Photo Notes

May 1, 2011

Product Photography

Filed under: Commercial Photography — John Siskin @ 5:18 pm

Here are the shameless plugs: my book Understanding and Controlling Strobe Lighting: A Guide for Digital Photographers is on Amazon.com. Here is a sample chapter from the book. There has been nothing but good feedback on this book, so I would guess that you’ll like it. Of course I still hope that you will consider purchasing my fine art book B Four: pictures of beach, beauty, beings and buildings. Frankly purchases of this book mean a lot to me, and it is also a fine gift for any occasion. I lowered the price a couple of weeks ago, and that has helped. As you know I teach for BetterPhoto.com. I really hope you’ll sign up my class: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting.

I just started doing some consulting for an importer. I am helping them to create better product photos for the web and other uses. I used to do a lot of product work, and, as with many types of photography, I do less product work now. It is just easier to do this work with a digital camera, so a lot of companies want to do the work in house. I’ve done a lot of this kind of consulting in the past and hope to do a lot more. I used to do a couple of courses at BetterPhoto that covered this kind of work, but they aren’t currently offered. In the last few days I have been thinking about doing a book on product photography that would be aimed at businesses. Please let me know if you need any help in this area, or other kinds of photography.

2 vases in a room set. Some times a set will help to make products more attractive.

Of course there are many different kinds of product photographs. The simplest is a shot that proves that you have the thing. Many people do this kind of shot with their phones and post the images on eBay. This is a very simple level of communication: you can trust me to send you the item because you can see that I have the thing. The next big step up is doing images for catalog or the web. These are the sorts of images that give you real information about the item. Often you may make the decision to purchase the item from the picture. Where a description might say Chinese style vase, 24 inches high. A photograph can give you a wealth of information about the design, shape and color of the product. I can’t imagine making most buying decisions without a picture. Most businesses, especially if they already have a designer, can do this sort of work in house. While they may need to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars, getting better product shots is worth it.

The foil is a bit of a challenge. There is a nice gradation of light that gives shape to a simple box.

At the highest level product photographs are designed to make people really want the product. So if you are making a shot of tomato soup or of a motorcycle the goal is to make people want to take out their wallet. Very often a professional photographer is better suited to this work than trying to do it in house. A photographer should have more equipment, and may have very specialized equipment. Of at least as much importance as the equipment a photographer should understand how to design an image for maximum impact. In addition to a skilled photographer, a stylist is often essential. This is a person with skills in presenting a product in the best environment and in the best condition.

A good product photograph should define the shape of the product: Not just the front, but how deep is it? You want to pick an angle that gives a good sense of all the dimensions of the product. If the product does something, lights turn on or wheels turn, it is often important to show these details. Accurate color is impossible on the web, because users set their monitors differently, but you should do the best you can with color in all circumstances. If the food looks sort of green it won’t help sales. When you do photographs for print you can control color, so find out about what color space will be used for your shots. Very often I like to show products in and out of packaging. If you are selling grape nuts well you might want to have some in the shot, but you will also need the package so people will know what to buy.

This micro shot shows the details of a very small product, and also helps to define the size of the product. It can help to use an object of known size in a shot.

The light should also help to define the shape of the product. So the light on the top of the product should be different from the light on the front. This will make things more three-dimensional. You may want to have a gradation across the product as well. All of this helps to make the shot of the product feel real, and that helps to sell the product. Remember that your job is to make shots that do sell the product, and to do that you want to know about the way the shot will be used. A shot for a large print option is different than a thumbnail for the web.

Who knows I may be talking about product for more blogs? Let me know if you have any questions on this topic. I have changes the blogs so it is easier to leave a comment. As a result I have had many people try to post information about pharmaceuticals and pornography, so I would value real comments.

I hope that this weeks images feel at least marginally related to the subject of the blog, they are all jobs I’ve done for clients. Thanks, for your attention.

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April 21, 2011

Light and Style?

Filed under: Lighting Technique,Photographic Education — John Siskin @ 3:09 pm

Shot with an 8X10 Toyo field. Scanned from a contact print. Original print on Kodak Azo paper

The idea for this week’s entry came to me as I was reading another photographer’s blog. He used language that I hear a lot: “My light,” and “My style.” The idea that because you create the same light again and again doesn’t seem to me to be a thing that you would want to brag about. One of my goals as a commercial photographer is to be able to work with a variety of tools and create any look that might benefit a client. I know that many photographers want to brand themselves with a signature style, but I prefer to be known as a guy who can deliver, almost anything. In addition, doing the same thing bores me. I want new challenges. I know many people who want to build a business doing portraits, or babies or even weddings. I wonder what kind of enthusiasm I would bring to shooting the six hundred and first school child in a month? I can tell you that if you shoot a thousand piece catalog you aren’t doing much creative thinking after item number seven hundred fifty. You have to do work to be good, but if you constantly do the same work you may lose your edge. If there is such a thing as a photographer’s eye, part of it must surely be the ability to pay attention to your subject, even after hours with that subject. I really like shooting architecture since the subjects are very different it presents constant challenges.

Shot with a 4X5 Speed Graphic and a 65mm Super Angulon lens.

