Soft Light and Dynamic Color

Colorful Flowers – Soft Indirect Lighting set.

I learned this technique from a Nancy Brown book, Photographing People for Advertising. Nancy used this lighting to create intense color in a shot of people with colorful attire.

I incorporated this technique for my “food store flowers”, a perfect lighting technique for this subject.

All light coming from behind the subject was blocked by the black formica behind the flowers and the V-flats around the set. The camera shot through the small slit opening in the V-flats. The interior of the V-flats were white fabric to let the light “fall” onto the flowers.

Photo Progression

1. start
2. background light bouncing off of the white seamless
3. added a 6×6 frame with diffusion to spread light – this and previous step to spread light with minimum distance
4. black formica as background for flowers and a rig to hold the flower bouquet
5. almost ready to shoot – add the flowers and close the front of the V-flats for a narrow opening to shoot through