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A Dual Use

A Dual Use

This was an accidental discovery that adds versatility to your Chimera beauty dish–  and getting more use from the same piece of gear is always a welcome benefit.  The transition of the collapsible beauty dish is shown here on a DynaLite Baja monolight.

The discovery happened during the disassembly of the beauty dish — when I removed 2 poles and then the opposing 2 poles, producing the strip configuration (photo #6).

It ain’t pretty and that’s ok, it produces another shape of light that makes this a versatile tool.

Here’s another solution, using this unit a a beauty dish, I often use the front diffusion on the bottom half only (photo #4)  to feather and reduce the light on the lower area of my subject.  This works great for your portrait subjects. 

I am always looking to create more utility from existing light sources.  This one is a great duality from a single light source.  I hope you find this helpful.  

Please follow Old Tricks For New Dogs for more creative solutions…..

Gear:  DynaLite Baja and Chimera 24″ Beauty Dish.
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Soft Light and Dynamic Color

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

Gear:
DynaLite Lighting, Chimera Panels and Frames for the V-flats and 6×6 diffusion panel, Olympus cameras and the flowers were from Safeway!

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Hero Bike

Hero Bike

Motorcycle Hero Shot – trade show displays
This red Yamaha sport bike has an interesting look when viewed from an elevated high frontal position. It reminded me of a space alien with big eyes.  This motorcycle was mounted on a rolling platform.  The base of the platform was covered with diamond plate steel which has a great texture and is a part of the automotive community.
The first decision was to shoot from the high frontal angle and to include the diamond plate as the background.  The second thought process was about lighting the the background diamond plate.  What if the diamond plate was also red — here we go.

The BackgroundLighting:  The solution was to roll the bike and platform into a corner of the show room in front of clean neutral colored walls. Then two DynaLite flash heads were pointed into the walls, one on each side of the motorcycle.  Both flash heads were equipped with red gels. I carry 4 sets of lighting gels on location – diffusion, neutral density, color conversion and color effects.  This lighting was bounced off the wall to illuminate the diamond plate and the exposure had to be adjusted to match the main light on the front of the motorcycle.

The Main Light:  I travel with a Bogen / Manfrotto 3-piece location boom and used one section of the boom to be able to put my DynaLite flash head directly over the camera, centered to the front of the motorcycle.  The motorcycle is a highly reflective subject which would normally require a very large light source – impractical in my situation.  A flash head alone, a very small source, can illuminate the front of the motorcycle producing a very small highlight that is not intrusive. I left the highlight in the shot, but it could have been retouched out in post.

In this stylized shot, two different reflective surfaces were lit to enhance and balance the subject and background with similar color.

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Location Light Table

Location Light Table

As I look back at a past lighting/rigging solution, this topic covers a translucent subject (petri dishes) requiring light from below as well as from above.  Some used to call this “Hamburger Lighting”.

While shooting an annual report,  a topic on the shot list centered around growing cultures in petri dishes.  Spreading two tables apart in a meeting room and suspending a lighting grid (from the overhead fluorescent fixture) between two tables , I then slid a Lightbank under to create the light needed to come through the transparent petri dishes.

Two top lights were, a weak light bounced from the ceiling and a glancing accent light going across the subject from a low angle.

I wanted a lot of drama so used the “Less is More” idea, got close to a few petri dishes with the perspective of a wide angle lens.  Locations can offer unique opportunities for creative solutions!

 

Olympus OM1  //  21mm  //  Wafer Light Bank // Tmax Film  // For:  for Rutgers’ Waksman Institute Annual Report.