In an effort to express my gratitude to all the members of the forum I thought it a good idea to try and share some of the techniques I use in the field for my close up photography…
Whilst out in the field I will use many means of modifying the available light to get the result that I am after, these include a range of reflectors, ‘black’ reflectors, diffusers and flash.
On Sunday I went out to shoot specific before and after images for a chapter in the book I am working on (it will probably be obvious what the subject of the book is). The above composite is of two images taken a few minutes apart under the same lighting conditions, it was about 10am and the light was harsh. After the first exposure I then considered what the final image should look like, in this case I used a grey diffuser (a lastolite type aid to white balance which is grey one side and the same shade of grey the other but with a more reflective surface, the material is thin enough that diffuse light also passes through). When this was held between the light source (sun) and the subject I could see that light from highly reflective vegetation to my lower left was going to cause problems so a black reflector was placed to eliminate that.
On occasion you will also want to control the amount of light falling on the bg with futher reflectors and diffusers but on this occasion I wouldn’t have been able to do that due to the amount of other vegetation around so was able to get the bg I wanted by holding the grey diffuser appropriately. The more shiny side of the diffuser was arranged to face the subject so the light was bounced around to give a shade more direction to it, had I used the other side there would have been less modelling…
A great tip and thanks for sharing it,what a dramatic improvement careful placement of the diffusers can make.
I was experimenting with a similar thing a week or so ago when we had that appaling period of weather.
I was photographing a moth indoors and found it quite dramatic to see just how the position of various diffusers and/or reflectors can alter the appearance of the resulting image,particularly the apparant sharpness caused by modeling.
Even though the window light was very soft and diffuse it often caused unwelcomed glare and bright areas particularly on a leaf's shiny surface.
Placing a folded sheet of white paper between light source and subject certainly helped reduce this,but I found it was then very easy to make the light a little too difuse and lose any modeling and texture.
I guess the trick it is too filter the light to just the right degree.
An interesting subject and certainly lots to learn.
A black and or grey diffuser sounds like a good addition to the camera bag.
A great discription of the method-reflectors are probably the least used but most useful items of photographic equipment and one of the least expensive
A very good demonstration of using reflectors and/or diffusers to control the light. I always carry a 5-in-1 reflector/diffuser although I have to admit it does not used much but it should as it can really help when trying to deal with bright and harsh midday light.
Thanks for the insight, hurry up with the book.......
I have been using a white shower curtain to diffuse light and also as a reflector, it works really well is light , portable and best of all just £1.80 or so from tesco.
Discussion
7 repliesIn an effort to express my gratitude to all the members of the forum I thought it a good idea to try and share some of the techniques I use in the field for my close up photography…
Whilst out in the field I will use many means of modifying the available light to get the result that I am after, these include a range of reflectors, ‘black’ reflectors, diffusers and flash.
On Sunday I went out to shoot specific before and after images for a chapter in the book I am working on (it will probably be obvious what the subject of the book is). The above composite is of two images taken a few minutes apart under the same lighting conditions, it was about 10am and the light was harsh. After the first exposure I then considered what the final image should look like, in this case I used a grey diffuser (a lastolite type aid to white balance which is grey one side and the same shade of grey the other but with a more reflective surface, the material is thin enough that diffuse light also passes through). When this was held between the light source (sun) and the subject I could see that light from highly reflective vegetation to my lower left was going to cause problems so a black reflector was placed to eliminate that.
On occasion you will also want to control the amount of light falling on the bg with futher reflectors and diffusers but on this occasion I wouldn’t have been able to do that due to the amount of other vegetation around so was able to get the bg I wanted by holding the grey diffuser appropriately. The more shiny side of the diffuser was arranged to face the subject so the light was bounced around to give a shade more direction to it, had I used the other side there would have been less modelling…
All the best.
A great tip and thanks for sharing it,what a dramatic improvement careful placement of the diffusers can make.
I was experimenting with a similar thing a week or so ago when we had that appaling period of weather.
I was photographing a moth indoors and found it quite dramatic to see just how the position of various diffusers and/or reflectors can alter the appearance of the resulting image,particularly the apparant sharpness caused by modeling.
Even though the window light was very soft and diffuse it often caused unwelcomed glare and bright areas particularly on a leaf's shiny surface.
Placing a folded sheet of white paper between light source and subject certainly helped reduce this,but I found it was then very easy to make the light a little too difuse and lose any modeling and texture.
I guess the trick it is too filter the light to just the right degree.
An interesting subject and certainly lots to learn.
A black and or grey diffuser sounds like a good addition to the camera bag.
Tim
A very good demonstration of using reflectors and/or diffusers to control the light. I always carry a 5-in-1 reflector/diffuser although I have to admit it does not used much but it should as it can really help when trying to deal with bright and harsh midday light.
Thanks for the insight, hurry up with the book.......
cheers
Sean
Stewart.....
A very useful simple technique I have to try, thanks for the info.
Regards