Painting with Light - Post # 3

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Painting with Light - Post # 3

     So far, I've shown you the technique and how to determine your exposures. As well, the photos appeared to be very "normal", in that they looked like one exposure. For this blog, I'm going to be a bit bolder in my photos to illustrate what you can do.

This image is a straightforward photo with 2 regular spot lights.

There's nothing special about it, as it's a nice detailed photo for an E-Bay listing.

This is my "base exposure" for painting with light.

Just to remind you, you need to take 2 exposures for this technique.

1. One is the "base exposure" to light up the set-up. It's purposely underexposed because when you "paint with light", you will be adding extra exposures to certain areas and this will add more exposure to those areas. Also, no matter how small the light source, you still will get "spill" "Spill" is unwanted light in your photo or parts of your photo.

The exposure above was  f 11 @ 14" 

I used my small "Maglite" and turned the flashhead to a broad light source. The Maglite, can also be adjusted for a smaller and focused light source.

This is my first try for this set-up.

Exposure # 1: Base exposure of f 11 @ 14"

Exposure # 2: Painting with light with Maglite fiber-optic probe - f11 @ 40"

* All this time, the camera is on a tripod, and the shutter is set to B.

"B: stands for "bulb", and as lonmg as you have the setting for "B", your shutter stays open.

Pressing the shutter a second time will close it. You can also use a remote. The first click of the remote opens the shutter, while the second click closes the shutter.

Here's my second attempt which was much better!

Exposure # 1: Base exposure of f 11 @ 14"

Exposure # 2: Painting with light with Maglite fiber-optic probe - f11 @ 80"

*More about Exposure:

All exposure is based upon how much light reflects off the object to be send to your camera CCDs. The term CCD stands for "Charged Coupled Diode". These are the actual pixles on the capture part of your camera. In BDE (Before Digital Era) times, there was film.

Light tones and colours reflect more light, so they need less exposure. 

Dark colours absorb more light and reflect less light.

Dark tones and colours there need more exposure.

In the above photo, I had to add more lighjt to the dark shades, and less light to the light and white tones. You'll gin this knowledge with experience.

Another Example

Exposure # 1: Base exposure of f 11 @ 14"

Exposure # 1: Base exposure of f 11 @ 14"

Exposure # 2: Painting with light with Maglite fiber-optic probe - f11 @ 80"

* You'll notice that the exposures were about the same for both photos of the 4 cars and the red truck and oil tanker. This was just coincidence, as most often, your exposures will vary.

Below is another effort

1.The Basic Exposure :  f 16 @ 12" 

2a.Basic Exposure f 16 @ 12"
b. Painting with Light Exposure: f16 @ 40"


Notice that I was trying to "overexpose the lights to make them look authentic
I was able to get the correct exposure for the left headlight on the green truck

2a.Basic Exposure f 16 @ 12"

b. Painting with Light Exposure: f16 @ 120"

Each headlight was about f16 @ 20", with 40" for the trucks

2a. Basic Exposure f 16 @ 12"

b. Painting with Light Exposure: f16 @ 120"

Each headlight was about f16 @ 20", with 40" for the trucks

Notice 2 things:

1. Every exposure with painting with light is never exact. Compare the previous image to this one.

2. I need much more exposure for the 2 trucks!

2a. Basic Exposure f 16 @ 12"

b. Painting with Light Exposure: f16 @ 120"

Each headlight was about f16 @ 20", with 70" for the trucks

This image is very good, so I'll stop here!

I haven't corrected the white-balance.

I'll do that with the image below.

Here's the final image with the white-balance corrected.

As I was painting with light, I wanted to highlight the window frames around both trucks.

I did not give enough for several exposures, and almost forgot in the last image.

This is where notes are important. If you don't write information for your image, then you not remember certain things!

Below is 1 final image of a still life.

1. First Correct Base Exposure

F 16 @ 12"

2. Automatic Colour Correction in Photoshop

This changes everything. I should definitely start to white balance for my camera!

3. This is how the Base Exposure should be with white-balance.

Being underexposed will change the colour!

4. Underexposed areas will have "noise".

I have nice creases (folds) in my fabric, but I forgot to give them a "base" exposure.

a. Base exposure:  f 16 @ 12"

b.Painting with Light: f 16 @ 40"

Not enough exposure:

1. Not enough tomatoes "highlighted"

b. No light on the fabric

Here's a part of the above photo to better show the "noise".

In this case we have red and blue "noise" pixels!

5. Now we're talking!

a. I added extra light to the 4 sides edges of the plate.

b. I added more exposure to the fabric creases (folds)

Exposures

i. Base exposure:  f 16 @ 12"

ii. Painting with light:  f 16 @ 180"

>  Fabric

   > Tomatoes

                            >  4 sides of the plate edges

6. I did some work in Photoshop.

a.  I cropped the image because the plate was too centred.

b.  I increased the contrast and did  a highlight/shadow (mostly for the shadow) adjustment.

7. 1 More try

I wanted to accentuate (make brighter) the 4 sides of the plate.

Exposures

i. Base exposure:  f 16 @ 12"

ii. Painting with light:  f 16 @ 240"

>  Fabric

   > Tomatoes

                            >  4 sides of the plate edges

8. Colour Adjusted in Photoshop

9. Cropped with same intent as before

10. Some Photoshop work

a. More contrast 

Thanks for visiting, and have

a good morning,

good day, or good evening.

(Mr.) Stacey Bindman

Montreal,Quebec,Canada