A product shot set up

Edradour

First of all, let me be clear that Edradour are not paying me for this or sponsoring me for advertising in any way. My aim was only to experiment with a product set-up and lighting.

Before I began I had a fair idea of what I wanted the final image to look like so I planned the set-up to aim for achieving it though, as will become evident there was an alteration made during the shoot.

I was clear that I wanted a black background so set up the studio with a black backdrop which extended down vertically then horizontally along the table under the product and all the way to the camera position. I also wanted to have crisp, sharp lighting so opted for flash with no diffusion. I positioned the flash close to the product to take advantage of the inverse square law to minimise any lighting on the backdrop. If you’re not sure. the inverse square law in photographic lighting is is basically about the intensity of light radiating from a light source (strobe, flash, hot light etc) and how the intensity of that light on a subject is (inversely) proportional to the square of the distance from the light source. Therefore a light source close to the subject resulting in a correct exposure on the subject will render the more distant background much darker. And if that background is already black…

I only wanted to work with one principal light source – largely from the side but clearly needed to make sure the opposing side didn’t fall into dark shadow. Rather than use a reflector, I set up a small mirror to the left of the subject with the flash to the right. Using a mirror would help retain the sharpness of lighting that I wanted.

I also wanted to have a reflection going on so positioned a flat mirror on the table and placed the subjects on that. Because of the shooting angle, it was possible to ensure that the mirror reflected the backdrop as well as the subjects.

The basic layout in plan view looked like this:

Here you can see the flash positioned to the right right and slightly forward of the subject which is sitting on the base mirror. The arrow shows the direction of the flash. To the left of the subject is the reflecting mirror with dotted arrows representing the bounced light. At the bottom is the camera position. The flash was triggered with a remote system from the camera.

Behind the subject, I eventually positioned another light. I wasn’t happy with the initial shots and felt that there needed to be an “inner glow” to the bottle. To achieve this I set up a small LED unit at minimum power to provide the back light giving a pleasing glow to the bottle and contents.

There was some very light touch editing in Lightroom and Photoshop for colour balance and to make sure the background was consistently black. It was very light touch though with most of the work done in camera.

Overall, I’m quite pleased with the result but have some slight issues with the lighting on the nosing glass which seems a little harsh despite toning that down in editing.

All in all though, a pleasing result.

One to go back to

Rock, water, sky

It was low tide this morning when walking the dog along the beach so we went a little further than usual to where I know there are rocks and pools. This mini scene caught my eye and I was struck by the calmness of the water in this extensive but shallow pool left by the receding tide. Immediately I was thinking about a possible photographic composition but this was no more than something I might end up noting for the future – potentially one to go back to with the proper gear. All I has was my ‘phone but it’s invaluable for recording possible compositions.

This one needed a good focal point and I thought the seaweed covered rock offered a decent subject reflecting gently in the water. I felt this needed a low angle of attack so I walked into the water and crouched as low as I could to get the foreground filled with the pool and the include the sky where the cloud offered a nice “sandwich” effect with the bright horizon more or less central.

Given that this was a “scouting” shot” you might ask if it’s worth doing any processing on the phone image – yes, absolutely it is because, for me at least, it helps me see more of the potential of the composition and what I might look for in going back. Of course, anything I later do will be different, because the conditions will be different but, having gone through the full process, I have a much better idea of the possibilities.

So, I thought I would take you through the editing adjustments I made to get the final “scouting” shot above. First of all, here’s a before and after comparison to show how the image looked straight out of the phone compared to the final result:

before and after

All the editing was done in Lightroom and the comparison above is taken from the Lightroom Before/After function. The red area in the “before” shot is showing up as I keep highlight and shadow clipping switched on, so this is showing areas of sky that are blown out. So, where did I begin and what adjustments did I make to end up with the final “after” image?

First of all, and I pretty much always do this, is I made lens corrections and ticked to remove chromatic aberrations. After that I went into the basic menu in Lightroom and selected the auto tone option. I don’t always do this, but on this occasion I felt it would give me a decent baseline to work from. Working sequentially, I then did the following:

Exposure – dropped by about half a stop

Contrast – reduced slightly

Highlights – to deal with the blown-out area I used a brush adjustment to localise the effect only where I wanted it – in specific areas of sky

Shadows – slightly lightened

Whites – slightly lightened apart from the sky where, as part of the brush adjustment, I also dropped the whites slightly darkened

Blacks – were slightly darkened

Clarity – go carefully with this, but increased it slightly

Dehaze – as with clarity (both of these affect contrast)

Vibrance – slightly increased

I then made some colour channel adjustments, increasing the saturation of green while also adjusting it’s hue. This was to help make the rock stand out a little more as the key subject. I also made some slight adjustments to purple and magenta (hue and saturation) to bring about the effect I wanted in the sky and the sand below the water.

Finally I added a slight vignette to draw the eye towards the centre of the composition.

