The Three "Ls" of photography

[BuckSkin]

Dec 1, 2018 2:54:37 GMT pontiac1940 said:

 Coroplast sign board makes a great lightweight white reflector.

Thanks for that.
In the six month long March that we have every year, when it is wet, muddy, muggy, damp, chilly, awful, miserable, etc., etc. outside, my wife often sets up little trinkets, sea-shells, and such and photographs them; she could make good use of such a white board.

An idea for holding the board(s) in place would be to use a table-saw or router or other such groove-cutting tool (trained termites come to mind) and cut a groove in a length of an ordinary 2x4 or similar, the groove being about 2/3s the thickness of the 2x4. Make the groove an exact fit and then move the fence over the thickness of a playing card to make one more pass for easy insertion/removal.
If you buy your 2x4 from a mom-&-pop building supply, if you are very nice, they might cut the groove for you.


Another great idea is using the upside-down mixing bowl as a pedestal; I am figuring that an upside-down bucket with something draped over it might suffice as well.

[hmca]

Interesting suggestion about shooting in the dark, Clive. I may try that sometime with something else.  I have given the baseballs back to my sister. Will post when I do.

Dec 1, 2018 5:20:44 GMT Bailey said:

But the most important part is to have fun doing it

That's the problem, Bailey. I never think using the flash is fun. I only use the external once a year when taking the "dreaded Christmas picture".......and the past two years avoided that by shooting outside!

Thanks, Buckskin. it will be interesting to hear what my teacher says........I think she may have something to say about the lighting. Will let you know. But I will frame the picture as is for my sister who loved it.

[pontiac1940]

Dec 1, 2018 8:39:22 GMT BuckSkin said:

I think that it would be very hard to improve upon your first example posted here

Yes, I agree BuckSkin. Good point.

Clive

[Bailey]

Dec 1, 2018 13:12:43 GMT hmca said:

That's the problem, Bailey. I never think using the flash is fun. I only use the external once a year when taking the "dreaded Christmas picture".......and the past two years avoided that by shooting outside!

That's a pity

Apart from obvious uses indoors, a flash can very useful outdoors even on a bright sunny day - as fill light or highlighting a subject against a deliberately underexposed background.

[Sepiana]

Nov 29, 2018 5:30:57 GMT pontiac1940 said:

In 2011, while on a winter getaway in Arizona, I wrote an article on light for a now-defunct photo forum. 

Click here for the PDF of The Three L's of Photography.

Clive, thanks! Downloaded and read it. You definitely know your "stuff" and, what is more important, you know how to put it on paper. Very impressive!

[pontiac1940]

Thanks Sepiana. 

I am of mix mind regarding flash...I am with Helen and generally don't like schlepping flashes about. But I agree with Bailey using them for fill flash outdoors...very handy. The onboard flashes on P&S cameras and some DSLRs are a godsend. I'd never (rarely) carry an external flash when hiking or fishing, but often use the pops ups. My previous main DSLR (until the new body ... that does not have a popup) had a popup and the output could be controlled so it was difficult to tell a flash was used. 

Fill flash sample. Hiking in southern California, 2015. You can tell it's a flash shot, but it's not obvious. 

[Bailey]

Nov 29, 2018 5:30:57 GMT pontiac1940 said:

...
Maybe one winter's day I'll update it. Comments and suggestions welcome. Thanks.
...

You bring up a very interesting point here:

This leads us to an interesting development that has arisen with digital photography and our
ability to manipulate the light in photos. With the white balance controls in the camera and in digital editing software, there seems to be a movement to making “white” always “white.”
Certainly the warm light of evening can be too warm, but trying to make white always white sort of goes against the concept of “The Magic Hours.” We once talked about those times of day (just after sunrise and just before sunset) when the warm light was magical. Yet, today, I see comments in photography discussions suggesting that white balance should be corrected to make sure the whites are true. I am not so sure about this because it defeats the concept of “The Magic Hours.”

