PDA

View Full Version : Low Key Still Photography Using Flash



IanBarber
2-Dec-2017, 11:48
Has anyone got any examples of large format low key still life photography where they have used flash as the main light source.

I am struggling to achieve the look I am after

chassis
2-Dec-2017, 18:43
Gregg Obst is a member on this site; his Flickr has a nice low key 5x7 film image of a rose. What aspect of low key are you working on, Ian?

dasBlute
2-Dec-2017, 19:21
one the best I remember seeing around here was christropher broadbent, hard to find now, but very much like the dutch masters, i.e. as good as it gets, imho

http://www.cardcard.it/en/portfolio/christopher-broadbent-2015/
http://wird.com.ua/archives/208153
http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?107829-Christopher-Broadbent-quot-What-s-Left-quot-Gallery-Show-in-Milano-21-Nov-to-16-January
http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?133220-Still-Life-Lighting

IanBarber
3-Dec-2017, 03:04
Gregg Obst is a member on this site; his Flickr has a nice low key 5x7 film image of a rose. What aspect of low key are you working on, Ian?

I am trying to produce some still life with low lighting. I have done a fair few on digital with no problems using just a small Nikon SB900 flash on 1/128th power.

Trying to recreate these on 5x4 is giving me a hard time mainly because until the film is developed, I cannot see the results. I am either getting to much light where I dont want it, or just not enough light causing the backgrounds to drop into a big black hole

IanBarber
3-Dec-2017, 03:05
one the best I remember seeing around here was christropher broadbent, hard to find now, but very much like the dutch masters, i.e. as good as it gets, imho

http://www.cardcard.it/en/portfolio/christopher-broadbent-2015/
http://wird.com.ua/archives/208153
http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?107829-Christopher-Broadbent-quot-What-s-Left-quot-Gallery-Show-in-Milano-21-Nov-to-16-January
http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?133220-Still-Life-Lighting

Now these are vey nice indeed

Pere Casals
3-Dec-2017, 04:06
I am trying to produce some still life with low lighting. I have done a fair few on digital with no problems using just a small Nikon SB900 flash on 1/128th power.

Trying to recreate these on 5x4 is giving me a hard time mainly because until the film is developed, I cannot see the results. I am either getting to much light where I dont want it, or just not enough light causing the backgrounds to drop into a big black hole

In the past photographers were using Polaroid instant film to preview a result, today we have DSLRs. I'd suggest you take an SLR loaded with your film and you make extensive bracketings with exposure and light parameters (distance, light modifiers...). With 2 rolls you are done.

If you take a DSLR shot for each SLR shot then you will learn how to preview the film result from the DSLR image. It is very worth to explore film possibilities with 35mm film, then you also should realize what effect will add +/-N development on the sheet.

If your postprocess is digital then, as always, you just need to ensure you are not to lose the shadow detail you want, while if you want to make optical enlargements extreme care should be taken to ensure that you are to obtain a negative that will be easy to result in the print you want. At the end, for a pure traditional workflow, it is very important having a clear previsualization and knowing how to obtain that. As I'm learning, I find very useful testing the same sheet emulsion with 35mm. I specially used that to learn metering for Velvia.

chassis
3-Dec-2017, 07:17
Pere makes some good points about previsualization and the use of polaroids or digital previews. I like to work on previsualization for quite some time before I expose film. Then it is a process needing time and experimentation to arrive at the goal, if the arrival ever comes! ;) This winter I plan to use digital assist for a still life series I am previsualizing. This is the start of the project and it won't surprise me if it takes years to bear fruit.

If you are committed to large format still life, it would be helpful to invest in studio lighting to give more flexibility in f/stop. Unless of course your intended aesthetic is generated by the size and power output of the SB900.

I found a well outfitted Speedotron black system for a reasonable price. One powerpack with multiple outputs is the foundation of the system. Lots of images can be made with one strobe unit. Grip (stands, modifiers) can be found pretty inexpensively. Not sure what is available in the UK.

IanBarber
3-Dec-2017, 07:20
Putting the flash to one side for a moment. Would it be better to do incident metering rather than spot metering if using say a continuous light behind a soft-box

chassis
3-Dec-2017, 07:42
Ian, in my opinion, yes. A spot meter for studio still life does not have a small enough spot for meaningful measurements on a subject the size of a person or smaller. Incident measurements are a different technique to be learned, and I think this is needed in one’s toolkit. Incident metering with the dome facing normal (away from) the subject is a way to map and understand the light on the subject. Readings should be taken on the highlight and shadows sides of the subject, to understand the full lighting range. This metering method is very achievable with studio still life images, while in comparison is difficult or impossible to do with many landscape images.

