Flower and beads

CherylL · Jan 23, 2024

My goal was to get light reflecting off of the beads for the background. Many attempts and trying different settings/distance and light placements. I moved the beads several times to get a good placement.

1.

2. the set up

smoke665 · Jan 23, 2024

@CherylL excellent shot. The planning was well thought out and the execution perfect!

Thought this was worthy of one of my nominations for POTM.

CherylL · Jan 24, 2024

smoke665 said:
@CherylL excellent shot. The planning was well thought out and the execution perfect!

Thought this was worthy of one of my nominations for POTM.

Thanks for the nomination! This was actually plan B. I started out in the living room with natural light and a full bouquet of flowers. After that fail moved to a set up in a darkened room with the lights. Lots of trial and error. I'm thinking maybe a longer focal length would have been better for the background. That is the downside when shooting mainly primes. I forget to try a different lens.

smoke665 · Jan 24, 2024

@CherylL Years ago I did a lot of ambient light work, but I was never satisfied with the quality of it and to inpatient to wait for it. I gradually got into studio lighting and found my niche. In lighting, size really does matter, the bigger the modifier to subject, the softer it is, the more micro transitions you have, Specularity evens out, and shadow edges soften. That's not to say I won't go smaller when I'm looking for a Chiaroscuro effect, you match the lighting to the job.

Using a longer focal length will compress the background, but given the fact that your distance to subject wasn't that great, I don't know that you'd notice much difference.