A few years ago another photographer came to me and asked me how a particular shot was done. I looked at the print and told him the original photographer used hard and soft light and had filtered the hard light with at least a 1/2 CTO. I’ve written about this lighting a couple of time here in Photo Technique, here in Shutterbug and also in my book: Understanding and Controlling Strobe Lighting: A Guide for Digital Photographers. This is a very useful technique, but it does require close attention to detail. I was explaining this when he said “Why don’t you set it up for my shot?” Now I was willing, for free, to explain something about how light works. He could have applied this idea to any shot he wanted, but he didn’t want that. Too often the idea of learning to control light is too much trouble. He wanted me to do it for him. He didn’t want to experiment and learn, too much trouble, he wanted results. Eventually he convinced a friend of mine to come in and rig the lights for him whenever he shot. My friend tells me this photographer refers to himself as an artist.

Shot with my 4X5 Speed Graphic and a 135mm Xenar. Same model as Legs above.

One of the great advantages of digital photography is that testing is free or close to it. I should be precise about what I mean by testing: which is testing tools to see how they work. Testing can also mean shooting for your portfolio. “I need a model for testing” means I want to work on some new images for my book, and that can be expensive. But if I get a new umbrella it won’t cost me anything to shoot a shot of the way the umbrella spreads light or a shot to figure out where it should be placed in relation to the strobe. When I shot with film testing was quite expensive, and frustrating. The frustration was a product of not seeing the results of a test until the film was processed. So I didn’t test much. I tried to figure out what my tools were doing by analyzing my commercial shoots. This didn’t really serve my clients all that well. These days I do a lot of testing so that I can better understand my lights. I hope you’ll do a lot of testing also. And I hope you’ll practice with new techniques so that you can add them to your tool kit. You might get some new ideas by taking my class at BetterPhoto.com or reading my book.

Digital photography is MUCH easier than film photography was. Just the weight of the equipment is so much less. I used to go out on location to do an architectural job with close to 200 pounds of lights. That would be 5 lights, 2 power packs and accessories in 4 cases. I now have half that in weight and only 3 cases, but with 8 lights. So half the weight and almost twice as many lights, and this is because I don’t need as much power with a digital camera. The work I do is better, because I have instant feedback: the camera is tethered to the computer. Professionals, if they want to keep working, need to bring a really effective skill set, rather than just a good eye, to the table if they want to keep getting work. I think of myself as a craftsman as often as I think of myself as an artist.

You don’t need to log in to post on this blog anymore, but I would appreciate it if people didn’t post links to unrelated and inappropriate sites. I’ve included a few favorite large format photographs with this blog. There are times when I do miss the heavy lifting.

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April 9, 2011

What is Real Photography?

Filed under: Looking at Photographs,Photographic Education,Photography Communication — John Siskin @ 8:46 pm

Here are the shameless plugs: my book Understanding and Controlling Strobe Lighting: A Guide for Digital Photographers is on Amazon.com. Here is a sample chapter from the book. There has been nothing buut good feedback on this book, so I would guess that you’ll like it. Of course I still hope that you will consider purchasing my fine art book B Four: pictures of beach, beauty, beings and buildings. Frankly purchases of this book mean a lot to me, and it is also a fine gift for any occasion. I lowered the price a couple of weeks ago, and that has helped. As you know I teach for BetterPhoto.com. I really hope you’ll sign up my class: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting. Sign ups continue for the current session, please sigh up now.

This shot was meant to show the size and shape of the concrete dye.

I don’t know when the Kodak company first used the phrase “You push the button; we do the rest” but it must have been in the early 1900s. The Kodak company made possible a new kind of amateur photography: where the camera operator didn’t need to know anything about the technical aspects of photography. This, I think, is the beginning of the idea that what you need to be a photographer is a “good eye,” not any level of technical excellence. In the last few weeks I’ve seen several posts in which real photographers are complaining about those amateur photographers who are ruining everything. I think we ought to take a look at this sentiment.

First who are the real photographers? Photography is the most popular hobby in the world. How many people

I needed to use some of the light from the window, as well as strobe to balance this shot.

don’t try to take a picture sometime? I now have a camera in my phone, and I expect to have one in my next blender. Really I wouldn’t be surprised to see an oven camera that would e-mail you a picture of your food, so you could turn off the oven before it overcooks. Real photography is photography that communicates with pictures; that captures the memories of your days; and that sends pictures to Grandma. I would guess that without amateurs buying cameras we would still be using Speed Graphics, Rollieflexs and Nikon F cameras. These were cameras that were designed for professionals. Are there enough professionals in the world to pay for the design of a Canon 7D? Or consider it this way: a new Hasselblad H4D-60 costs $42,000, as much as new luxury automobile. A Canon Rebel XS costs just $550. I bet Canon is making more money. The thing professional photographers need to come to terms with is that Aunt Tilly, with her Nikon Coolpix, is the real photographer.

