Tabletop Lighting Continued

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Tabletop Lighting Continued

(The LTM Spot)

   Yesterday, I introduced the LTM spotlight - a small but very useful light unit for the studio. Today, I''' introduce some accessories and accompanying items that work together with the LTM.

A Side View of the LTM Light with a filter

These are Reflectors.

I've presented them to you before.

I get most of them from the cardboard insert that comes with my smoked salmon or Lox.

Those come with silver on 1 side and gold on the other.

As well, I make my own, although you can buy them. The ones that I make require the reflector sheet and what's called "Foamcore" (styrofoam in the middle with white cardboard on the outside. The "Foamcore" is lightweight and strong. I then use either rubber cement with a roller squeegee or a spray aerosol glue can to have the 2 stick together.

YThis is called a "filter holder".

It holds filters or filter gels . 

Right now it's in the open position.

You cut the filter to fit the holder, then sandwich it between the 2 sides,,then close the latch on top.

Here's the gel cut to size

Here is the gel sandwiched between the 2 sides of the filter holder.

Photo filters or gels come in all colours.

The 2 main companies that make these filters are "Lee" and "Rosco".

There are bioth "creative filters" for theatrical effect, and there are the "corrective filters" to correct lighting when photographing interiors.

These filters are called "Neutral Density" filters.

What they do is act like sunglasses and reduce the light intensity.

They come in units of .3, .6, .9 and 1.20. These numbers were derived from the film era, when a .3 meant that that filter "held back" 1 f-stop of light. Correspondingly, .6, .9, and 1.2 hold back 2, 3, and 4 f-stops.

You're probably thinking "Why not simply move the light unit farther back?"

The answer is that if you move a light farther back, you will change the reflections and shadows of the tabletop content.

This item is called a "scrim"

It's similar in function as the neutral density filter - it holds back light.

The one above is a 2-f-stop one, reducing the light intensity by 2-f-stops.

The one above is a 1-f-stop one, reducing the light intensity by 1-f-stops.

Notice that the mesh is coarser or the grid pattern of the wire mesh has larger spaces.

The 2 1/2 scrims only block light on 1/2 of their diameter.

If you watch TV, watch for the lighting.

Youll often see the actors' faces dimmer than their lower half of their body.

You don't see this effect often,but try and watch a TV program, and you'll see it occasionally.

I'll finish here, and tomorrow, I'll put these items into action.

Have a good morning, afternoon, or evening.