Dramatic Lighting For Still Life

ianbarber

ianbarber

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Ian
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I have recently taken a break from my Landscape photography and have started to do some still life to add to my portfolio.

Working with this kind of subject matter is very new to me and I am looking for advice on how to create dramatic lighting (low key)

My setup is not ideal as I am working out of a corner of my office which is not that big in size.

So far I have been using the ambient light but I am struggling to understand how to create some low key dramatic lighting.

Any advice, tips or recommendations for a workshop in the area would be really great.

To give you an idea of what I have achieved so far, here is a link to some of my latest work.

http://www.ianbarberphotography.co.uk/portfolio/surreal-black-and-white/

Thanks

Ian
 
The principles are actually very simple, and once you understand and have mastered the principles it's really just a matter of attention to fine detail and creativity.

A word of warning though... Still life is probably the hardest genre of all in the sense that it's the photographer, and nobody else, who is entirely responsible for the quality of the work - there's no model to move at the wrong time etc, so if it isn't perfect you just have to accept that it's all your fault:)

I've started a series of tutorials in the lighting tutorials section of the Lencarta lighting blog.
This one
This one
This one
This one and others will follow. Plus, in the same section, there are articles from other contributors such as this one on lighting food, another one on location food photography and several others, just work your way through the archive. Over time, we hope to build the blog up to the point where it becomes a valuable source of info on a range of lighting subjects.
 
Garry Edwards said:
I've started a series of tutorials in the lighting tutorials section of the and several others, just work your way through the archive. Over time, we hope to build the blog up to the point where it becomes a valuable source of info on a range of lighting subjects.
Click to expand...

Fab Gary Ive never seen those thanks :clap:
 
Garry Edwards said:
I've started a series of tutorials in the lighting tutorials section of the Lencarta lighting blog.
Click to expand...

Thanks Gary for the links.

Just watched the video you did showing how you photographed the Nikon D700,

I was impressed with the shot you took by just using the one soft box especially when you moved it in closer to the subject.

By using this type of setup (studio strobe and modelling light) I can see where you are cable to see where the light is falling.

Am I right in saying that if you use small speed lights like the Nikon SB900 then there is going to be a lot of trial and error involved because you do not have the modelling lamp.

The question I am really asking I guess is... in your professional opinion, would you suggest at least one studio strobe with a large soft box rather than rely on speed lights.

Ian
 
ianbarber said:
Thanks Gary for the links.

Just watched the video you did showing how you photographed the Nikon D700,

I was impressed with the shot you took by just using the one soft box especially when you moved it in closer to the subject.

By using this type of setup (studio strobe and modelling light) I can see where you are cable to see where the light is falling.

Am I right in saying that if you use small speed lights like the Nikon SB900 then there is going to be a lot of trial and error involved because you do not have the modelling lamp.

The question I am really asking I guess is... in your professional opinion, would you suggest at least one studio strobe with a large soft box rather than rely on speed lights.

Ian
Click to expand...
It's much, much easier with a studio light than with a hotshoe flashgun. You can manage without a modelling lamp, using trial and a lot of error, but hotshoe flashguns do struggle to light a large softbox evenly
 
Garry Edwards said:
It's much, much easier with a studio light than with a hotshoe flashgun. You can manage without a modelling lamp, using trial and a lot of error, but hotshoe flashguns do struggle to light a large softbox evenly
Click to expand...

As a starting point, can you recommend a strobe with moddelling lamp and a soft box. The ties of products / still life I am doing at the moment are all small and usually fit on a table that is approx 2 feet square.

Unless I can find a suitable room to hire (close to Doncaster) at a low cost, I am forced to do this at home so you can appreciate, space is limited.

Ian
 
ianbarber said:
As a starting point, can you recommend a strobe with moddelling lamp and a soft box. The ties of products / still life I am doing at the moment are all small and usually fit on a table that is approx 2 feet square.

Unless I can find a suitable room to hire (close to Doncaster) at a low cost, I am forced to do this at home so you can appreciate, space is limited.

Ian
Click to expand...
You can manage small items with relatively little space, it isn't really a problem.
The ElitePro 300 fitted with the 70 x 140cm softbox and a boom arm would be my recommendation, of course these are Lencarta products and you can get similar products from other manufacturers too. Just don't get really cheap lights, you'll struggle to get consistent colour, which is very important with still life subjects.

That softbox may seem large, but if you're photographing shiny subjects then it will need to be at least 3x the size of the subject, much more if the subject is convex.
 
Having watched one of Garys videos where he demonstrates shooting a Nikon Camera, this gave me an idea.

I already own a small Lastolite Ezybox so I quickly made a small boom for my light stand so I could place it over the subjects.

I was very impressed with how the light changed and became soft when I placed the soft box about 8 inches above the subjects.

Now... I am getting the soft box in the shot which I do not want, am I right in saying that if I was to raise the soft box higher but increase the speed light power to compensate for increasing the distance between the soft box and the subject would yield the same results or would it make the light harder because of the increase in distance between the subject and light source.

Still trying to get my head around this subject a little.

Ian
 
It isn't about power, it's about relative size, so moving the softbox further away will make the light harder. It will also make the falloff of light, from top to bottom, more gradual.

If you want soft light, you need a large light relative to the size of the subject.
 
Garry Edwards said:
It isn't about power, it's about relative size, so moving the softbox further away will make the light harder. It will also make the falloff of light, from top to bottom, more gradual.

If you want soft light, you need a large light relative to the size of the subject.
Click to expand...

Thanks Gary.

I have been looking at my available working area and I am just quite sure if I have the room for what you recommended and I didn't want to buy all products and find that I am unable to use them.

From your experience, what is the largest soft box I could use with a Nikon Sb900 SpeedLight which would give me enough even distribution of light with the SB900 zoomed out to 24mm
 
I haven't tried it with a SB-900, just a SB-800. With a Stofen fitted to it to spread the light, maybe 90cm or so.
 
Garry Edwards said:
I haven't tried it with a SB-900, just a SB-800. With a Stofen fitted to it to spread the light, maybe 90cm or so.
Click to expand...

Which soft box did you try with an Sb800 Gary and what did you think to the results.

Also is it easy to add a Speedlight to the Lencarta soft box
 
I've tried the 100 x 70cm, you can fit a speedlight using the S-fit adapter. It was OK, but not perfect at the edges.
 
Garry Edwards said:
I've tried the 100 x 70cm, you can fit a speedlight using the S-fit adapter. It was OK, but not perfect at the edges.
Click to expand...
I've just realised that that's a bad answer, I'd better explain it better.
Speedlights don't distribute the light evenly in softboxes because, unlike studio flash, the reflectors generally can't be taken off. This means that the light doesn't bounce around off the softbox walls as it should, so you get hotspots instead of an evenly lit front. A Stofen-type diffuser fitted to the front of the flashgun does help quite a bit though.

So, there's a limit to the size of the softbox you can use, this will vary depending on the design of both the flashgun and the softbox. Really deep softboxes such as Elinchrom, Lencarta, Bowens new range, will distribute the light much better than, say the Bowens Wafer, which is designed for a different purpose.

For your purpose though, sitting overhead on a boom arm, you can push the limits a bit because the inevitable uneveness will be towards the edges where it won't affect your shot much. This is because your softbox will be (needs to be) several times as big as your subject.
 
Ian, I cannot express how much easier it is working with studio lights. you have power to burn and such better quality light. I also recommend the Lencarta stuff unreservedly.
 
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