Since I’ve been doing photography the goal of the camera manufactures is to make better images for more people, people like Aunt Tilly. These people are amateurs: they take photographs for themselves and to share with friends. They want to remember the moments of their lives in vivid ways. I am a professional photographer that is I make money with my camera. Not just $5 or 10 from the occasional stock photo, but a living. If I am going to continue to do that I need to do more that tell potential clients that I have a good eye. As the manufacturers make better cameras I need to have skills that Aunt Tilly doesn’t have.

Back when I used film I had equipment that amateurs didn’t have: a 4X5 and 8X10 camera and lights. Business was better then, people with Instamatic cameras didn’t shoot product. But now the graphic designer I used to work for frequently has a new Canon. Because not only has Aunt Tilly got a Coolpix, Bob the graphic designer has a 5D. If Bob can shoot the image he needs for that ad he won’t hire me. The cameras are easier to use, and the images are better, and often they don’t need a professional photographer.

If we want to keep working, and I don’t know about you but I want to keep working, we have to bring more to the table than a good eye. I say this a lot, but what we have to do is be able to make pictures, not just take pictures. Aunt Tilly takes pictures. She finds something interesting and points and shoots. She’s like a walking scanner. Photographers need to be able to build a photo from concept to final image. This means you need to know how to create and control light, how to edit, how to work in Photoshop and how to work with a client. There are other things like framing and writing that can be helpful. If you’re doing these things on automatic, or if you’re sending them out, better look behind you to see if Aunt Tilly is catching up.

I added photographs that I used lights for this week. As I’ve mentioned lighting requires a considerable amount of craft, so Aunt Tilly won’t be catching up in this race any time soon.

I really hope you’ll consider taking my class at BetterPhoto.com. Sign-up are almost over, but if you sign up now you won’t miss a thing. I also hope you’ll suggest my BetterPhoto class An Introduction to Photographic Lighting to other photographers you know, or perhaps you’d like to give it as a gift? Amherst media sent me the cover for my second book, you can see it here, of course you can still look at my first book at Amazon .

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April 5, 2011

Teaching Light

Filed under: Lighting Technique,Photographic Education — John Siskin @ 3:04 pm

I haven’t been able to get back to the blog for a few weeks. I’m sorry about that, but I have been busy shooting and arranging other crises. Anyway, here are the shameless plugs. My book Understanding and Controlling Strobe Lighting: A Guide for Digital Photographers is on Amazon.com. Here is a sample chapter from the book. Of course I still hope that you will consider purchasing my fine art book B Four: pictures of beach, beauty, beings and buildings. Frankly purchases of this book mean a lot to me, and it is also a fine gift for any occasion. I lowered the price a couple of weeks ago, and that has helped. As you know I teach for BetterPhoto.com. I really hope you’ll sign up my class: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting. Sign ups could be better this month, so please join the class!

Now that that is over with I wanted to say something about teaching. I teach on line for BetterPhoto.com, so it might be assumed that I teach photography. That is not entirely true. What I really teach is lighting, as it applies to photography. There is a significant difference: a big part of teaching photography is explaining to students how to record an image. That might be a mountain or a flower or a child, but the idea is to capture what you see. When you actually control light you create the image for the camera to record. You are painting the image with your lights. Photography involves understanding and controlling certain aspects of your picture, for instance how distance is recorded (depth of field) and how time is recorded (how much blur you might allow with the shutter). Lighting provides another tool kit entirely: where light goes, the transition between light and dark, and the color of the light. Often people come to my class with the idea that they can set up lights in ways that will work for most subjects, but this would mean giving up the ability to customize the picture for the subject. That is to create the light for the image.

Since I teach an introductory class what I try to do is give people an opportunity to experiment with the tools. I tell them how to create a very simple, and inexpensive, play ground where they can learn how light works. Play is a critical part of learning. Digital cameras make it much easier and cheaper to learn this way, because they give you almost instant access to your images. Consequently people should be learning all aspects of photography, not just lighting, faster and better than with film. At least I hope so.

One of the questions that I get is: “Will this class teach me to light…” And you can fill in the blank, whether it is people, architecture, product, fine art and so on. My goal is to teach you to light, period. If you understand how light really works you can apply light to anything from a flower to a mountain, but you may need more light for the mountain.

I’ve attached several shots of interiors to this week’s blog. These shots required a lot of control over lighting. I have to say that I do love a challenge. I used these shots, and quite a few more in a Blurb book for a contractor I work for.

I am asking some of my students, and anyone else who would like to participate (you?) to post their thoughts about the differences between learning photography and learning how to control light. Please post something.

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February 20, 2011

Looking For Work?

Filed under: Looking at Photographs,Marketing — John Siskin @ 7:36 pm

For Aids Walk, Los Angeles

Here are the shameless plugs at the beginning of the blog. My book Understanding and Controlling Strobe Lighting: A Guide for Digital Photographers is on Amazon.com. The wonderful folks at Shutterbug magazine are printing a 3 page excerpt in the current issue. Please pick up the magazine. Here is a sample chapter from the book. Of course I still hope that you will consider purchasing my fine art book B Four: pictures of beach, beauty, beings and buildings. Frankly purchases of this book mean a lot to me, and it is also a fine gift for any occasion. As you know I teach for BetterPhoto.com. I really hope you’ll sign up my class: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting.

Shot for a breeder.

