Week 16: The Road Less Travelled - Indirect Light 2

Task 1

1. Bottle of wine on white - light the bottle to the best of your ability with indirect light. Reflectors can be used. The bottle should be clearly defined against an evenly lit white background.
2. Wine glass on black - light the wine glass to the best of your ability with indirect light. The glass should be clearly defined against an evenly lit black background.

Camera settings - 1/125, ISO 200

Bottle of Wine

• Shot 1: Lit by soft box to the left of frame, f/5.6. Image is over exposed and object is out of focus
• Shot 2: Light is bounced off white poly-board from left side of frame. f/5.6. Clearer object and better lit. Background is not completely white has a few dark corners and lighter in the middle.
• Shot 3: Boosted aperture to f/16 but was found to be underexposed. Black card was held opposite the light to create a black edge around the object.
• Shot 4: Still slightly underexposed. We are trying to achieve a completely well lit, white background to create this commercial look. f/11. Also Figuring out how to be rid of the large white highlight down the left of the bottle. 
• Shot 5: Changed aperture on camera to f/6.3 to make it brighter. Worked but only slightly. We moved the poly-board further away from shooting area preventing highlight on the bottle but we found it very difficult to remove it. We discovered in the photos provided for us on the work sheet that it is ok for a slight highlight on glass objects to be seen.
• Shot 6: f/6.3 again, placed black card either side of object to evenly darken edges of object.
• Shot 7: We added another light to the right side of frame and positioned it towards the white background because we weren't achieving the clean, commercial look. f/7.1
• Shot 8: We needed to turn the background light down and the black cards were moved further around the object.
• Shot 9: Instead we turned the background light off and used a bowens light which was placed underneath the set. It was certainly very bright and we could not find a way to turn its brightness down. It was overexposing the bottom of the image. f/5.6
• Shot 10: f/7.1. As we were unable to turn the brightness down on the studio light, we found other ways, such as diffusing the light using a sheet from a soft box. We also brought the black card back in on either side of the object.
• Shot 11: Still f/7.1. We positioned the light further back behind the set up so that the light wasn't directly underneath. The black card was then held in closer towards the object.
• Shot 12: Still f/7.1. We placed a spill kill onto the left light because we were told that we needed to block the light from spilling and needed to be more direct onto the poly-board. A reflector was used to the right to fill in the shadows which worked effectively.
• Shot 13: Still f/7.1. We used two more black cards to block off the light slightly as it was slightly overexposed but we needed the brightness to create the pure white background.
• Shot 14: Still f/7.1. A soft box was placed over the right light to darken the image overall.

Wine Glass

• Shot 1: f/7.1, for the first shot we placed a poly-board to the left of the frame with a light bouncing off it. A reflector was placed the other side.
• Shot 2: Same set up but at f/5.6. There was too much light and a glare on the glass.
• Shot 3: f/5.6, honeycomb added to light and the poly-board was moved diagonally behind the glass in shot. Light pointed at poly-board.
• Shot 4: f/5.6, second light added opposite side (right side of frame)
• Shot 5: f/5.6, white reflector held over the top of glass/ setup.
• Shot 6: f/5.6, black card held either side to block off some of the light reflecting onto the back drop because we need this to be black completely.
• Shot 7: f/8, Black perspex added underneath glass and into frame to create a mirrored effect. Spill kills added to lighting to even the lighting out.
• Shot 8: f/8, poly-boards moving diagonally in front of glass, facing the object. This gave more definition and sculpted the wine glass. We also blocked off part of the light to avoid unwanted reflection and create rim lighting.
• Shot 9: f/8, we moved the poly-boards again but directly to the side of the glass this time to create more definition which ended up in a result of losing a lot of definition and sculpture.
• Shot 10: f/8, black cards used to block off light from both lights used in set up. Tried to light just the edge of the glass. We also increased the power of the lights.