28 Oct 09: Studio lighting practice #3: Objects

Working on my own this time, I wanted to create really strong shade, so that one side of the fruit was in shadow, and to create texture on the surface of the fruit.  To do this I set up the product table with a black reflective board to the left and the light source level with the fruit and shining directly from the right.  I tried using a black background to create that traditional still life effect and also a coloured and textured background to try and add interest by picking up on the colour and texture of the fruit.

First shot - f/8.0 1/125 sec but I forgot to connect the flash! The low key-effect does make it quite atmospheric

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This was a better attempt once the flash was connected and I tried a different background

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Then I moved the light source closer and turned up the intensity but got a very overexposed result

I stopped down thorugh several apertures to f/29 to get the best result so far:

Then I tried a close up on the black background - I like the way this shows the texture of the fruit but the highlights are very clipped

Changing the angle of the shot helped to reduce the over exposure on the right

Then I tried using a wooden board as the background in a close up to give a more rustic feel

These are the closest to what I was hoping to capture as they do show the texture of the fruit.  The first two still suffer from some overexposure but by taking a real close up and avoiding the part of the fruit that was reflecting the light I think the third one makes an interesting shot.

The end