Recently I’ve been having a conversation with a couple of people on the discussion board at BetterPhoto.com. We’ve been discussing selling photographs. One of the problems that a person has as he/she becomes a more committed photographer is that she/he needs some sort of validation. Many people will participate in contests, but often the judging of

Shot for Ramada South Bay.

a contest is capricious or even insane. Selling photography can seem like a much better way of getting validation, and it might even buy you some new gear. Heck, it can even turn a hobby into a tax write off. If you want to sell photographs you need to look at the photographs that get bought, rather than the photographs you want to take. I have been selling photographs for almost thirty years. I started out photographing backgrounds for the Chipmunks: Alvin, Theodore and Simon. The last job I did was photographing a concrete

For Aids Walk, Los Angeles

pour for the footings of a new building. In the middle I’ve done work for General Motors and Aids Walk. Almost every photograph I’ve ever sold I sold to a business or a magazine. These are markets that need a lot of photographs. I’ve already done 6 jobs this year for one client. You can see some of the work I’ve done for this client at www.beelerbuildsembetter.com. Families don’t need a lot of photographs, would you do a family portrait more often then every other year? People don’t have weddings frequently, at least most people don’t. I’ve seen a lot of bad photography that got paid for, because the clients needed the images. If you want to sell photographs look at the businesses

For Rhythm Child

that buy photographs. Also get the Photographer’s Market. The Photographers market lists ad agencies, magazines and publishers. It even lists art fairs. It also tells you how to approach various kinds of businesses.

I have the 2010 version of Photographers Market right now. If I were going to do a major push for new accounts I would go get 2011 version. While there may be new markets, and that is important, the key thing is that you have up to date information on who the buyer is in a particular company or publisher. I found the publisher for my current book, and my next book, in Photographer’s Market. I sold to the New Yorker because of Photographer’s Market. What is not to love?

It is difficult for emerging photographers to understand that

For West Wind Studios.

they need to develop a broader definition of what a photographer does. You might want to look at my website: www.siskinphoto.com, to see the many kinds of photography I do to make a living. Oh, and I also teach at BetterPhoto.com. The pictures this week are images I’ve made for clients.

On a related note, I am really interested in what people are sending out as digital portfolios. If you have a digital portfolio, and you don’t mind, could you send me a copy? If you want I could add a link to the portfolio here in the blog, or not. Of course if you could tell me how the portfolio is targeted, and how you send it, that would be great.
Thanks, John Siskin

I hope you’ll suggest my BetterPhoto class An Introduction to Photographic Lighting to other photographers you know, or perhaps you’d like to give it as a gift? Amherst media sent me the cover for my second book, you can see it here, of course you can still look at my first book at Amazon . Also if you look at the current issue of Shutterbug you’ll find a three page excerpt form my book. I am so pleased that they did this.

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February 13, 2011

Editing Images

Filed under: Looking at Photographs,Photography Communication — John Siskin @ 7:22 pm

Before I get to the shameless plugs for my book and stuff, I’d like to mention something I think is important. Over the last few days I’ve traded a couple of e-mails with one of my students who is an Egyptian. It is a remarkable experience to have such a connection to world events. This would not have happened to me without BetterPhoto. I truly have a world full of connections because I shared what I know and the photographs I’ve made with the world through BetterPhoto. I urge you to get connected, either with BetterPhoto or in some other way. I wish the Egyptian people good fortune in their new adventure.

And here are the shameless plugs. My book Understanding and Controlling Strobe Lighting: A Guide for Digital Photographers is on Amazon.com. The wonderful folks at Shutterbug magazine are printing a 3 page excerpt in the current issue. Please pick up the magazine. Here is a sample chapter from the book. Of course I still hope that you will consider purchasing my fine art book B Four: pictures of beach, beauty, beings and buildings. Frankly purchases of this book mean a lot to me, and it is also a fine gift for any occasion. As you know I teach for BetterPhoto.com. I really hope you’ll sign up my class: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting. Sign up are very good this month!

This shot was done with 4X5 film so there were significant expenses.

Back in the misty depths of time I was a large format photographer. I shot mostly on 4X5 and 8X10 film, which was expensive. A single piece of processed 4X5 film was about $4 and a sheet of Polaroid was $3. An average shot took 2 Polaroids and 2 pieces of film, so $14 per shot. Expenses were marked up for the client so film and Polaroid were a very significant part of the client’s bill. The reason I mention this is that I didn’t shoot many extra images, so I didn’t need to edit. You edited with the Polaroids, and the set-ups, getting the shot perfected before you took it. When I began using digital it became obvious that since an additional image had no additional cost more images would get made. Of course this means that editing is very important.

I made about 250 exposures on this shoot.

The number of images I shoot has continued to go up as digital equipment has improved and the cost of memory has come down. I did a typical construction shoot last week. I shot about 250 images of earth moving equipment. I love it when the earth moves. The problem is that the client needs only about 20 images. So I need to edit.

I know photographers who claim that they just can’t edit their own work. I think that anytime you tell me what you can’t do you are probably

A musician's head shot

right. But I also ask myself what kind of a photographer will limit himself or herself by saying that he/she can’t something? There are things I can’t do now, but if I wanted to do them I would learn. Some skills are hard to learn, but a professional will find a way to learn them. An amateur might not feel that they want to learn a skill, and that makes sense, because they are doing photography for personal expression.

