here, namely car lacquer.
And this is an important step.
Look at your subject again. Consider its properties this time. What parts do you want to emphasize, what parts do you want to hide? What are its unusual characteristics and how can you use them?
For us, reflections can be really cool, and as a sports car you've probably heard the word "lines" uttered in context. We want to emphasize the lines of the car, the way the shapes change across the body of the car. This means picking up the bubbles and contours in it, right? So we move the light, watching the shadows, and what happens with the lighting. The beauty here is that we have an area of light, and it's going to be reflected in the lacquer. So not only can you use the light for lighting, you can use it as a source of contours and shapes as reflections:
See how the light source itself is bisecting the Porsche logo at the front? How it's picking out the contours of the roof and back spoiler? Look how much shape the hood has, with huge flat surfaces of white, and jagged little supports that jet out near the windscreen. One light that picks out all that detail, the same one light we used in the last pic, but it's been moved. Don't be afraid to move your lights! Experiment!
Pop quiz: Where is the light located?
It's coming from top back/left, i.e above and behind the car, slightly to the left.
What I miss though, is that the wheels and side of the car are dark now. Not to worry, a mirror will solve this problem. I've used a mirror to bounce back the light onto the wheels. A nifty bonus is that I can use the mirror as a square shape too, to create another patch of white. This time it's cast onto the back air intake and front wheel bubble:
That's starting to look really good isn't it? But we're not done yet!
What I like above the above shot, is that there is this great contrast between the white highlights of the light source reflections, and the dark blue of the car. Look at the front though. There isn't much here to stop the hood running into the ground shadow, they're both equally black. And that door? Can you tell it's open? It just looks like a blotch of blue on the back wheels.
Lets solve that first problem, er.. first. A second light source, a fill light. I've diffused this as well, and am going to use it to pick out the front of the bumper and cut that black into some actual shapes. Here it is, just the fill light:
OOooh a bonus. We now have seat illumination! Well then, it's time to place the mirror back into the game, the one that lit up the wheels for the main light. In this position, we get the best bonus ever, namely our fill light is reflected back onto the door and picks out the curve of the metal there from the door handle:
Well in truth, I moved the fill light so that would happen :). Like I said, don't be afraid to move your lights!
Here we have the key and fill light together, with and without the mirror, to show you how much one single reflector can do:
That's looking really really good in my humble opinion. I'd be happy to leave it there, only I happened to come across a piece of high-gloss photo paper when I was doing this. Remember how I said that reflections can be cool? Well, by placing this white piece of paper/card I could get it reflected in the lacquer of the car, as a milky area. I used this in the last and final shot, to fill in a little more of the back of the car and lines of the front wheel arch. I really recommend investigating where reflections come from using something stark like white card so you can eliminate them or use them to do your bidding as in this ending example:
That's it :) I hope this little intro into the joys of moving lights around will get you interested in experimenting with your light sources. I hope it also motivates you to build that diffuser or softbox you've been planning :D
[Edited by User on 3/3/2009 2:11:49 PM]
On 3/6/2008 10:31:06 AM, Buffmufin said:
Any chance to see a shot of the "set-up"? Showing locations of the main and fill lights, diffusing sheet, mirror, piece of photo paper in relation to the car?
Well see it's not really about what I did but about what you can do. Experimenting is a big part of it, so don't get caught up in focusing on how the examples were shot.
Just get out your lights and try stuff :)
One tip I can give though is that if you're using the light source as a graphic element, casting an area of light, you might be forced to turn the diffusing sheet in weird directions to get the curve you want to the light. Also, when dealing with reflective subjects, remember that Angle In = Angle Out, so you may have to move your lights more off-side than you imagined.
On 3/7/2008 9:41:37 AM, meerkat said:
Well see it's not really about what I did but about what you can do. Experimenting is a big part of it, so don't get caught up in focusing on how the examples were shot.
Just get out your lights and try stuff :)
One tip I can give though is that if you're using the light source as a graphic element, casting an area of light, you might be forced to turn the diffusing sheet in weird directions to get the curve you want to the light. Also, when dealing with reflective subjects, remember that Angle In = Angle Out, so you may have to move your lights more off-side than you imagined.
I appreciate that, Meer, and of course you're absolutely right. Some of us (self included), though, don't have lights or reflectors, etc. and end up jury-rigging implements to get better lighting.
