Experiments at Home - Flash Photography
Shot at 105mm F16 1.6s ISO 64 (3 photo focus stack). Taken using flash, you can compare it with the natural (window) light shot below.
For some reason I thought this week’s experiment was going to be easier than last weeks. Looking back, I really have no idea why. I quickly realised how convenient the Rotolights are in the tight space I was working in (I really should dedicate an entire blog to them). In comparison, using my Godox strobes with even small modifiers (in this case cheap and cheerful shoot through umbrellas) proved cumbersome and awkward when shooting something on my desk. Flash certainly favours space unless you are going to shoot bare bulb.
Shot at 105mm F16 1.6s ISO 64 (3 photo focus stack). I played around with a lot of ideas for shooting the closed box but eventually settled to keep it simple with a front on shot from slightly above.
The first thing on my list was to shoot the box the pen comes in, which took the most trial and error. Eventually after looking at what photos were on websites online, I released that the box is essentially just an extra bit of presentation. Following that I stopped thinking of weird close ups and wide-angle shots and settled on a standard front on shot of the box both open and closed. The shot that heads this blog was taken with flash and the shot just below was taken using the natural window light in the room (thankfully it was a cloudy day). They do look different, but I was happy with both of them, although next time I would use a reflector to bounce more light into the upper corners. On the flash shot I feel it is acceptable, but I think a bit more light would have been an improvement.
Shot at 105mm F16 1.6s ISO 64 (3 photo focus stack). The alternative open box photo, using only natural window light. This came out a lot better than I expected and shows what you can do even without artificial light. This shot needs more light reflected on the ride hand side to tone down the obvious shadows.
Once I had finished with the box, I moved onto the pen itself, and immediately encountered another difficulty I had not experienced with the watch the previous week. It should have been obvious, but as the pen was a rounded object it would continually roll out of position on the shiny black acrylic. Again, looking online, photographers seem to favour a textured, matte background which I imagine will help the pen stay still (perhaps with a helping hand on Blu tack). However, I did eventually find positions in which the pen would stay still.
Shot at 105mm F16 1.6s ISO 64 (5 photo focus stack). The pen on lid shot is a classic in fountain pen photography, though the angles they are taken at vary widely. A gold reflector was lifted above the pen to give it a warm golden glow.
Using flash also introduced the issue of unwanted reflections and hot spots, which were much easier to eliminate with continuous lighting as you could see everything before you clicked the shutter. The difficultly in my setup was that I was surrounded by white walls and ceilings, ideally (as I said before) I would work in a larger space where I could lay down black cloth and be able to flag off things I did not want. This would become more and more important as the object you photographed got bigger. Items like large metal kitchen appliances are notorious for this.
Shot at 105mm F16 1.6s ISO 64 (2 photo focus stack). The other major shot of the pen is a side by side with the cap.
Something I did do this week that I did not do last week was photo stacking – taking multiple images at slightly different focusing points and then merging them in Photoshop to get a completely sharp image. This was not necessary on the watch with its flat dial, but the rounded shape of the pen made it hard to get everything in focus, especially on the close up shot of the nib. It is also not a good idea to shoot at apertures smaller than F16 as you start to get a noticeable drop off in image quality.
Shot at 105mm F16 1.6s ISO 64 (5 photo focus stack). A close up of the nib is also always important, notice the flash hotspot on the right hand side.
One thing worth mentioning is that whilst flash and continuous lighting could be used for focus stacking, you would not be able to do use light painting (unless you were after a very ‘creative’ look). With inconsistent lighting it would be hard for your software to understand what was and was not in focus and you would also end up with a strange mix of lines and light patterns from each shot that contributed. I did however take a light painting shot (single), which you can see below, but the glossy rounded shape of the pen yielded a big reflection. This would be something that would either need to be removed in post or by compositing two shots together with trial and error. For now, I think I will stick to finally using this pen as a pen, it has been sitting on the shelf long enough now.
Shot at 105mm F16 2s ISO 64. Taken using light painting with a Rotolight Neo 2 instead of the Godox strobes. The main distraction is the long line reflections that runs the entire length of the pen. This would be difficult to avoid based on the shape of the pen, and would require either compositing or extensive photoshopping.
As always thanks for reading and if you have any comments then please leave them below. I learned a lot this week and goes to show there is still plenty of ways to practice at home. I hope everyone is still coping ok with the lockdown and looking forward to the improving weather. After all this snow and ice, I feel ready for spring.
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