Lighting and Exposure

Journal Entry: Tue Mar 2, 2010, 9:23 PM


this blog entry is about lighting and exposure for beginners.
i want to share my way of lighting and exposure.
if you have a shot like one of two on the top and you like one on the bottom, here is the easiest way to do it.
and you DO NOT NEED fancy studio and expensive camera for this.

before that, let me write about some failure factors.

TOP LEFT SHOT (YELLOWISH one)
was taken by incandescent bare bulb.
and it got bad look highlight from the light.
showing many things i do not want to show in the photograph.
exposure was not bad, but yellow color made all look bad.
even we fix white balance, missing spectrum will not be added.
so do not use this type of light for food photography.

TOP RIGHT SHOT (B&W-ish one)
was taken by hi-power photographic light (light temp 5500K).
because of the location of the light, i got bad shadow on white dish.
and too much contrast made food looked old and very artificial.
even we use expensive photo light, if we use it wrong way, photo will come out funny.

all 3 photo were taken with same camera & lens in same place, but lighting were all different.
now i will show you how to take bottom one with lighting setups and exposure settings.

first, i recommend to use sun light for this type of photography.
especially for food.
sunlight has all color spectrum that most artificial light do not have.
in other words, sun light can create REAL colors.

here are some of my favorite setups.

::1:: DIRECT LIGHT


at first, DIRECT LIGHT setup.
this is the simplest setup and effective.
you can just locate SOUTH or WEST window where you can get the direct light at the time of your photo shoot.
and put a box to get good height for your subject, and put any clean paper or sheet then put your subject on it.
if you take a photograph from higher position, you may not need any backdrop.
otherwise you need something clean behind of your subject.
then set your camera on your TRIPOD.
TRIPOD is very important to take STILL LIFE or MACRO shots.
this setup is great for dramatic lighting with strong light and shadow.



::2:: DIFFUSED LIGHT


secondly, this is my most frequently used setup.
you just need to add BACKDROP on the first setup.
BACKDROP can be anything like....
thin white paper, tracing tissue, thin white plastic, translucent vinyl (shower curtain), garbage bag (white or translucent, NO COLOR)
if you have several of them, you can adjust the amount of the light by that.
this setup is great for low contrast shadow-free shots.
i recommend to try this setup, because this is useful and easy.



::3:: DIRECT LIGHT with some light back


at last, if sun is hitting higher than your subject, it is easy to kill some shadow with small white boards.
the diagram just shows one on the air. in real photo shoot, most people use several boards to eliminate specific shadows one by one.
but overdoing this will result the shot looks too bright everywhere.
and be careful with high light caused by these boards.

::3':: DIFFUSED LIGHT with some light back

just another combination.


now you know how to setup.
then another thing to know is EXPOSURE.
please read the manual of your camera about how to adjust exposure like +1, +2, or -1, -2.
or simply chose MANUAL MODE (if there is manual mode) and change your shutter speed from first to slow, so you can get several different shot like example below.



next to each photo, i showed numbers for your reference.
i use whether Av (Aperture priority mode) or M (Manual mode).
in Manual mode, ISO is ISO. since you are using tripod, 100 is fine, f8 is aperture value... you can change by your choice, SS means shutter speed.
my camera only has -2 to +2 if i select Av mode.
sometimes i need to go more extreme, then i use Manual mode that let me set any crazy combination.
please be note that these are the result in my place with this setup, with my camera.
the number and result will be different in your place.
so try some exposure until you get something you like.
this is the chance not to use AUTO when you take a photograph.
once you get this, you can use outside and everywhere too.

for my final shot,
in my example, i chose something between +1 and +2.
but when you chose black background and black subject, somewhere -1 to -2 could be the best choice.
take shots in many different exposure settings so you can pick your favorite later.

some example shots....

parallel universe by TE2YA cheers by TE2YA
::1:: direct sunlight from back
over exposure +1

coffee cup ride by TE2YA mechanical pencils by TE2YA
::2:: diffused sunlight from back
over exposure +1 to +2

pencils by TE2YA batteries by TE2YA
::2:: diffused sunlight from back or side
under exposure -2

pat0193 by TE2YA blue berry tarte by TE2YA mangou and almond by TE2YA
::3':: diffused sunlight from back + some light back
right exposure +/- 0 to over exposure +1

Carl by TE2YA Roman Holiday by TE2YA Seredipity by TE2YA
::3':: diffused sunlight from back + some light back
over exposure +1

here is my journal entry related this topic
te2ya.deviantart.com/journal/2…
this journal explains how to use boards TO ADD some SHADOWS.
you can use this with setup ::2:: DIFFUSED LIGHT, when you need some 3 dimensional quality.

if you have any question, please write in this blog entry so everybody can share the info.
thank you for reading this.
i am very happy if this would help some of you.
good luck on shooting.

and at last,
this group is open for everyone to join!

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