Project365 - Manipulating Light with Gels

Introduction

I really should stop calling this a 365 Project - we've been so busy moving and settling into the new house that I really haven't been able to make time to shoot. I will do my very best to get back to shooting regularly, if not every day !

Pat taught me how to make jam over the past few days. On the first evening, we made ten jars of strawberry jam. I thought it would make a colourful subject for this blog, so I documented the process. The second evening, we made bumbleberry jam. This time I slowed down & thought about what I was doing. I made two changes between the first & second nights.

The Setup

Day 1 - I shot handheld, with my Canon 60D. I wanted a fast lens, so I used my Canon 40mm f2.8 lens, and mounted my Canon 430 EX II flash in the hotshoe.

Day 2 - still handheld with the 60D, but with my Canon 24-105mm f/4 L lens instead. I mounted the flash in the hotshoe, but added a half-density orange gel to correct for the incandescent lighting.

Let's see how the pictures look !

The Photos

Day 1 - no gel:

Here is Pat, cooking the strawberry jam. It's bubbling away so hard, it looked molten ! Notice the yellowish tinge in the appliances & her shirt ! That's the incandescent lighting.

 

 

 

Here we see the yellow tinge, but more pronounced.

Day 2 - 1/2 CTO Gel on the flash

In this photo, the colours are correct. The whites are white - not cream, and the strawberry jam is a brilliant red.

 

 

 

Did I mention we made a dozen jars ? ;-)

 

 

 

 

Lessons Learned

Once again, I need to remember to slow down & plan my shoots. The photos turn out much better when I think through all the components - especially when I think about light temperature !

 

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Project365 - Of Grids and Snoots

Introduction

I managed to collect the components of my Honl speed strap & gels system yesterday. They also make a grid, so I picked one of this up up as well. Grids & Snoots are another form of light modifier for your flash system. They don't change the colour temperature of your flash, instead they focus the beam.

Why would you want to do that ? It allows the photographer to more selectively light the scene. Imagine a photo of a model in a dark room. Perhaps you want to expose the background to look like a black backdrop. That's easily achieved, but you still need to light up the model, to show off contrast and colour. The grid or snoot will help "aim" the light at the models face, while minimizing the spillover onto the background.

 

The Setup

These are some more "goofing around" shots. None of my available models were out of bed yet, and I was getting impatient. A very simple setup, with the Honl 1/8 grid attached to the Canon 430 EX II via the Honl speed strap. The whole shebang is mounted on the hotshoe of my Canon 60D, which has my general purpose 24-105mm f/4 L lens attached. I shot handheld for quick & dirty testing.

 

The Photos

A simple before and after shot. First without the grid, followed by a photo taken with the grid.

Note the even lighting. I used no other light modifier, like a gel, as there was no other ambient light - just the flash at 1/8 power.

 

 

 

For comparison, this photo is shot with the exact same settings, and the grid in place. Note how quickly the light falls off ! The grid directs the flash down a very narrow beam.

 

 

 

Lessons Learned

The use of a grid or snoot allows more creative use of light. It provides an easy way of selectively lighting a small portion of the frame, while quickly allowing the ambient light to light the rest. I see this as very useful for fill-flash and portraiture.

 

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Project365 - Flash Light-Modifiers

Introduction

I have been noticing that I am often unhappy with the colours of my photographs when I shoot with a flash. While there is a white-balance setting on my camera, the light from the flash is a harsh white, which competes with other lighting in the photograph. There are a ton of ways to light scenes - you might be outside on a shady or sunny day. You might be interested in taking family portraits in the living room. Or perhaps you are doing commercial work, shooting products or Executives.

Seems that different lighting has different "temperatures" - you get a feel for it when you see pictures that appear to have a cool blue tinge, or ones that have a warm orange glow to them. Colour temperature is measured in terms of degrees Kelvin, and different lighting has different colours associated with them. Primarily, the objective is to get back to an "honest" white colour. Unless, of course, you WANT to create warmer or cooler tones in your photographs !

The Setup

It took me a bit of running around town, but I finally picked up the components I wanted. My preferred supplier, Saneal Cameras in Calgary, had the Honl speed strap at one store, and the gels at another. I bought a grid while I was at it, but we'll discuss that in a separate blog entry. I like the Honl system, because it makes quickly changing between gels and grids easy. The speed strap loops around the flash and then the components attach to the Velcro for a firm grip.

This isn't really a photo shoot, I was just messing around, attaching the gels & seeing what the effects are. I used my handy Canon 60D handheld, and affixed the 24-105mm f/4 L series lens. Around one of my Canon 430 EX II speed lights, I wrapped the Honl speed strap and started expeimenting. I have:

2X full Green gels (CTG ?)