The warm colors of the “magic hours” can indeed to be too strong, but they can also be remarkable and changing photograph colors on the computer to force white balance is perhaps a step backward.

I think some clarification might be beneficial here.

Adjusting white balance to make whites white is ok imho as long as the whites were actually there in the scene when the photo was taken. Colours will generally be better if the full tonal range of the scene is captured. This is where the histogram can be your best friend.

Even during the Golden Hours where the light is, well..., more golden/yellow/orange there might still be elements in the scene that are white, or very close to white.  These should be captured as white or restored to white in post processing.

If when viewing the image on a computer the white elements are off a bit in tone, then it is extremely likely all the other colours (golds/yellow/orange etc typically before sunset or after sunrise) are also off a bit in tone.

In this situation I would always adjust the WB in post processing to make the whites white (without or minimal clipping) and in doing so, all the other "golden" and "magical" colours should then also be automatically corrected to what they were originally in the scene.

The bottom line here is that I always aim to capture and/or restore the full and true tonal range I saw in the scene when I took the photo. As I mentioned above and here again, the histogram is my best friend.

[Bailey]

Dec 2, 2018 4:47:55 GMT pontiac1940 said:

Fill flash sample. Hiking in southern California, 2015. You can tell it's a flash shot, but it's not obvious. 

Hi again Clive,

That is an excellent example of fill flash The details in the shadows in the face below the hat are brought out nicely without over doing it. Definitely not obvious fill flash was used.

In my experience, the pop up/built-in flashes on DSLR's are really only good for fill flash. They just don't have the power or flexibility (bounce flash, etc) that portable/external flashes have.

[pontiac1940]

Thanks for your comments about the fill flash. 

Regarding white balance, the article was quite specific regarding whites in a photo. 

If you take a picture of something that is white in “white” light the photograph will show the object as being, more or less, white. But at other times, that  white object may take on other hues.
... there seems to be a movement to making “white” always “white.” Certainly the warm light of evening can be too warm, but trying to make white always white sort  of goes against the concept of “The Magic Hours.”

And when there are no whites and the scene lighting is iffy then a white card and color card can be used in a couple of test shots provided the light is unchanged.  

[Bailey]

Dec 2, 2018 5:21:37 GMT pontiac1940 said:

Thanks for your comments about the fill flash. 

Regarding white balance, the article was quite specific regarding whites in a photo. 

If you take a picture of something that is white in
 “white” light the photograph will show the object as being, more or less, white. But at other times, that
 white object may take on other hues.



... there seems to be a movement to making “white” always “white.” Certainly the warm light of evening can be too warm, but trying to make white always white sort
 of goes against the concept of “The Magic Hours.”

And when there are no whites and the scene lighting is iffy then a white card and color card can be used in a couple of test shots provided the light is unchanged.  

Hi Clive,

Thank you for bringing this up because that was something else I wasn't sure what you meant.

As you are aware, all digital cameras will try to convert everything to 18% grey. When a camera is pointed at a scene, the camera has no idea what is in the scene.  It just sees light coming from the scene and landing on its sensor and so cannot distinguish a snow scene from a black coal pit.

So if you meter a predominantly white snow scene in white light it will more than likely come out darker than what you would expect and the actual white snow will not be white in the captured image.  It will more likely be a greyish/blueish colour.

Here again I mention the histogram.  If you look at the histogram of the snow scene shot, the highest brightness values will be well to the left of the right boundary (whites) of the histogram plot.

To compensate, you can add more exposure or use a white card, as you suggest or even use a custom white balance if the camera has that feature.

Using a white card allows you to make whites white in post processing and thus bring brightness values over to the right boundary of the histogram where they should be.

If you spot meter an 18% grey element or equivalent (sunlit grass is a good alternative) in a scene, you are much more likely to get the exposure and WB correct or very close.  Predominantly white or black scenes are much more likely to confuse the other metering modes - evaluative etc.