SHOOTING STILL LIFE WITH INEXPENSIVE GEAR
SUMMER SCHOOL 2019, CLASS ONESUMMER SCHOOL 2019 CLASS ONE
SHOOTING STILL LIFE WITH INEXPENSIVE GEAR
Class by Barbara Sherman, Flagstaff, Arizona
I don’t own much equipment and no studio so my images are often made by a window in the corner of my bedroom using white and black boards, pieces of reflective paper and anything I can put together for a background and sometimes a single speedlite.
I first set up my background board in front of the window so light was coming over the top and around the sides.(It’s an old fence section cut down to a small size and rubbed with chalk).
For this photo, I wanted to have “sparkly” water while lighting the fruit so added a speedlite bouncing off a white wall and back through a diffuser to the left side. A piece of black construction paper was clamped onto the diffuser to flag the light on the left side of the glass so the highlight would be the size I liked. To add some contrast and eliminate reflections on the right side of the glass, I placed a small black card on the right side of the water jug. Notice the jar is sitting on a large beer mug turned upside down so the spigot is at the right height …Staying cheap here!
I shoot alone most of the time and have found a wireless remote set to a 3-second delay works great. Get in position, hit the remote count to 2 ½, start the action, move your hand quickly out of the way…..REPEAT.
Homemade backgrounds, limited equipment, found space and your imagination and you can shoot anything.
Two Light Workshop One, Part Two
The Two Light Workshop rolls on with this cowboy hat look on "Miss Briana." We shot some with a western shirt and some with bare shoulders... both are represented here. One of the things I wanted to do was to create a bright light on her face and a quick dropoff. I...
Two Light Workshop One, Part One
This is a series of two light shots we did using hats as the theme, and a clean, simple studio background as the setting. For this set of shots we only used one umbrella and one beauty dish. There will be instructions on how to do this with your equipment as well. I...
Creating a Shiny Look
The thing about the corset was the glossy, shiny look. I wanted that shine to be smooth and liquid, a wide and smooth highlight that would set off the face of the model and the textures of the rest of the image. I wanted a dramatic light on the face however, so using...