Having done all of that I feel this is one I might return to with the full gear even though I know it will inevitably be different. Rehearsing the whole process has encouraged me to think there is some potential here.

It also occurs to me that this shows there is much more to photography than just “taking a snap”.

 

An hour in Wantage

What’s it like to view where you live as if you were shooting it as a travel photographer? That’s the question I set out to answer in an hour in Wantage.

60 minutes, one camera, one lens and the self-set challenge to view the familiar differently.

After about the same time editing in Lightroom and Photoshop here are the results.

bread stall

It happened to be Wednesday and market day in Wantage. It’s always good to ask the stall holder for permission to take some photos as it usually gets a warm response and gives more time to frame the shots as you want them.

dining out

On the other hand, there’s also merit in some candid shots which give a natural feel of life going on normally. This one just looked better converted to monochrome and it needed some lightening of the shadows to bring out the detail inside the van.

relief mural

I like textures and this relief mural on the side of Sainsbury’s caught my attention. I’ve walked by here so often and given this little notice but the conscious effort of seeing through the lens of the travel photographer does force you to notice more.

official graffiti?

And just beside it was this notice which left me wondering if this was official graffiti. Curious.

grounds of faith

Another shot that looked better converted to monochrome. The parish church in Wantage seen from the graveyard to the east. This meant shooting into the light, but it created the contrasty result I was looking for.

reflecting on wines

Opposite the church I noticed a building with two windows above which were the slogans “Wines” and “Spirits”. I was intrigued by the juxtaposition with the church and that there are gravestones reflected in the window; warning perhaps of the perils of over-indulgence?

John Betjeman bust

Staying with the theme of the parish, this bust of John Betjeman sits on a plinth outside the Vale and Downland Museum.  The inscription on the plinth describes John Betjeman as a poet and parishioner. It was always going to be difficult to get in one shot the bust and the inscription, so I shot them separately and blended them in Photoshop. I think it works reasonably well as there was little contrast on the inscription to work with and, at the time of shooting, the lighting didn’t exactly help.

wall sign

I’m not sure who was doing what repairing but this sign just looked intriguing and the shadows and brickwork added to the texture in the shot.

shadows

And finally, I liked the way the sun cast strong shadows from the canopy covering the walkway outside Sainsbury’s. This was just screaming out for a mono conversion to maximise the sense of contrast.

But wait, I hear you say, isn’t Wantage known as the birthplace of  Alfred the Great? What about him? Oh, all right then, here you are…

Alfred the Great

Light and time

cast colours

What makes photography a strange invention is that its primary raw materials are light and time.  John Berger

 

Light and time are ever present, yet also fleeting, passing and constantly changing. As John Berger says, they are the essential raw materials of photography. As the shutter opens and closes the light present at that moment in time is captured and recorded.

Both concepts of light and time speak to me in this photograph taken in Gloucester Cathedral. The direct light of a low February sun was shining through the stained glass windows casting this collage of colour onto the stone pillars of the Cathedral. I was drawn much more to this casting of light than I was to the window itself. The pillars provide a sense of permanence, stability and strength, almost challenging time itself. In contrast, the cast of colours suggest the fleeting nature of light washing lightly and gently over the hardness of stone. Those particular patterns might never appear again in exactly the same way and the magic of photography lies in capturing this moment of interaction between light and time.

I’ll probably keep coming back to this image as it’s just one of those that I can look at time after time and be inspired to different thoughts and emotions.

The photo was shot on a Canon EOS 70D at 1/40 sec with an aperture of f8 at ISO 800. The focal length was 29mm. It was shot in portrait format and I made slight adjustments to tone and colour in Lightroom as well as cropping for composition.

Travel retrospective 11 – paddling home

Fisherman

This was shot during a visit to the Indonesian island of Nias in December 2006. It was an extremely hot day and in a break from filming on the beach I had gone for shelter higher up the shore which gave me enough height to spot this lone fisherman making his way back to shore.

I was struck by the effort of paddling back home and the pose of this fisherman seems to capture that. I think the effort is made more visible by the contrast and silhouette created by the contre-jour lighting. When this fisherman had hauled his boat ashore with the help of a friend, I wandered down to see the extent of his catch; a mere three fish. I was struck by realisation of the amount of effort it takes for many people in the world today to scratch out a living and this photo always reminds me of that.

The photo was shot using a Nikon D70s at 1/640 sec on ISO-400 with an aperture of f14 and a focal length of 300mm. The original photograph was in colour and has been converted to mono in Lightroom with minor adjustments to tone and contrast.

 

Travel retrospective 10 – Catching the bus

Catching the bus

This was shot in Bangkok from an elevated walkway. It had been raining heavily and, as usual, the roads were busy with traffic. This bus had stopped in the congestion and I noticed a few people run through the traffic to reach it, as it was nowhere near the pavement or bus stop. That seemed to be no obstacle for those wanting to get on.  The woman approaching the bus was the last to make the dash and look of delight on her face indicated just how pleased she seemed to be to be in getting there.