When I take a photograph there is always a personal element to it. I am affected by the day, the people, the nature of the job and so on. The thing is that this won’t be part of my picture; my picture is only what I put in the frame. So when I look at a group of images the first thing is to concentrate only on what other people will see. I need to analyze the shot as someone else would see it. This isn’t all that difficult to learn, but it is really important. Most people use photography to diarize their

The musician doing a stock shot.

lives, to remember the moments of their own life. This is exactly what you need to avoid if you are making pictures for someone else. The first thing I look for is will the shot interest the intended audience.

The next step is to understand my shot in terms of the purpose of the shot. So I wouldn’t expect a shot of a musician to look like a shot of a realtor. If I’m shooting construction the look is going to be grittier and more graphic than the shot I would do of a finished home. I may have shots that would be excellent for family, but not for commercial usage. The client gets a group of the images for their stated purpose, but I may include additional images in a separate folder.

For analysis and for understanding my shots, I’ll probably

I did quite a number of similar images, but this had a little more emotional impact. I had to compare several images to make the decision.

use a fairly small version of the shot in an editing program. I use Adobe Bridge most of the time. I may edit with 4 or 5 images on a row. But for the next step I’m going to look at the images much larger. In the early editing process I’m looking for things that keep the image from working. In the final edit I’m looking for what makes the image work.

I want to think in terms of the graphic nature of the image, is it strong or subtle? I want to think about the nuances of expression, how intimate is an image? I want to think about color and technical aspects of an image.

One more thing: you want to go back to your images, in a few months or a year, to see if you’ve missed anything. As much as I try to see my shots from outside the experience of the shoot, putting some distance in time between editing and shooting will still change the way I see my work.

I hope you’ll suggest my BetterPhoto class An Introduction to Photographic Lighting to other photographers you know, or perhaps you’d like to give it as a gift? Amherst media sent me the cover for my second book, you can see it here, of course you can still buy my first book on Amazon . Also if you look at the March issue of Shutterbug you’ll find a three page excerpt from my book. I am so pleased that they did this.

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February 4, 2011

Lighting a Background

Filed under: Do It Yourself,Lighting Technique — John Siskin @ 6:30 pm

And I am continuing the shameless plugs at the beginning of the blog. My book Understanding and Controlling Strobe Lighting: A Guide for Digital Photographers is on Amazon.com. The wonderful folks at Shutterbug magazine are printing a 3 page excerpt in the next issue. Please pick up the magazine. Here is a sample chapter from the book. Of course I still hope that you will consider purchasing my fine art book B Four: pictures of beach, beauty, beings and buildings. Frankly purchases of this book mean a lot to me, and it is also a fine gift for any occasion. As you know I teach for BetterPhoto.com. I really hope you’ll sign up my class: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting. Sign up are very good this month!

I used a Rosco CTO for the background. The light came from a snoot which was covered by a piece of cine foil with cuts in it.

I’ve continued to work on the projector powered by a strobe. The results have been very effective, as I demonstrated in the last blog entry. While the strobe projector is very effective for putting light or an image onto a face, it isn’t giving me as much ability to control background light as I would like. People used to project images behind a subject before Photoshop. Now, it’s easier to drop in a background, after the shot, using Photoshop. However it is really good to be able to add color and dimension to a muslin or canvas background. You can change the background color easily this way and make the background lighter or darker in different parts of the shot. The strobe projector I built isn’t really bright enough to do a change a background unless

This time I used a magenta gel and a piece of foil with holes cut into it.

the light on the subject is very low power. You can do this, but it isn’t what I really want. I am hoping the strobe projector will show up in a magazine article soon. For the background on this week’s shots I have been putting cine foil over my snoot and cutting various openings. I am attaching a picture taken with a piece of cine foil with straight cuts, which has a warm filter. And there is another shot using cine foil with several holes in the foil. This second shot has a magenta gel, which makes a very saturated background. Of course both shots are made on a simple mottled gray muslin background. This is really a fun way to change the background. I should point out that it only takes seconds to change the cine foil and/or the

The foil and gels I used for these shots

colored gel.

For these shots I used a strobe set at 250 watt-seconds pointed into a 45 inch umbrella with a black back. This was the light for the subject. I used a gold reflector on a light panel frame on the opposite side of the face. I also used one more panel, with a black cover on it, behind the umbrella. This reduced white light spilled on the background. If you get light from the umbrella on the background it will mix with the colored light and reduce the saturation. The strobe in the snoot had 1200 watt-seconds when I used the CTO gel and the foil with the cuts in it. For the other set-up, with the magenta gel, I used 800 watt-seconds. The camera was set at f8 and ISO 100. This really works much better than my tests with the projector light. In the tests with the projector the aperture was at f5.6 and the power was set at 2000 watt-seconds, and the background was still to dark.

The cover of my next book. This book will be available in the fall of this year!

