I've decided to give you guys a look at what is sometimes required for even the simplest shots. This is a basic overhead shot of an open sandwich. I could've spent a
ton of time on this just eliminating the shadows, but decided to go the quick route since I have to leave for work in an hour or so. You see the shot, now this is what it looks like when I'm shooting it:
As you can see, it's not quite as simple as "1. Hold the camera, 2. Press the button." Often in these situations, a tripod is essential due to poor lighting. The temperature of indoor tungsten lights is much lower than that of sunlight, so it takes a lot more of it to light the subject. The camera compensates for this by letting in more light. This can be done two ways. The first is by opening the
aperture, the second is by slowing down the
shutter speed. (You can actually increase the
ISO as well, but
digital noise is not pretty to look at. I always shoot at 200 ISO unless I'm forced to change it.) The aperture was all the way open, and when you have very slow shutter speeds, if you are not using a tripod, any movement of the camera will completely blur the entire shot. The white thing in my right hand is actually a flashlight. I was getting a really nasty shadow on the right of the shot, so I wrapped a flashlight in a paper towel and used it to add to the lighting. The paper towel diffuses the light to spread it evenly on the subject, and it eliminates a spotlight effect that you normally get from a flashlight. There are obviously far better ways to light a shot than this, but you gotta use what you got! Photographic lighting is
very expensive.
I've decided to give you guys a look at what is sometimes required for even the simplest shots. This is a basic overhead shot of an open sandwich. I could've spent a ton of time on this just eliminating the shadows, but decided to go the quick route since I have to leave for work in an hour or so. You see the shot, now this is what it looks like when I'm shooting it:
As you can see, it's not quite as simple as "1. Hold the camera, 2. Press the button." Often in these situations, a tripod is essential due to poor lighting. The temperature of indoor tungsten lights is much lower than that of sunlight, so it takes a lot more of it to light the subject. The camera compensates for this by letting in more light. This can be done two ways. The first is by opening the aperture, the second is by slowing down the shutter speed. (You can actually increase the ISO as well, but digital noise is not pretty to look at. I always shoot at 200 ISO unless I'm forced to change it.) The aperture was all the way open, and when you have very slow shutter speeds, if you are not using a tripod, any movement of the camera will completely blur the entire shot. The white thing in my right hand is actually a flashlight. I was getting a really nasty shadow on the right of the shot, so I wrapped a flashlight in a paper towel and used it to add to the lighting. The paper towel diffuses the light to spread it evenly on the subject, and it eliminates a spotlight effect that you normally get from a flashlight. There are obviously far better ways to light a shot than this, but you gotta use what you got! Photographic lighting is very expensive.
1 comment:
True that... I completely understand not having the right lighting. I Feel quite lucky as I just ordered some alienbees equipment. Now I just need some subjects to light.
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