I think the wet road adds an interesting texture to the photograph with small puddles of gathered water and softly reflected shadows. I like the sense of contrast in the story of this picture with the stationary nature of the traffic counterpointing the movement of the people grabbing an opportunity.

The photo was shot using a Nikon D90 at 1/320 sec with an aperture of f5.6 and a focal length of 105mm. The original photograph was in colour and has been converted to mono in Lightroom with minor adjustments to tone and contrast.

 

Travel retrospective 8 – curiosity

Curiosity

It’s curious, sometimes the unexpected just appears before you and proves to be really captivating. I was on my first filming trip with BMS World Mission covering a number of projects in and around Kathmandu, Nepal. On this occasion, we were filming a public health initiative which was focusing on maternal health. Upstairs in a small brick building, babies were being weighed and checked after which there was to be a nutritional cooking demonstration in the yard at the back. I was making my way up the stairs to get some photographs of the baby clinic when I happened to look down into the adjacent property where this elderly woman had appeared and was looking up at the noise coming from the clinic, as babies cried and mothers sang.

I have often wondered what she was thinking, but she has a look of curiosity on her face, Was she struggling with her eyesight and unable to see what she was hearing? Was she fondly remembering being a young mother herself? Was she concerned about something? There’s no way of knowing, but I was immediately struck by her appearance and expression, behind which lies her own personal story. A story we can only guess at but which is real, was lived and experienced.

This photograph was originally shot on Fuji Pro 800 colour film, transferred to digital jpeg format and processed to monochrome in Adobe Lightroom. The conversion to monochrome is a stylistic reference to this being a retrospective view.

Travel retrospective 7 – super flour

Making flour

On a visit to Afghanistan in 2003 I visited a development project in Kabul making a vitamin enriched super flour which was then used to make various food products. The aim was to counteract malnourishment in children caused by poverty and lack of access to an even basically nutritious diet.

The project covered the whole process of flour production and in this photo we see two women working in the final stage of mixing the different flours which can be seen in the layers of the large batch of flour. They would scoop up across the layers, then sift the flour through the sieves for bagging. They are wearing masks to prevent inhaling the fine powder created in the process.

It was a simple but highly effective project. One woman volunteered to work there after her child’s health improved through eating bread made from this super flour.

This photograph was originally shot on Fuji Pro 800 colour film, transferred to digital jpeg format and processed to monochrome in Adobe Lightroom. The conversion to monochrome is a stylistic reference to this being a retrospective view.

Travel retrospective 6 – Thailand

Curiosity

This photo speaks to me of the beauty of childhood curiosity and innocence. What makes it all the more powerful is the context, which is simply not obvious in the photograph. It was taken inside a refugee camp in Thailand on the border with Burma (Myanmar).

There are many such camps providing a safe refuge for the Karen people whose traditional lands bridge the present countries of Burma and Thailand who have been driven from their villages in Burma. The camps are host to simply thousands of these peaceful and dignified Karen people. On a visit to one camp I spotted these two little girls completely engrossed in looking into this water tank. I was struck by the innocence and sheer humanity of the scene. In the midst of a persecution these little girls simply could not understand, they were behaving just like children of their age anywhere. There is hope expressed here, that innocence and purity can exist within turmoil and pain.

As I reflect on this image and my time visiting the camps in Thailand I think of the thousands of refugees fleeing across the Mediterranean in recent times and how sad it is that they have become pawns in a political game of “not my problem” among the countries of Western Europe. In the midst of turmoil and pain, innocence and purity can flourish, but we in the West seem to be doing our best to stifle it – however unwittingly.

• Camera, Nikon D70S
• ISO-1600
• Aperture, f5.6
• Shutter, 1/800 sec
• Focal length, 300mm

Originally shot in colour the photo was processed to Monochrome in Adobe Lightroom with slight adjustments to tone, sharpness and grain reduction.

Travel retrospective 5 – Kathmandu

Ritual

In these days following the earthquake in Nepal I have been remembering my visit there in late 2001. With so many people killed in the devastation of a natural event I wonder what has happened to the people I photographed almost 14 years ago. This particular photo was taken at a Hindu temple in Durbar Square. I believe it was destroyed in the earthquake and, looking at this photo, I wonder if it was empty at the time or if there were people inside.

Having a personal connection with a place brings a greater sense of reality when a disaster strikes and suddenly it is easier to be aware of the real people affected by tragedy; those who have lost their lives, those who have lost loved ones and their homes, their places of work, their capacity to earn a living and the stress placed on their hope for the future.

Amid the tragedy, it’s been good to know that all my BMS World Mission colleagues living and working in Nepal are safe and well. I know that they are now busy doing what they can for those in need. I’m pleased that BMS is running an appeal for help and that once the relief effort, the cameras, microphones and reporters have left, my colleagues will still be there working with people to rebuild their lives and their hope.

This photograph was originally shot on Fuji Pro 800 colour film, transferred to digital jpeg format and processed to monochrome in Adobe Lightroom.