I hope you’ll suggest my BetterPhoto class An Introduction to Photographic Lighting to other photographers you know, or perhaps you’d like to give it as a gift? Amherst media sent me the cover for my second book, you can see it above, of course you can still look at my first book on Amazon . Also if you look at the March issue of Shutterbug you’ll find a three page excerpt form my book. I am so pleased that they did this.

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January 23, 2011

Strobe Projector 2

Filed under: Do It Yourself,Lighting Technique — John Siskin @ 12:30 am

All the light is from the strobe projector using a cookie of little holes. I think the light in the eye makes this wonderfully effective.

And I am continuing the shameless plugs at the beginning of the blog. My book Understanding and Controlling Strobe Lighting: A Guide for Digital Photographers is on Amazon.com. It got as high as number 15 in photographic lighting books! And there was much rejoicing! But is is dropping now, so you need to buy a couple of copies, please! Here is a different sample chapter. Of course I still hope that you will consider purchasing my fine art book B Four: pictures of beach, beauty, beings and buildings. Frankly purchases of this book mean a lot to me, and it is also a fine gift for any occasion. As you know I teach for BetterPhoto.com. I really hope you’ll sign up my class: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting. Sign up are very good this month!

When we last saw this project, back in December, I showed some of the parts I used to make the projector. The most involved part is the tube that holds the lens and the series 7 filter holder. The

This tube is the key to making the projector work.

Series 7 filter holder is used to hold the cucoloris, or cookie, that creates a pattern, or a slide that is used to project an image. You can see where it fits on the image of the tube. The finished version of the tube is 4 inches long. There is a slot that is an inch and a half wide and 2 and a half inches long cut into the side. I cut the slot with a Dremel tool. This is quick, but you do need to be very careful. Dremel saw blades can break and fly at you. There are three other cuts made into the front of the tube that are the same light as the shot. These make the tube expand enough to hold the lens. On the other side I ground out the interior of the

The Series 7 filter holder and a couple of cookies. One cookie is cut and the other is blank

tube enough to hold the filter holder. You could do the same thing with 52mm filters, but you would probably have to remove the glass filters. I used the Dremel tool to do the grinding. Dremel tools are very versatile. There is nothing special about the Series 7 filter holders, except that I had a couple of them that weren’t doing anything. You would probably need two 52mm filters so you could put the cookie or the slide between them. I made the cookies from cine foil. You would also need to cut a mask of cine foil if you wanted to project slides, to keep light from spilling out the sides. I cut the foil with and X-Acto blade and other tools. This tube is really the only significant part you’ll need to build and it isn’t terribly difficult. Although I did build four versions before I got it right.

I used a cookie with slits cut into it.

The projector is not very bright, especially with a cookie or slide in place. At ISO 100 and 10 feet, without any cookie the meter reads f5.6, so the guide number would be 56. Most of the time you won’t be using the projector very far from the subject, so it is bright enough. By moving the lens in the tube it is possible to go from a hard edge, or if a slide a sharp image, to a soft edge, or if a slide a soft image. This gives you considerable control over the image. The difficulty is making changes to the projected image while shooting. If the projector is near the camera, as it was for the demonstration images, it can be reasonably convenient to shoot. If you are projecting a background or lighting the side of a subject than it is more difficult to arrange the image. A remote control release for the camera might be useful, or it might be helpful to work with an assistant. I am still working on ways to use the projector to create a background, which has been difficult. The problem with backgrounds seems to be the low power level of the

I really like the effect of the slits cut into the cookie. It is simple and effective. There is a filter over the projector and over the background light.

projector as well as the difficulty of getting it in place. Part of what makes this difficult is that when you are at the projector you can’t also be looking through the camera, so what looks right might not be right.

The samples this week were made with simple cookies. One is slits cut into the cine foil and the other is just holes. I used filters over the projector lens for color. On a couple of the shots I put a strobe behind the subject to add light to the background. I used colored gels on the background light as well.

I still offer a class at BetterPhoto, I hope you’ll consider taking it: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting And please consider my book: Understanding and Controlling Strobe Lighting: A Guide for Digital Photographers.

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January 6, 2011

Monolights vs. Dedicated Strobes

Filed under: Lighting Technique — John Siskin @ 2:24 pm

So here are the shameless plugs at the beginning of this blog. My book Understanding and Controlling Strobe Lighting: A Guide for Digital Photographers is on Amazon.com. It got as high as number 15 in photographic lighting books! And there was much rejoicing! But is is dropping now, so you need to buy a couple of copies, please! Here is a sample chapter. Of course I still hope that you will consider purchasing my fine art book B Four: pictures of beach, beauty, beings and buildings. Frankly purchases of this book mean a lot to me, and it is also a fine gift for the holidays. As you know I teach for BetterPhoto.com. I really hope you’ll sign up my class: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting. Sign up are very good this month!

I have probably already written something on this topic, but I think it is good to return to it. Also it has been a while, what with the holidays and all, since I posted to the blog. This came out of a discussion with one of my BetterPhoto.com students. I hope everyone has an abundant and peaceful New Year! I’ve added a few random shots to this blog. I hope you like them.

