f25 30 sec
The past few photos were shot in my living room using either window light through sheer curtains or as the sun dropped, a small light box for illumination. I used my 24 x 36 diffuser with the light box for a soft light and colour balanced my white balanced setting to the flourescent tubes.
On the other side of the flower I used a 22″ reflector, rotating between silver or soft gold to add some light back into the dark side of the flower.
This photo of a Gerbera was a long 30 second exposure using the lightbox for a light source, f 25 for maximum depth of field and ISO 100 for the least amount of noise.
February 19th, 2007 at 11:58 pm
Hi Chris,
What fascinates me is how you got the background so perfectly black! From the fine hairs visible on the stem I’m guessing that you did not cut out the background in post processing. Did you use some kind of backdrop behind the flower? Even then you must have done some pp to get rid of dust specs, etc.
Regards,
Stefan
February 20th, 2007 at 2:16 am
I did use a black velvetine backdrop. Prior to setting it up I made sure it was free of lint and hairs that may appear in the photos using a lint brush. I positioned the backdrop sufficiently far enough away from the flowers to both ensure the amount of light falling on the backdrop was significantly lower than on the flowers and ensure that if in fact I did have any sort dust on the backdrop, it would be out of focus. At the same time, I used the lid from the light box to block light falling on to the background. Finally, I processed the RAW file with 3/10 stop underexposure, not to create a blacker background but to tone down the bright red of the gerbera.
Placement of the backdrop in relation to the light source and subject is a use of the inverse square law. I will explain more about this in one of my future digital photography tips (http://potd.chrismpey.com/tips).