1X full Blue gel (CTB)

1X half Blue gel (CTB)

2X full Orange gel (CTO)

2X half Orange gel (CTO)

2X quarter Orange gel (CTO)

 

The Photos

This photo was taken with a full green gel. If you compare to the other two pictures, everything has a sickly green colour. The kitchen was illuminated only by the light coming in the window. The green gels are to be used to colour-correct for fluorescent lighting.

 

 

This photo has the full blue gel applied to the flash. Can you see the difference ? I bet you can ! Note that the calendar (taking the top left corner) is white.

 

 

This photo was taken with the full orange gel applied to the flash. It's amazing the difference that the different gels make. Note that the wall beside/behind the refrigerator is a light beige colour.

 

 

 

So let's see the colour-correction in action. For the following two photos, I took shots of the window & door off of our dining area. The window and door are brilliant white, while the only light source is the tungsten (incandescent) chandelier overhead.

This photo was shot using the flash, but without any gel to modify the light source. See how there is an dingy yellow cast to it ?

Here is the same scene, only using the full orange gel. The whites look white again !

Lessons Learned

Photography is merely the task of capturing light. But when we need to add external light to a scene, such as a full-flash, we need to be careful to balance our flash against the ambient light in the scene. I will keep experimenting with flash photography, and use the gels accordingly. The aim is to improve the overall appearance of the photos.

 

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Project365 - Up Close and Personal !

Introduction

It's eleventy-beelion degrees below zero this weekend, so my photo shoots are being limited to in-studio for a couple of days. This means a lot more technical shoot, using more of my equipment. I have no willing subjects - teenagers sleep a remarkable amount, and the critters tend to get bored & wander away - so I'm shooting flowers. Yep, flowers - they don't give attitude, they don't wander off, and most importantly they are pretty to look at !

The Setup

I shoot with a Canon 60D, and today opted to shoot with my Canon 40mm f/2.8. It has a nice wide aperture, allowing lots of light onto the sensor. I mated it with a 12mm extension tube, to allow me to get a little closer. The whole rig was mounted on a Manfrotto tripod, and I chose to go off-camera with my Canon 430EX II flash using a pair of Cactus v5 triggers.

Here's what the shot started off as. Later I chose to add the external light to accentuate the blooms.

The Photos

Whoops ! I totally blew out the photo by setting the flash at full power with a wide (28mm) beam. Let's try that again ! (Neat effect, though)

Better, but I still have too much light at 1/8 power. It blows out the left side, while creating a strange white rim on the right side. Once more...

 

I dialled down the power to 1/32, but the flash is showing up in the corner. I didn't see it when I shot it, but it is definitely there !

 

This is much better. The flash is low-power, and behind the bloom. It makes the flower positively glow ! I tried to balance the aperture so that the leaves in the background were blurry, while most of the bloom (the stamen is the focal point) is in-focus.

Lessons Learned

I am learning more about studio setup. Using my tripod, flash, triggers and shutter release to create visually interesting images is actually a lot of fun ! I wonder if Pat would let me convert one of the kids rooms into a studio ?!? =D

 

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Project365 - Auto Strobism

Introduction

I have started following a blog which gives an introductory course to Strobism - the advanced use of various types of lights and light modifiers in photography. I started with a course called "Lighting 101". It is a fantastic resource for amateur photographers who want to sharpen their skills with lighting various situations.

In the course of my reading, I came across a challenging situation, in which the author was attempting to light a helicopter mid-flight ! While I haven't got a helicopter of my own to photograph, I thought I would attempt to duplicate the technique.
The Setup
My trusty Canon 60D was mated with the general-purpose Canon 24-105mm f/4 L lens & mounted on the Manfrotto tripod. The flash was mounted with the Cactus v5 remote trigger, so that it could be mounted off-camera.

This nifty little DIY mod is called a "lightbulb". The idea is that the sour cream container acts as a diffuser, and the light is thrown in all directions. In practice, it works very well, and I will likely keep this little mod in my kit.
























The Photos

Here is the basic setup: the "lightbulb" is placed inside the car between the front seats, and when triggered will light the car from inside. As you can see, I substituted Pat's car in the dark garage for the helicopter in the night sky.

This is a step towards the end product - you can see the desired effect. You can ALSO see the lightbulb peeking up above the dash !

I couldn't decide how to set up the shot with only one flash. So I also tried it in the back seat, to see how it looked. I don't like it as well, as the front seats are in deep shadow and you can't see anything but the silhouette of the fuzzy dice. In the perfect world, I'd like to shoot this with two flashes, one in the front, and one in the back.

Here is the final photograph, with the desired effect. Overall, I'm pleased with the effect, although one day I'll re-shoot it with a second flash.









Lessons Learned
Photography is really the craft of manipulating light. I thoroughly enjoyed this shoot, as it is an interesting & creative way to experiment with light. I might later try to reuse the technique, but with more light sources, and even models in the cabin.