It is difficult to compare monolights, like an Alien Bee or a Calumet Travelite, with dedicated strobes like the Canon 580 EX II or the Nikon SB900. The fact is that they were designed to do very different jobs: the monolights are designed to create light for controlled circumstances and the dedicated strobes are designed for working fast. A monolight is a manual light source, with considerable power and adaptability that is designed to be controlled by the eye and skill of the photographer. Indeed it has to be controlled by the eye and skill of the photographer, as it has no auto-exposure capability. A dedicated strobe is designed for automatic control by the camera. While manual control is generally possible, the extensive menus on dedicated strobes make this difficult. I feel that reliance on manual control of light, for portraits, products and architectural interiors, makes a photograph better, because it requires the photographer to pay attention to the light. I have seen many images that had the right exposure, but the wrong light, because the photographer relied on a meter or auto-exposure rather than vision and skill. When I use a meter, which is rarely, I use it only to provide a starting place for exposure. I choose the actual light for an image after examining one or more test exposures.

If you are shooting an event, like a wedding or a party, or shooting flash fill with sunlight, a dedicated strobe is the best possible tool. In these situation composing and shooting fast is often the key to good results. It makes sense to use dedicated strobes if you travel and shoot stock or personal photos, both for speed and for portability. However when I travel for a client I take monolights because my clients are looking for controlled results, but I might pack a dedicated strobe also.

One of the biggest differences between dedicated strobes and monolights is power. Of course this has to be very confusing: nothing regarding the amount of light created by a strobe is simple. Two brands of monolights, with the same power ratings, can create very different amounts of light. Dedicated strobes are a little more accurate about light output, but use a different rating system. Then too, different light modifiers affect dedicated strobes differently than monolights. For instance a Canon 580EX II gives you a reading of f11.2 if the meter is ten feet from the unit and set at ISO 100, with the same set up on the Alien Bee B1600 the meter reads f16.3. So the Canon is only one stop less than the B1600, which is very respectable. This shows how much direct light you can get from a dedicated strobe. For any situation in which you want hard direct light the dedicated strobes can do a fine job. However when you put the units into a soft box the situation is very different: the Canon reads f2.8.6 and the B1600 reads f5.6.7. This is a two stop difference, which means the dedicated strobe has just 1/4 the light of the B1600. To put it another way: you could set the ISO to 400 with the B1600 and you would have to set the ISO to 1600 to use the same aperture with the dedicated strobe. So when you increase the size of your light source you always lose a lot of the power of your lights, but you lose power faster with a dedicated strobe. I am sure there is a reason for this, but I don’t know what it is.

Recycling is the amount of time it takes for the strobe to be ready to fire again. This is a constant for a monolight, but varies depending on the conditions of the batteries in a dedicated strobe. On a B1600 the recycle time is 2 seconds, and it will stay that way. On Canon 580 EX II the recycle time is 6 second to full power with alkaline batteries. There are faster batteries, but all the batteries will get significantly slower as you use them. I find shooting a second shot quickly will often give a good expression, so I find a 6 second recycle time annoying. Since I often try to shoot anyway I get a lot of bad exposures with some battery powered units. Just to confuse this issue, my battery powered Norman 200B strobes, which are manual strobes, recycle to full power in about a second, fast!

There is some difference in cost between a monolight, in this case an Alien Bee B1600, and a Canon 580EX II. The obvious difference is that the B1600 is $360 and the 580 is $420. The Bee comes with a reflector, and this is built into the 580. You can use the Bee all day and night if you plug it into the wall, or you can run it off a generator that costs $200 at Home Depot. I like generators better than portable battery packs because you can run them as long as you have gas. There is a battery pack for the Canon (CP-E4), which I think is a very important accessory. This unit will make your strobe recycle quicker, and give more pops before you need batteries. Still, CP-E4 only runs on 8-AA batteries, so it isn’t all day power. It costs $150. Any way you look at it you’re going to need a lot of batteries if you want to do studio shooting. Ni-MH (nickel metal hydride)is the fastest to recycle and they are rechargeable. Of course you will have to have a light stand for a monolight, but you can use a dedicated strobe on the camera.

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December 5, 2010

Strobe Projector 1

Filed under: Do It Yourself,Lighting Technique,Uncategorized — John Siskin @ 1:37 pm

So here are the shameless plugs at the beginning of this blog. My book Understanding and Controlling Strobe Lighting: A Guide for Digital Photographers is on Amazon.com. It got as high as number 15 in photographic lighting books! And there was much rejoicing! But is is dropping now, so you need to buy a couple of copies for holiday presents. Here is a sample chapter. Of course I still hope that you will consider purchasing my fine art book B Four: pictures of beach, beauty, beings and buildings. Frankly purchases of this book mean a lot to me, and it is also a fine gift for the holidays. As you know I teach for BetterPhoto.com. I really hope you’ll sign up my class: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting. Sign up are very good this month!

A projector light source can create wonderful special effects!

