Today, I got an offer on my 2006 Harley RoadKing Custom. If everything works out, she may go to a new home on Tuesday. This prodded me to get up and shoot a personal project that I've been kicking around in my head. It also kicks off one other project that I've been planning for a while. The Project is called "Buy American, by Americans". If the least that I can do is raise awareness that we have to support American Brands, goods and services and in the process, create more American jobs, then I have conributed to the cause.

Buy American by Americans.

My Daughter Morgan Rose is turning 5

Test : Inside a Tool Shed

Test shot inside a tool shed with a table lamp in the background and an overhead bulb outside the frame.

Holiday Lunch

We always host Christmas Eve dinner at our house followed by Christmas Day Lunch over at my sister's. This year, I managed to set up my lights and camera for a Holiday spread photo shoot 2 hours before our scheduled lunch.

The first thing I had to do when I walked in the dinning room was to take an exposure reading.

The image below shows the room with a sliding door to the backyard and the picture taken was for exposing the room, rendering the backyard overblown.

I then decided to cover the backside of the sliding door with black cloth to get rid of the backyard issue.

The next step was to figure out the camera settings to register the lights from the chandelier and the christmas trees in the background which happended to fall on F8 1/20s ISO 320. Step three would be to set up two flashes on sticks set to 1/16 power on both sides of the room to light up the people sitting on the table. There was enough light to cover the middlle table to the end table but the front was underlit.

To fix this problem, I had to set up a front fill light using another flash head next to camera right pointing back to a white blanket behind me acting as a big bounce light. The image below shows the reflection of the blanket on the french sliding doors.

The final image was taken at F10 1/13s ISO 320 with two flash heads on each side of the room at 1/2 power pointing up the the front corners of the room. The third flash acting as a big bounce was set to 1/8 power. I cleaned up the reflection on the french doors in post production.

As a bonus post, you can check out a video of our Holiday Lunch edited by Miguel Meola.

Indian Motorcycle

Following up on my last product shot, I decided to shoot this miniature scale Indian motorcycle that measured about 10 inches long and 4 inches high and even though it wasn't chromed out, it was still highly reflective as far as light sources were concerned. For the key light, a snooted flash at 3 o'clock camera right was used to rake across the rider to show texture as seen on the rider's ribs and chest as well as the front headlights. As fill, a flash with a Lumiquest softbox was used just at immediate left of the camera. At 10 o'clock camera rear left, a flash with a snoot was used for rim lighting and additional texture as seen on the saddlebags and the rider's leg and right arm. Flash settings were at around 1/16th zoomed at 105mm. Camera settings were at about f6 @ 1/50 sec. I used f6 for a moderate focus but it looks like my 24-70 set at 70mm just won't cut it for this type of shoot. I remember focusing on the Indian logo on the gas tank thinking the focus would carry but the saddle bags, the rider's chest and face are out of focus. I'd have to shoot this again at around f11 to see if focus improves but that seems like a pretty tall order to me. Otherwise, it looks like I might have to save up for a 100mm macro.

See pullout shot for lighting setup below.

Product Shot - Guitar

My daughter Ashley has guitar lessons every Saturday from 12:00 -1:00pm at O.DiBella Music.

Today's class was cancelled so I took this opportunity to try and make a product shot of her electric guitar. The following shots were made with the same lighting set up with a few subtle tweaks to change the highlight and reflections. There is a main light to camera left with a medium sized softbox . Right on top of the main light is a flash on a LumiQuest softbox to highlight the upper neck and headstock. Almost 90 degrees right of the guitar (from camera view) is a strip box to provide a bit of rim/highlight. The other strip box is about 11 o'clock behind the guitar. The last flash is set low on a table about 10 o'clock. Camera settings were at ISO 200 F9 @ 1/200 sec. Camera was hand held since my tripod wasn't cooperating.

Girl with Lantern

A few weeks ago, I was collaborating with Miguel Meola with this concept he had in mind.
He imagined a girl holding a lantern, backpacking in the woods and walking into the unknown.
I thought about the last exercise I did with multi layer lighting and thought that this presented an opportunity to improve on that last attempt. It would be the same multi layer lighting but this time, adding a 47" octobox to light up the forest canopy.

First we had to scout a location and decide on a time to start shooting. After finding this wooded part of Bergenfield New Jersey, we started packing the Jeep at 3pm with all the gear we needed.
It took us a good 3 hours to pack, unload, set up, test and tweak before we started shooting frames. The actual shoot itself took about a half hour and wrapped up at 6:30pm.

The flash lighting the girl was snooted with black foil to limit the light spread.

The second flash lighting the foreground tree was snooted as well so it didn't spill into the girl with the lantern.

We had the subject hold a video light in front of her to provide lighting for the path selling the idea that the lantern was providing the illumination.

We also had to drag the shutterspeed to about 1/30th to have the lantern burn in and register.

There was another video light behind and to the right of the foreground tree just to provide a dash of light on the leaves to the right side and a little bit on the ground. This way, the right side of the image wasn't completely black.

The flash lighting the 2nd layer of trees was snooted as well for a little splash of light.

The flash lighting the 3rd layer of trees was bare bulb and at a higher power setting to create a brighter area introducing an area of curiosity.

The 4th layer of trees to the right, was lit by a monoblock with a 47" octobox at a higher ratio to provide lighting for the trees and the forest canopy.

So here we are with an adventurous girl in the woods, holding a lantern lighting the path. A big fallen tree blocking the way, almost telling her not to procede. At the distance, a curious light source appears in two separate areas. What could it be ? It is both bright and cold but beckons curiosity. What would she do ? What would you do ?


Lighting diagram below: