My humble attempt to product photography

Last couple of weeks I was not very busy with photography. Instead I was doing some renovation works in my house. But at the end I thought it would be fun to take a good shot of the result of my activities. My 'product' are the stairs in my living room.
First of all one can ask: are stairs a good item for product photography excercise? Believe me, after couple of weekends spent on sanding, milling, painting, drilling, all done with your own hands - you want to show off! So for me it is a fantastic item. Here one of the final shots:

To get there I applied the process described later in this post.

Setting up the scene

First I wanted to choose 2-3 compositions to work with and to enhance these scenes during the session. In my opinion a good product shot should reveal all most important features of the product, showing the material it is made from, its shape, texture, etc. On the other hand it should attract viewer's attention and make the product appear attractively. After playing around with my camera I finally chosen three compositions to work further with:

Scene 1

Scene 2 

Scene 3

 The three pictures show different aspects of the 'product'. The first shows a generic form and a little bit of positioning of the stairs. Second shows the slope as seen from top. Third is a view showing some details of the construction.
All three pictures were takes as the 'pre visualisation' of the actual shots. The composition of all of them needs to be refined.
Second important aspect is the light to be used.

Lighting

The light used for pre visualisation photos was just ambient light, in the middle of the day. Nothing spectacular, causing the images (especially the first one) looking flat. I wanted to create the situation where the light source would cast the harsh shadows on the wall behind the stairs, making the first image looking less flat and making the background more interesting.

To achieve that I have put a SB-900 strobe on the stand, left to the picture and increase the zoom to focus the light a bit. It would give me enough harshness of the cast shadows.

Another aspect was the colour of the main light.

From the beginning I wanted to emphasize the fact that new staircases are made out of wood. One of the most forthcoming associations with wood is warmth: wood is perceived warm when making physical contact with it, it is used to produce warmth, its colours are also warm. To strenghten this association I decided to use warm light for all the shots. I have put a CTO gel on the strobes I have used. 

So the first picture was enhanced by using the light left to the camera from the SB-900 strobe, positioned on the light stand. The strobe was about the 2m height from the ground, pointing the stairs. Zoom of the flash was set to 70mm, Light intensity in manual mode to 1/4th of maximum power:

Comparing to the initial picture I took it with slightly lower angle of view, mainly to show some more floor on the foreground. 

Moving on

Next shots show the different aspects of the stairs. First the shot from top, showing the slope of the stairs:

Comparing to the first version I have used slightly different angle of view, letting the stairs be positioned diagonally on the frame. I simply liked this composition more than the initial version.

Scene number 3:

This one deviates most from the initial concept. First of all it shows the whole construction instead of the only part of it. Again, I included some part of the floor on the foreground. In this case to create leading lines and emphasize the perspective.

This picture required also a special treatment with respect to lighting. To ensure that the top part of the stairs is properly exposed, I put 2nd strobe (SB-900) on top of the stairs and difussed the light by a white shoot-through umbrella. Of course, the 2nd strobe was equipped with the CTO gel as well.

The human aspect

I do believe that adding people to the scene can make the picture much more interesting. For this assigment I have also tried to do this trick, showing the main puprose of the stairs:

To remember in the future:

1. Work with few scenes keeping in mind how to emphasize product's feature in the best way
2. Ensure that the product is absolutely clean. I was not paying much attention to this and in case of the 2nd photo (stairs seen from the top) I had to do quite some spot removal in Photoshop

Make your own Easter greeting card

Easter is coming and it is a good habit to send the greetings to the friends or relatives on a greeting card. Since couple of years I make such cards by myself, which is a lot of fun and gives the cards uniqueness and personal touch.
Last year I described some techniques useful for this kind of photography. In this post I am going to describe the whole process of making such card, from the basic concept, to the publication.

Easter theme

All starts by selecting the basic theme. The symbolic of Eastern is focused on the symbols of new life: eggs, chickens, green and yellow colors, hare. So it is almost unavoidable to have at least some of them on the card. In my first attempt I have chosen for eggs and chickens. 

The composition

I like postcards that have a 3D-look. So I wanted to compose a picture that would give strong impression of depth. To achieve that I set up the scene in three planes: foreground, with the eggs, middle part with the chickens, and the background with the hanging eggs:

The perceived depth of field can be manipulated by different aperture settings.

The light

The above picture was taken in the ambient light, coming from the window located right to the scene. I wanted to give the chickens some warm punch as key light. To do so, I have used two speedlights with the CTO filter placed left and right to the chickens:

To avoid light spilling both strobes were equipped with a snoot to focus the light beam. Both strobes were controlled from the camera build-in flash via the iTTL system of Nikon. First attempt:

The chickens are warmly lit, but the rest of the scene is dark. Too dark. Time to put the fill light. Fill light was been created by third flash and a golden reflector bouncing the light from the flash on the scene. After applying fill light the scene looked like that:

That is better. The scene still have a warm look and all elements on the foreground are properly lit. Last step is to improve the light in the background. To do so another flash was used, equipped with the yellow filter. I have experimented with several positions of the background flash:

Manipulating the background light was easy, I just held the flash light in my hand during shooting in the different places of the scene.
Finally I have chosen the middle image for further processing.

Post processing

For post processing I have used combination of Lightroom, Nik software suite and Photoshop.

In Lightroom I have applied lens profile and camera corrections.

In Nik software I have pre-sharpened the image (with RAW sharpener), applied the golden reflector filter, blur vignette (in Efex Pro), added some local brightness to the eggs in the background (with Viveza)

In Photoshop I have removed some distracting spots. There is the final picture:

Some technicalities

Reuse the setup

The whole 'production' took me about 3 hours. Since a lot of effort has been put in the light setup once the chickens were ready I decided to create another card, with a hare in the main role:

As one can see, the scene is very similar to those with chickens, yet different. Taking this picture took me just couple of minutes thanks to reuse of the existing setup.

Try different gels

When I was done with my basic setup I have tried to light the scene with flashes without gels:

It hasn't been chosen eventually but it is always worth experimenting with different settings and sometimes it can result in a new, inspiring scene.

Hanging eggs

To hang the eggs I have used a combination of the flash light stand and a piece of other pipe mounted on the light stand:

Exploring the limits of my gear - Nikon strobes and the iTTL system

Couple of months ago during the portrait shooting session I have noticed quite annoying fact that I couldn't control the light strength of one of the speedlight flashes used for the lighting setup. In this particular case it was the rim light that was causing problems. I have set the strength of this flash to be +1.7 stops above the default strength determined by the iTTL system. Since this light was too strong, I have reduced it by 1 and then 2 stops, but without any result. The exposure corrections were neglected by the system. Due to the time pressure I didn't investigate it, just moved the light stand a bit further away and obtained the required exposure in this way. But the questions remained:

- why did the system bahave like that?
- how can such behaviour be circumvented?
- how do I know such limits in advance next time?

Due to the other activities I couldn't answer all those questions till this weekend.

I had suspected that the problem with this flash was related to the distance between the flash and the subject. I thought that when the distance is too big, iTTL fires as much light as it can and gives up the control possibilities. To prove it I have tested the system with a simple setup, sketched below:

When the subject is properly exposed by the flash it looks like shown below:

The test was straightforward. I selected a number of distances between the subject and the flash. For each distance I took the series of shots, with the relative exposure of the flash set to -3, -2, -1, 0, +1, +2, +3 stops. For each shot I observed if the flash exposure correction had effect. I did the observation based on the shot but also taking the histogram into account. To illustrate what I mean look at the two tables below, showing the situations where I had full control over the exposure and where I had the control over the exposure from -3 to +1 stop.

First the situation where I had full control over whole range of exposures (distance from the subject to flash was 0.9m):

Exposure	Histogram

It is clearly visible that the flash can produce enough light for the whole range of the exposure corrections.

Then the situation when the control is no more possible above +1 stop  (distance from the subject to flash was 2.9m):.

Exposure	Histogram

So indeed, my assumption was right: if the distance between the subject and the flash grows, the iTTL narrows the range of the relative exposures that can be used. For my measurements I have got the following results (for SB910, set at ISO 100, zoom 24mm):

Distance	0.9m	1.9m	2.9m	3.9m	4.9m	5.9m	6.9m	7.9m
Control	-3..+3	-3..+2	-3..+1	-3..0	-3..0	-3..-1	-3..-3	-3..-3

So the lesson learned is that one can manipulate the distance between flash and the subject as long as loosing of the relative exposure control is acceptable. Which answers my second question: to have the control back over whole range of exposures, one has to move flash closer to the subject.

How far? I found that iTTL can give quite accurate hint about the distance (provided you have SB-800, SB-900 or SB-910 flashes). Here is the procedure:

1. Connect the flash to your camera (either directly or by using the flash release cord)
2. Setup your flash to work in TTL or TTL BL mode, depending on your needs (or planned exposure)
3. Setup the zoom of the flash for the value you intend to use (either by the flash settings or by using the lens zoom, if applicable), required ISO to be used (this one needs to be set in the camera) and the aperture (again, either in the flash or in the camera).
4. Note that the distance scale of the flash shows the range of the distances where the flash will expose the subject properly.
5. Now change the relative exposure of the flash (example for SB-910):

6. Observe that the maximal distance changes with the relative exposure (here an example for the reading for relative exposure +1.3 stops:

The maximal distance together with the exposure correction can be interpreted as a maximal distance at which the exposure can be corrected from -3 up to the value set. In the presented picture, if the subject is at 2.4m from the flash, the exposure can be corrected between -3 and 1.3 stops. Setting it above 1.3 stop will not have effect on the exposure (the exposure will be the same as for +1.3 stop).

Note that it is not exact math, rather indication. I have noticed, for instance, that while iTTL indicates that I can control exposure up to -2 stops at the distance 7.7 meters, I was able in fact to do so at the distance less than 6.9 meters. But for the values -1 to +3 it matches my experimental results quite accurately.

So for the next time I have to remember:

- Check the distance between the subject ant the flash,

- For this distance validate the ranges of exposure correction that will make sense. 

- Don't waste time on trying to go above maximal exposure correction. It will not work.

Introduction to lighting in photography - a workshop scenario

Today I had opportunity to organize and conduct a workshop about photography for the students of the Polish school in the Hague. It was a second workshop given for more or less the same group as the first one.
Since it was a continuation of main topic, which is "Basics of photography" I took the chance to explain the basics of lighting and some techniques used to play with light.
The workshop was divided in three parts: theoretical introduction, practical session, constructive critique and selection of the best photos.
While preparing the workshop I was thinking about a theme of the practical session; it should be interesting for the children, but on the other hand it should give the possibility of learning new aspects of photography. I decided to choose a "Profile photo" as a main topic of the workshop. Main motivation was driven by several aspects:
1. Taking a profile photo of a school mate is fun both for a photographer and a model being photographed
2. Seeing how the light falls on a face of a model is very inspirational and instructive
3. Taking a photo of a school mate implies working in pairs which gives everyone an opportunity to play both roles (a photographer and a model) and keep the session interactive.

Before the session some theoretical background was given in a form of a computer presentation and some simple experiments with a photo camera.
First of all several examples of the same scene lit by different light sources was presented. Just to show how powerful the light manipulation can be.
Then the dynamic range limitations of a digital camera were explained. The exercise was simple yet convincing. I let one of the students sit by the window (lit by the diffuse daylight), facing the rest of the class. I asked the rest to look at the student and describe what they see. They could recognize facial details of the student but also the details in the background (i.e. the view outside window). Then I took the picture of the scene, from the same viewpoint as the class. And yes, while the model was properly lit, background was heavily overexposed. After exposing for the background, I got the subject dark (every photographer knows it, but it was not obvious for most of the children).
One technical note here: to make quick illustrations I have used Lightroom in tethered mode, so the photos that I took were immediately visible on the screen.
The message at the end of exercise was twofold: first, it showed that even very good cameras cannot render the whole dynamic range as good as a combination of our brain and eyes. Second, it is possible to tweak camera settings (or manipulate light) to overcome the limitations.
Then an explanation of aperture, shutter and ISO was given. To simplify things I have made a schematic picture of a camera (showing lens, aperture, shutter, sensor) and explained how the light travels through the camera. Then I have shown effects of both settings by taking some images with varying shutter speeds and apertures.
Next I have introduced the term of exposure and explained that most of the cameras have the options to influence it even simpler than manipulating the aperture and/or shutter speed.
Then I have explained depth of field and how the aperture influences it.
After this introduction students were asked to look at their cameras and discover how to set the aperture or shutter speed (or exposure in general) in their cameras. When needed I helped them to find the settings.
Finally I have shown my own approach of taking a portrait photo. I emphasized the role of proper composition, role of light to make the subject the most dominant element of a photo. Finally I have shown how to use simple light modifiers like a reflector.

Thereafter students started to shoot the photos. Some of them went outside the class looking for the proper location. Apparently they had a lot of fun.

During the critique part we have looked together at the taken photos. I let the students talk about their photos and explain why they like the photo (and why not). I have also encouraged them to think about what they would do different in case they didn't like the photos.
At the end everyone was able to select at least one photo that was accepted by the photographed model as the profile photo.

Organize a big portrait session - optimizing the flow

This post is a continuation of a series about shooting portraits for a school. I described briefly in one of previous articles about the general idea. In this post I am going to describe some human-related aspects of such session and give some tips on how to make it successful for the children, school staff and the photographer. To give you some context let me just summarize the challenge:

• The session takes 3 to 4 hours
• During this time 70 to 100 children gets photographed
• Each child is photographed twice: one photo is in a full-length pose, one as a close-up (depending on the situation either upper half of or head and shoulders
• Some children want to be photographed together with their brothers or sisters, school friends, etc.
• Each group is photographed as a whole together with their mentor teacher.

In short, such a day is intense and the border between intense and chaotic is thin. But it is the responsibility of a photographer to deliver the photos, so he need to ensure that the workplace remains decent during the day and such session doesn't turn into chaos. Here's an approach I have developed over several years. I am not telling it is perfect, but it works quite well.

1. Realize that you as a photographer are the director of the whole event. So think ahead about the possible scenarios and have a plan for different cases.
2. Get in touch with school staff in advance. Ask about their schedule, try to fit the session into school's rhythm. Ask for the school schedule during the day of the session. Plan the order in which the groups will attend the session.
3. Agree in advance how the teachers and parents will assist you. It is absolutely necessary to have help of the school staff or/and the parents. For a number of reasons: first, it is legally mandatory that teachers are present during any activity of a 'stranger'. Second, they are invaluable when guiding the group of children. They simply know how to do it efficiently. Third, children, especially the younger, feel more comfortable and safe when they have a trusted adult person close to them.
4. Prepare all your gear before starting shooting. Be on a location on time, way before the planned start. Keep in mind that setting up the background, lights, test shooting cost time (in my case it takes 90 minutes, because I need to iron the background).
5. After setting everything up look around and try to visualize how the children would walk (or rather run) on and around the setup. Then protect your most important parts! Put a chair, a table, anything that would stop the most active and enthusiast children from ruining into the arranged studio. I always stay in the front of setup, in the direction of the incoming group. As soon as I see them running I make some gestures to stop them and explain quickly how they should move and where to watch out. Then I keep them (together with a teacher) out of the actual scene, letting them stay or sit around the setup.
6. Be decisive. Children get quickly excited but they get bored also very fast. So it is important to start shooting immediately - just start talking to children, ask who is going to be first (for 100% there always will be at least one), put them in the marked place on the scene, explain what you are going to do (2 photos) and shoot. One, control, two - ready. Next child. Everything should take no more than several minutes.
7. Remember, you are a director. So when individual photos are ready, start to organize group photo. Depending on a group size decide about the number of rows, who will be in front, who in back (a rule of thumb is: smaller children in the front). 
8. Once the group photo is ready guide the group out of the scene. Remember again about securing your gear and the setup.
9. Control the setup in between the groups. Is the background still ok? Are all the lights operational? Do the assistants know how it works and how to proceed?
10. Be flexible. Sometimes you need to spend a bit more time with a child; either he/she is shy or requires some more attention during posing (like children wearing glasses). In this situation communicate to a teacher or parents so they know what is going on.
11. Ask the teacher or parent in case there is some intervention required during posing. Like fixing the hairs, clothing, etc. Again, it is about building the trust. Children trust their teachers and parents, not you. I always discuss this question in advance and ask assistants for help in such cases.
12. Have a couple of jokes ready. Use them when a child or group needs to be cheered up.

New year - new approach to enhance my photography

When I looked back at my photos taken last year I quickly come to the conclusion that many of them could be better. I think it is a good observation, since awareness of own deficiencies is the first step on a way to fix them.
Here's how I am going to tackle some of the issues I have with my photos:

1. Study work of others more carefully
   This is something I need to do more systematically. I am going to keep it simple: look for inspiration on the sites like 500px.com, viewbug.com, read the books about photography (in 2013 I will concentrate on landscapes - one of the types of photography I do a lot), find best landscape photographers on the web and follow them
2. Shoot, learn, shoot again
   As simple as that: take a theme to photograph, see what can be improved, repeat. One example here: begin of January I went with some guys to Rotterdam for a photowalk. When I compared my results with the results of others I realized how I could do things better. So I planned to go back to Rotterdam in February and improve some shots. 
3. Learn from the professionals
   This is actually ongoing, since it has proven to be effective. I follow the courses on kelbytraining.com. They gave me a lot of insights last year, and this year I'll continue.