Light comes off of a small light source, whether light bulb or a strobe tube, in all directions. People don’t generally like this effect, regardless of where it happens. So you don’t see many living rooms lit by a 60-watt bulb hanging from a wire. There are two basic ways photographers modify light to make it more useful. First, we make the light source bigger so it is softer. We might do this with an umbrella or a light panel or a soft box. These devices light the subject from more angles because the light source is bigger, so the light is softer with longer gradation. The other thing we do is to shoot light onto a smaller part of the subject. We might use a grid spot or a snoot to do this. Of course there are any number of small strobes, like the SB 900 or the 580 II EX that retain the effect of a small light source and spread the light over only the area you want to photograph. Often the results of this are grim, but perhaps we’ll get to that issue another day.

This projector fits onto a Norman LH2400 strobe head

There is another way to control light, which can offer very special effects. We can use a lens and project the light. This enables us to put light in a very small area of a shot, or put light with a very sharp edge into a shot. This means you could make a spot that was only a millimeter across or make a spot, or pattern, with a hard edge. You can also project images into a shot. There are a couple of ways to do this, but there are also significant challenges. A few years ago I wrote an article about doing this with slide projectors. This worked extremely well with film cameras. This was so because there were few

This glass dome evens the light from the strobe tube, very helpful!

issues with very long exposures and you could do double exposures easily. I still use the slide projectors, but they just aren’t as useful with my digital camera. If you have a slide projector you may want to do some experiments to see how suited they are to your camera.

I have often wanted to use a strobe as the light source for projecting an image. There have been devices made to do this, but most of them were designed to project backgrounds. This is not a useful as it once was, because it is easy to drop in a background with Photoshop, while it was very challenging to do this with film. I am not very interested in projecting backgrounds, but am interested in projecting light onto a

This pipe reduces the reflector diameter to the diameter of the projector tube.

person’s face. Norman makes a device called a Tri-lite, which is priced at almost $1400 on the last price list I have. The Tri-lite is a strobe-powered projector. They are often available used for less money. I should mention that you would also need a Norman 900 series power pack with the Tri Light, as it won’t plug into the wall. I used one occasionally when I shot film, and the light output was too dim for most purposes. However, I am sure a Tri-Lite would be powerful enough to be useful with many digital cameras.

There is another option, a projection box. Dean Collins introduced this design. Basically it uses a relative small aperture, or hole, between the strobe and what you’re projecting. It isn’t particularly

I made several versions of the projector tube before I got one that worked. The one in the center works pretty well.

sharp. The thing you’re projecting should be large, at least 4X5 inches. And it doesn’t create a lot of light. So I never got around to building one of these, but you can probably find plans on the web. There was at least one commercially available device built on this plan. There are also some specialized snoots that can project, but again without much sharpness.

I thought about building a projector for some time, but I thought in terms of a slide projector with a strobe behind it.

The problem is that a slide projector

is really quite complex, so my ideas were

The projector tube. You can see the series 7 filter holder on the back fo the tube

impractical.

Recently I found myself thinking about an enlarger rather than a slide projector, and enlargers are basically simple. An enlarger is a light source, a diffuser, a negative carrier and a lens that focuses. No mirrors, no condensers and no auto-focus.

Before I discuss the device I built I have to mention a couple of things. First, never, and that means under no circumstances, use a Dremel tool without safety glasses. You shouldn’t use any power tool without safety glasses, but this is particularly true of Dremel and other power carving tools. Second, this

This is the holder I uses for cookies and for slides. Cookies are used to make patterns.

projector captures a lot of heat, so you it is best not to build it for any strobe that doesn’t have a fan, that means most or all mono lights, including Alien Bees and Calumet Travelites. It is possible you could use this device if you didn’t use a modeling light, but I don’t think so. If you do build something based on these ideas please let me know how it works for you. This week I am going to discuss the general details and show pictures of some of the construction. In the next blog I’ll discuss more details.

The strobe I used is a Norman LH2400 with a fan. This strobe only works with a Norman power pack. I have a lot of these strobes, so if something went wrong I could afford it. I used a

This is a Kodak projector lens. I attached a 52mm filter thread to make it easier to mount filters.

Norman 5 inch reflector and a Norman Diffusion Dome. The dome fits inside the reflector and makes the light even. Which is important. Basically these two items make up the light source of a diffusion enlarger. Then I went to the plumbing section of a home improvement store. I got some 2.25-inch external diameter PVC and a step-down pipe that steps a large pipe down to a small one. The large side has an external diameter of 5 inches so it fit into my Norman reflector and the other end held PVC pipe with an external diameter of 2.25 inches. I painted the inside of the step-down pipe white with high temperature paint. I used the high temperature paint because heat is a problem. I cut a nail down to about 1/2. I made a hole to insert the nail from the reflector into the step-down pipe. This keeps the adapter from

Fun with lights! Come back soon for more details.

falling out of the reflector. I then made some cuts in the 2.25-inch pipe to accommodate a 4-inch focal length lens from a Kodak projector. This is a good lens for this project, as it is inexpensive and pretty bright. The focus on this lens can be adjusted by moving it inside the 2.25-inch pipe. I ground out the back of the pipe so that a series 7 adapter would fit inside. This holds the material to be projected. More details on this next week.

You can’t leave the modeling light on, even with the fan on this strobe. But you can use it to position the light. Because the light is so detailed, this is important. I’ll have more details of construction and samples from the new light next week. I hope with different models.

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