Staging Photo Ideas

smoke665

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Continuing on my journey of capturing historic sites within my local community, there is an old house that has a lot of history behind it, just because of it's age, but I've also discovered some stories of hidden treasures and ghosts. I've shot it before on a whim, but I'd like to actually go in with a specific plan to capture the house with an air of mystery. Maybe a little on the spooky side. I can go in post and create a composite but I'd like to try to capture it in one shot. I've got access to power for my studio lights, multiple speedlights/triggers and a smoke machine if needed. Here's a previous shot of the house I'm working with. So throw me some bones, time of day, angle, theatrical effects, anything????

Burn House 1.jpg
 
Hard to say without actually being there but here's my initial take... first, do you have access to the interior, and second is your smoke machine large enough to smoke the whole area?

Assuming yes to at least the first, I would put a speedlight on the floor behind each window and maybe one or two up in the porch roof all set on fairly low power, just so you get a glow and a hint of detail inside; if you're shooting in colour a couple of cuts of CTO on the interior ones could add to the effect. I would have smoke in the door and be positioned so that I was shooting into the door way, and maybe hang a blanket or something "drapey" and shapeless toward the back. Mount the camera on a tripod on long exposure, pop the speedlights, and then go around and light paint in the corners, edges, etc. If you can fog the surrounding area, so much the better.
 
Hard to say without actually being there but here's my initial take... first, do you have access to the interior, and second is your smoke machine large enough to smoke the whole area?

Assuming yes to at least the first, I would put a speedlight on the floor behind each window and maybe one or two up in the porch roof all set on fairly low power, just so you get a glow and a hint of detail inside; if you're shooting in colour a couple of cuts of CTO on the interior ones could add to the effect. I would have smoke in the door and be positioned so that I was shooting into the door way, and maybe hang a blanket or something "drapey" and shapeless toward the back. Mount the camera on a tripod on long exposure, pop the speedlights, and then go around and light paint in the corners, edges, etc. If you can fog the surrounding area, so much the better.

I had also leaned toward the possibility of a night shot or predawn using light painting. The smoke machine I'm thinking of puts out quite a bit, we used it for training so, it will fill a large building quickly. I would suspect using it outside would depend on how calm it was. I've never done light painting (always wanted to) so this might be a good opportunity to learn.

I can probably get limited access to the inside. The old house is in really bad shape and unsafe, been a lot of discussion about tearing it down, so not sure if I want to go inside for safety sake especially in the dark. Though I really like the idea of lighting the windows. The old house is built in the "Dog trot" style, except the central hall is all enclosed, with the rooms opening off to each side, most of the windows are boarded up. Of those not covered, I might be able to slip small battery operated led lamps in???? If I opened the door I could probably get some smoke in that interior hall, place a speedlight inside at the top of the door, aimed at the back wall to bounce light back through the smoke?

Also need to read the manual again on my camera, as I think it supports multiple additive exposures on the same frame, which might be easier than one long exposure.
 
I did a story on Southern Californian ghosts. As this is for the historical society ... I wouldn't want to 'fake' anything ... a la smoke machine ... but fudging is okay. I'd read the stories regarding the structure and shoot to the story. Dawn and dusk adds significantly to moodiness. I bracket from a normal/proper exposure to undersposing. Tripod and try some long exposures with moving doors or curtains, et al. Shoot to the stories. Example: In my story it started with the Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego. The hotel is old and impressive so I started with a wide shot of the grand hotel. Then the story spoke to a particular room, so a closeup of the room number on the door, et cetera. The story told of ghosts roaming the cemetery at the Mission San Juan Capistrano. I focused on the cemetery, the headstones dating back to the 1700's and the shadows cast by the low setting sun.

Say, a murder took place in the house ... faking would be to take a cleaver covered in ketchup and place it on the floor or stick it into a door, (chocolate syrup if B&W), then toss ketchup across the walls, ceiling and a trail leading out the door ... fudging would be to open a drawer where a kitchen knife may have been stored and shoot a close up of the open drawer.
 
The story told of ghosts roaming the cemetery at the Mission San Juan Capistrano. I focused on the cemetery, the headstones dating back to the 1700's and the shadows cast by the low setting sun.

I've heard differing stories on the house, they all have a similar thread of "hidden gold" either in or around the house and a murder way back when. Most of the ghostly details have movement of faint images within the house. I like the shadow concept, I could use that to get the feeling of something not really there?

Shooting at dusk would allow me more safety in the setup, and I could still use lights to add to the features.
 
@tirediron and @Gary A. so last night I did a little experimenting with light painting and found out the following:
  1. It takes a lot less light to paint something then I thought it would. I was using a little LED 4 cell AAA light and it was surprisingly effective. It seemed to work better for me, because I could use it like a brush, as opposed to the burst of light from a speedlight.
  2. Getting the exposure right was a hit or miss, take your best guess. What worked best seemed to be to expose the ambient light to about 3-4 stops under, with a 30 second exposure. That gave me enough time to move around with the light.
This may be a dumb question but could I use a ND filter during the day and get the same effect with the light painting?? Doing so would make things a lot easier then stumbling around in the dark.

Reading up on my manual, the K3II allows for multiple exposures (2-2000) of the same image as Composite. I'm confused as to which mode to use. The options being Average (average exposure across all shots), Additive ( combines cumulative exposures), and Bright (combines only the bright parts). Not sure which and also not sure how to set the exposure for something like this???
 
