Reynolds Wrap Table Top
For those of you who were reverse engineering the shot of the flash last week from the cheat sheet post, make the jump for the setup shot -- and a link that has me laughing out loud.
Okay, here it is. It's shot on my TV cabinet. Which makes my (mostly) unwatched TV good for at least something. The backdrop is a sheet of Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil. This gives a cool look, plus throws back light like crazy.I like to use foil as a backdrop when I shoot something techy-looking. In this case, I blurred out some of the wrinkles, too.
The light came from pretty much everywhere. There were three SB-800's slaved in the SU-4 mode on 1/32 power. I was working close, so I just set them all the same, down low, and then dialed in my aperture until it looked right.
Then I filled with another SB-800 in a Ray Flash to get front light everywhere, too. This is not something I would have done a year ago, but I am really starting to dig hard, wrapped light. I like what it does to all of those black, specular edges.
As for the power on the front light, since I already had a working aperture, I just dialed the front flash in on manual until it looked good. Back flashes drive the aperture, aperture drives the front flash. Sounds way more trouble than it is, until you try it.
I am shooting a project (some portraits that I will be OA'ing later) and am finding that I am hardlighting more of them, too. Just like being able to define all those edges. Starting to think five SB-800's is not enough.
(This is always a dangerous thought at 11:52 at night -- Amazon is open 24/7.)
And while I am thinking of the Ray Flash, there were lotsa Q's in the original post, so I am going to post a Q&A, along with a video next week. If you have any more questions, get them in via the Ray Flash post comments.
________
Oh, almost forgot that totally unrelated link:
Are you ashamed of your Photoshop skills, as you work quietly in near-total obscurity? Well, things could be worse. Much, much worse...
(That's just one post. Take a look through the site and don't laugh out loud. Betcha can't.)
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by David, at 12:14 AM.
9 Comments:
Wow the link was almost too much to take in at once. Thanks.
Hah, I've always loved photoshop disasters. Thanks for the follow up on the setup of that shot, I was close but not totally right.
Hi whilst whiling away the hours in my local DIY store I had a look at the sticky back plastic used for covering fridge doors and other 100 and 1 uses. Then i noticed the diamond plate plastic. I had to buy it and now i use it most of my hi tech type of shots.
It picks up light and on f2.8 it gives a good background texture. If you throw in a couple of gels you get some nice light effects.
I have used it for my gridded snoot article on my blog. It has been used for surgical/medical shots. In the UK it is known as fablon. As it is cheap plastic there is hardly any specular reflection just enough to pick out highlights.
Cheers
Rich
Once again, David, another fine example of 'simply does it'. Well done - and thank you.
Without wishing to draw us away from the main point of the post, may I recomend you guys check out this this page for another light-hearted look at Photoshop? Very funny... and surprisingly informative too!
Tin foil you say? I really gotta try that out! I have seen some work with foil for studio shots (glamour shot). It has a cool mirrored image effect. Nice work.
Ben Warren Photo-
I thought I suddenly needed new glasses.
The aluminum foil look is crazy-cool and the Photoshop disaster...well, downright disturbing. Talk about opposite ends of the spectrum!
WooooHoooo TOP GEAR!
That is all.
Awesome how-to. The hard light works really, really well with the foil. Three thumbs up and thanks for sharing. :)
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