Exposure can be decided upon, knowing the full range of highlight and shadow lighting. The chosen exposure may indeed not be the one recorded using the more conventional reading, found when the dome is placed at the subject position, facing the camera. Lots of recent discussion (debate/arguing) on this. In the end the exposure is the aesthetic choice of the photographer and is neither correct nor incorrect.

IanBarber
3-Dec-2017, 08:25
Incident measurements are a different technique to be learned, and I think this is needed in one’s toolkit. Incident metering with the dome facing normal (away from) the subject is a way to map and understand the light on the subject.

With the dome pointing away from the subject, will the light meter give a reading for light falling where the dome is to a middle grey value on film.

So for example, if I have 1 stop difference from where I have the dome to say a few inches to the left, then that area would be in theory zone 4 (Ish)

chassis
3-Dec-2017, 08:33
Ian, I don't specifically use a Zone thinking method. I measure the light on highlight and shadow sides of the subject, with the dome facing away. This gives me the full range of values. I then decide where I want to place the highlights and shadows. Lately I am using C-41 film, so development is not really a big contributor in this (for me). I use normal C-41 developing times, so my exposure needs to fit the subject into the film latitude, given the C-41 process. If the subject values fall within the film total scale, then good. If not, I have a choice to make in terms of which values to prioritize, which for me is normally to avoid blown highlights.

Black and white for me uses the same approach, but you have more ability to change film speed and development time to control things.

Sekonic's website has good videos that have helped me with metering. SergeiR gave a good suggestion to consider Dean Collins' approach to understanding lighting. He has a good video on YouTube talking about the range of values and capturing them on film.

chassis
3-Dec-2017, 08:44
Dean Collins video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=146xPIAQh2k
Sekonic video, good one to start with: https://www.sekonic.com/united-states/whatisyourspecialty/photographer/articles/studio-lighting-understanding-ratios.aspx

chassis
3-Dec-2017, 08:50
Forgot to mention, for me an important part of low key images is a dark (black) background. The subject (and lighting) need to be sufficiently far from the background for this to be effective. Light spillage onto the background is easy to see in the image. "Sufficiently far" for tabletop still life starts at around 6 feet/2 meters in my experience.

Here is a good discussion from Sekonic, with image examples, of reflected vs incident readings. They show high key and low key examples.

https://www.sekonic.com/united-states/classroom/whatisahistogram/4waystheycompare.aspx

eabartel
4-Dec-2017, 11:47
thanks for sharing. beautiful work!


one the best I remember seeing around here was christropher broadbent, hard to find now, but very much like the dutch masters, i.e. as good as it gets, imho

http://www.cardcard.it/en/portfolio/christopher-broadbent-2015/
http://wird.com.ua/archives/208153
http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?107829-Christopher-Broadbent-quot-What-s-Left-quot-Gallery-Show-in-Milano-21-Nov-to-16-January
http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?133220-Still-Life-Lighting

Leszek Vogt
4-Dec-2017, 22:56
one the best I remember seeing around here was christropher broadbent, hard to find now, but very much like the dutch masters, i.e. as good as it gets, imho

http://www.cardcard.it/en/portfolio/christopher-broadbent-2015/
http://wird.com.ua/archives/208153
http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?107829-Christopher-Broadbent-quot-What-s-Left-quot-Gallery-Show-in-Milano-21-Nov-to-16-January
http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?133220-Still-Life-Lighting

Thanks for the reminder of Chris's work. Always enjoyed his images.

Les

bieber
13-May-2018, 11:27
With the dome pointing away from the subject, will the light meter give a reading for light falling where the dome is to a middle grey value on film.

So for example, if I have 1 stop difference from where I have the dome to say a few inches to the left, then that area would be in theory zone 4 (Ish)

Sorry I'm coming to this a little late, but the idea behind an incident meter is that it's not measuring reflectance at all, it's measuring the amount of light falling on a subject. How much light that subject will reflect is completely determined by the subject itself. If an incident meter tells you a subject is lit to f/8, then exposing at f/8 should give you a "correct" exposure regardless of the subject itself. If it's a black subject it should come out black at f/8, if it's a white subject it should come out white at f/8. There's no consideration for an expected reflectance of the subject the way there has to be with reflected metering