Studio Lighting Tests with Objects

In Todays practical (25th November 2015) i photographed using a Canon 5D Mark II, which is a full frame digital camera. Canon 5D Mark II is not the camera i am used to, but using this camera opened my eye up to full frame and testing with a different camera. Using the theme evidence i decided to photograph two belongings of my mum's. The first object i chosen was the vintage style picture frame which holds a photograph of my mums grandparents and the second object is an earring of my mums. I chose these objects as they hold significant sentimental value to my mum, and i thought this would be a good opening to this module.

I began photographing on a product style table with the purple backdrop, I used model lights on either side of the product table and shone them in the direction of the objects. I did this to make the object stand out, and to highlight both sides of the object, to ensure the lighting was equal within the photograph. During this i experimented with the strength of the lighting as having the lights on a high power setting such as 3-6 it made the photograph come out over exposed, whereas having the lighting on a lower setting between 1-2 it made the photograph less exposed and achieved the photograph i planned prior to the shoot. After experimenting with the light setting i wanted to soften the photograph so i experimented with a soft box then a light

diffusier, but after cosideration i prefer the photographs i was achieving without these on the lights.

During photographing i experimented with a few lens, which were prime lens such as Canon 35mm f2 and 50mm f1.8 and 85mm f1.2, then macro lens such as sigma 105mm f2. then zoom lens such as Canon 24-104mm, Canon 70-200mm f4. To achieve the two final photographs that i was happy with which are featured above and below of this post i had to then experiment with the camera settings such as aperture, shutter speed and ISO. This experimenting can be seen in the contact sheet of which shows the settings i experimented with and the photograph achieved. To get the photograph how i desired which from the contact sheet i chose two photographs which show the mixture of controlled environments i tests on the two different product tables.

To achieve the first photograph which was taken on the purple backdrop on the product table i used the Canon 50mm f1.8 lens and used the settings of ISO 320 with an aperture of f4.5 and the shutter speed at 1/60. To evaluate i believe this achieved my desired photograph, as using an aperture of f4.5 this allowed light into the photograph for a substantial amount of time due to the shutter speed being a slower option of 1/60. Whereas using a faster shutter speed which i experimented with such as 1/125 this achieved a darker photograph as the light wasnt exposed for enough time. Also the ISO being at 320 was the correct setting for this set up, as i used product lighting which was substantially bright at setting 1 and triggered when the photograph was taken, if i had the ISO at a higher setting such as 800 it would have over exposed the picture as the camera would have been exposed to too much light and would have created noise on the photograph. Whereas keeping the ISO low at 320 it created a higher quality, smoother and less noisy photograph.

To achieve the second photograph which was taken on the white product

table i used the Canon 85mm 1.2 lens and used the settings of ISO 100 with an aperture of f11 and the shutter speed of again 1/60. To evaluate i believe within the different surrounding such as a different product table and a model light beneath the table aswell as the two model lights either side the object was lit up brighten in this set up. To adjust to this set up i wanted to expose the photograph to less light as if i was the use the same aperture as in the first photograph it would have over exposed the photograph. Therefore i used an aperture of f 11 which let

less light into the photograph and by using a shutter speed of the same as the previous photograph 1/60 it exposed it to the light for the same amout of time but let less light into the shot. To evaluate also, i used an ISO of 100 in this second photograph as it meant the photograph would be of the highest quality and would have no noise in the photograph. Also using an ISO of 100 was vital for this shot as with 3 lights being used within this set up an ISO of 100 meant it created a low sensitivity to light which was needed to ensure the shot did not come out over exposed. To conclude, i also attemped to difuse the light using the square light diffuser featured to the left but after taking photographs with and without this in the set up, i achieved the better photograph without using this.