The story told of ghosts roaming the cemetery at the Mission San Juan Capistrano. I focused on the cemetery, the headstones dating back to the 1700's and the shadows cast by the low setting sun.

I've heard differing stories on the house, they all have a similar thread of "hidden gold" either in or around the house and a murder way back when. Most of the ghostly details have movement of faint images within the house. I like the shadow concept, I could use that to get the feeling of something not really there?

Shooting at dusk would allow me more safety in the setup, and I could still use lights to add to the features.
I would certainly seek to document those stories ... a bit more research if necessary to find the details. Go for a lot lens flare!
 
You have hit upon a secret to light painting: making the exposure longer gives more time to "paint"! I used to like f/8 and 60 to 90 seconds for outdoor night time light painting with multiple flash pops. Sticking with f/8 gives a good basis for "sensing" the exposure needed, just by keeping things consistent with one f/stop that's neither too wide nor to narrow.

ND will make ALL the light less strong...so, it's kind of a wash, but it does give more open shutter time, but at the cost of cutting down the LED's brightness by 2 or 4 or 6 stops, whatever the strength of the ND filtration is.

You are on the right track with the Minus 3 to 4 EV on ambient, then painting with the LED light.
 
@tirediron and @Gary A. so last night I did a little experimenting with light painting and found out the following:
  1. It takes a lot less light to paint something then I thought it would. I was using a little LED 4 cell AAA light and it was surprisingly effective. It seemed to work better for me, because I could use it like a brush, as opposed to the burst of light from a speedlight.
  2. Getting the exposure right was a hit or miss, take your best guess. What worked best seemed to be to expose the ambient light to about 3-4 stops under, with a 30 second exposure. That gave me enough time to move around with the light.
This may be a dumb question but could I use a ND filter during the day and get the same effect with the light painting?? Doing so would make things a lot easier then stumbling around in the dark.

Reading up on my manual, the K3II allows for multiple exposures (2-2000) of the same image as Composite. I'm confused as to which mode to use. The options being Average (average exposure across all shots), Additive ( combines cumulative exposures), and Bright (combines only the bright parts). Not sure which and also not sure how to set the exposure for something like this???
All depends on how you're using the the LED light. If you're using a LED light as a principal source of light, (a la the Sun), then in theory, yes. But with a non-gradient ND filter, all you're doing is dropping the light level with the option of maintaining a shallow DOF and an option to blur motion (as opposed to dropping the light level via shutter/aperture). There is a lot of options to discuss. Light Painting gives you the option of varying light angles, which in turn creates differing shadows which would increase the drama, (like in movies using low lighting to make the villain or monster seem sinister). But in general, light painting is used as a line to highlight/frame objects as opposed to flooding a scene with lights. Don't forget to try shining your car's headlights on the structure at night ... very odd and dramatic shadows.

Trial and error and learning by experience = light painting.
 
I would certainly seek to document those stories ... a bit more research if necessary to find the details. Go for a lot lens flare!

Originally built by the family of my best friend's wife. They donated a plot of land (which included the house) to the FD for a station. She and her Aunt are the local historians around here, so I plan on setting them down one day and gleaning the information. The house faces east, so afternoon sun would give a lot of lens flare, is that what you're talking about?

with a non-gradient ND filter, all you're doing is dropping the light level with the option of maintaining a shallow DOF

But if I'm adding light back (light painting) could I not use a higher aperture for greater DOF. Also considering the headlights to create shadows.

ND will make ALL the light less strong...so, it's kind of a wash, but it does give more open shutter time, but at the cost of cutting down the LED's brightness by 2 or 4 or 6 stops, whatever the strength of the ND filtration is.

Wouldn't increasing the time spent light painting overcome this?
 
Yeah, evening, I agree, that's what I was thinking. Might give you those long shadows that can make interesting patterns or create more depth or interest to a subject. Even in B&W the late day light can work nicely.

I took photos of an abandoned looking house I saw from the parking lot of the Big Boy, thru the windshield. House already had tall grass and I scrunched down a bit to change the perspective and emphasize the tallness. It was late summer/early fall and the grass was dry and brown and the sun gave it a golden color. The color photos were nice but I did a couple of them in B&W and adjusted the contrast a tad to add to the spooky quality (and submitted it to the Last Spooky Show at Lightbox Gallery). Next time I went back thinking I'd do some in B&W film it was torn down. At the time had been out taking pictures and used up all the film I had with me but luckily had taken along the digital so did get some cool photos that day.

OK I'm rambling on but this is a nice shot and I like the sepia. I think I'd like being in closer, I'd think about trying shots of part of the house not the entire house, the left side seems more interesting and spooky-ish than the right side. Lots of great potential photos with this subject. You could probably keep going back and get some nice stuff there.

As far as lens flare to me it's rather experimental and a matter of timing. I've gotten it sometimes, again in the evening. Last time I was getting it I moved a bit to get the sun partly behind a tree so was able to get a nice line of flare spots where I wanted them in my picture. Kind of a one and done moment.

Have fun with this subject, it's a winner...

Gary reminded me I did that once with car headlights along the edge of a gravel driveway and a cornfield, kind of cool but I was pushing it losing light.
 
For light painting look up Dave Black photography. I went to a sports photography workshop he did and he also does light painting among other things. Try his Workshop at the Ranch section of his site, there may be some of his light painting there. Last I looked he'd changed the site so I can't say for sure what's where but he does some cool stuff with painting light. Might teach it too.
 
Couldn't think of the name of his website - gee it's a tough one to recall...

Home | Dave Black
 

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