My current tech level is either overhead lights (ugh) or standing 7-8 feet away from my subject in a dark area, setting a very long exposure and self-timer, and wiggling a flickery, weak flashlight at my subject! I just had wanted to get a general idea of all the accoutrements put together and set up to get good lighting to take a successful image.
excellent tutorial. Its nice to hear the real-world techniques/knowledge needed in 3d setups and rendering.
On 3/7/2008 10:12:33 AM, Buffmufin said:
I appreciate that, Meer, and of course you're absolutely right. Some of us (self included), though, don't have lights or reflectors, etc. and end up jury-rigging implements to get better lighting.
My current tech level is either overhead lights (ugh) or standing 7-8 feet away from my subject in a dark area, setting a very long exposure and self-timer, and wiggling a flickery, weak flashlight at my subject! I just had wanted to get a general idea of all the accoutrements put together and set up to get good lighting to take a successful image.
You do not need a fancy lighting rig or professional soft boxes to shoot these images. Just look around the net and you're bound to finds dozens of tutorials on how to make your own lighting out of simple every day items. Here's a good site.
Relfectors are very simple to make - White poster board works well. Need more reflected light? Cover that poster board in crumpled foil, or go buy a cheapy silver windsheild heat reflector made for cars. You can also google lighting diagrams to see some example set ups.
With a little elbow grease and less than $50 you could have your own lights.
The most important thing, as meer said is practice and experimentation. Good luck!
[Edited by User on 3/12/2008 10:38:52 AM]
On 3/12/2008 10:42:09 AM, madame_ava said:
You do not need a fancy lighting rig or professional soft boxes to shoot these images. Here's a good site.
You can also google lighting diagrams to see some example set ups.
The most important thing, as meer said is practice and experimentation. Good luck!
Thanks, Ava, for the links! Very helpful!
[Edited by User on 3/12/2008 10:38:52 AM]
My current tech level is either overhead lights (ugh) or standing 7-8 feet away from my subject in a dark area, setting a very long exposure and self-timer, and wiggling a flickery, weak flashlight at my subject! I just had wanted to get a general idea of all the accoutrements put together and set up to get good lighting to take a successful image.
You can easily make an inexpensive diffuser/reflector screen by building or buying a simple frame and staple a white shower liner to it.
You can also make inexpensive reflectors with a sheet of foamcore. Score it every foot or so on opposite sides and then crack and fold it accordian style. Both of these will take up very little space storage wise, and the accordian allows you to prop it up easily.
Watch out if you purchase the spring loaded car sun reflectors. Some work great, but don't get one that has a colorful cast to it on one side as you may get the purple, blue, red, etc hue if you use it as a diffuser.
On 3/12/2008 10:42:09 AM, madame_ava said:
You do not need a fancy lighting rig or professional soft boxes to shoot these images. Just look around the net and you're bound to finds dozens of tutorials on how to make your own lighting out of simple every day items. Here's a good site.
Relfectors are very simple to make - White poster board works well. Need more reflected light? Cover that poster board in crumpled foil, or go buy a cheapy silver windsheild heat reflector made for cars. You can also google lighting diagrams to see some example set ups.
With a little elbow grease and less than $50 you could have your own lights.
The most important thing, as meer said is practice and experimentation. Good luck!
[Edited by User on 3/12/2008 10:38:52 AM]
Thank you, thank you, thank you! :D
This tutorial was quite "enlightening" :) I miss a lot of fine points when I shoot. I am not as critical -- and I should be because that's the difference between a good capture and a great one -- of the small details that will make the image pop. If truth be told I would have "settled" for the fifth or sixth image -- so yes, this was a real eyeopener for me.
Thanks Meerkat - much appreciated!
Ciao
Mare
On 3/12/2008 10:42:09 AM, madame_ava said:
You do not need a fancy lighting rig or professional soft boxes to shoot these images. Just look around the net and you're bound to finds dozens of tutorials on how to make your own lighting out of simple every day items. Here's a good site.
Relfectors are very simple to make - White poster board works well. Need more reflected light? Cover that poster board in crumpled foil, or go buy a cheapy silver windsheild heat reflector made for cars. You can also google lighting diagrams to see some example set ups.
With a little elbow grease and less than $50 you could have your own lights.
The most important thing, as meer said is practice and experimentation. Good luck!
[Edited by User on 3/12/2008 10:38:52 AM]
I started out with the cheep clamp on silver work light fixtures and bought color correct bulbs at a camera shop. As I remember this was less than $10. I like the clamps because they are easy to mount and change positions.
