Too Much Light / Reflection?

[thekevinmonster]

I like playing with my flash, and I think cowboy boots are cool. Thus:



My critique questions:

- Too much light? Is the big white reflection too powerful? I wanted to get detail in the stitching there on the foot, but it was either I got it and I got that massive 'specular highlight' (I feel so smart when I say that) or I didn't get it but I got a better err.. tone? for the leather.

Normally I do this sort of thing in black and white, but I figured I'd leave it in color for a 'warts and all' kind of thing while I figure out what to do.

[clockdoc]

I don't find the reflection objectionable and I think you achieved your goal of showing the stitching. My question is, "How was the boot lit?" It looks like you have used a large, soft light as your main light. Did you try a polarizing filter to see if that could control some of the unwanted reflections? Also, did you try different lighting angles that would amplify the stitching such as low, crosslighting?

[thekevinmonster]

Originally Posted by clockdoc

I don't find the reflection objectionable and I think you achieved your goal of showing the stitching. My question is, "How was the boot lit?" It looks like you have used a large, soft light as your main light. Did you try a polarizing filter to see if that could control some of the unwanted reflections? Also, did you try different lighting angles that would amplify the stitching such as low, crosslighting?

I used two pieces of molded styrofoam at about 50 degree angles to the subject (imagine a V with the point at the camera, and the open end roughly near the back of the boot), and my flash up above and pointing down at the right-most styrofoam thingy from behind.

I tried using my new umbrella, but that didn't seem to work well. Actually, it would have worked better than I thought, but my camera's LCD screen is horribly inaccurate so I gave up prematurely.

I didn't even think about my polarizer, or playing with crosslighting. I think I'll give that a shot. I happen to have a mirror I could use to try and reflect some light for the crosslighting.

Lighting is simultaneously hard and easy. Easy because you can control it, hard because... you have to know how to control it

[clockdoc]

Hi. After I posted my response, I saw you photo of your setup on your flickr page. My guess is that you are going for detail but you are using too broad and soft a light source (large styrofoam reflectors, for example.) The umbrella would give similar results (soft and broad lighting) A small, hard light may serve your purposes better in this case. The small source will not offer such a large highlight and it will create more shadows/contrast to define the detail of your stitches. Be careful of the ambient light as well. You may be seeing the large area of your ceiling or walls in the highly polished boot. You get an A+ for the effort of shooting such a challenging subject and I am sure others will have benefitted from the posting.

[thekevinmonster]

Originally Posted by clockdoc

Hi. After I posted my response, I saw you photo of your setup on your flickr page. My guess is that you are going for detail but you are using too broad and soft a light source (large styrofoam reflectors, for example.) The umbrella would give similar results (soft and broad lighting) A small, hard light may serve your purposes better in this case. The small source will not offer such a large highlight and it will create more shadows/contrast to define the detail of your stitches. Be careful of the ambient light as well. You may be seeing the large area of your ceiling or walls in the highly polished boot. You get an A+ for the effort of shooting such a challenging subject and I am sure others will have benefitted from the posting.

Hmm, I was thinking I wanted the large light source for getting across the shininess... but now that I think about it, if the light source is REALLY big, then all you see is a reflection of it, which can be weird. (like if you were to hold up a big white sheet near someone with glasses... at the right angle, you'd see the lenses turn white and blot out their eyes)

I'll definitely try more variations.