sign in sign up
<<
Home , Reflector (photography)

Photographing Your Projects Show your work at its best by John Blackford & Paul Anthony

Part of the satisfaction of If you’ve felt that your photos The investment? Well, aside from working wood is showing don’t measure up to the quality your , a basic selection of off your projects. And in this of your woodworking or you decent gear can be had for about Internet age of social media, that have even avoided the attempt often means photographing your entirely, take heart. Good machine. You can get started work and posting it on Facebook, photos result from suitable for$450–the less, as price we’ll ofdiscuss, a decent but shop you Google Plus, Flickr, or your own and composition have to invest a few bucks to photo blog. If you’re an aspiring more than costly gear. get good shots. A rudimentary professional, good photos can Armed with your camera, starter setup includes an also serve as exhibit entries or some relatively inexpensive strong portfolio material to help lighting equipment, and the of seamless background paper sell your work. So if you count adequate ($30-$50), a roll a camera among your tools, here, you can produce photos watt second strobe with why not put it to its best use? thattips anddo your techniques projects you’ll proud. find ($25-$45), and a pair of 300-

April/Mayreflectors 2014 woodcraftmagazine.com and stands ($350.) 29 The Necessary Gear

A B C Use a camera tripod for steady Most units are best used This $350 kit by Impact, with its shooting. For flexibility, mount a off-camera. Soften their two 300 watt-second , portable flash unit on a light stand with a reflector (foreground) or stands, and umbrella reflectors, is rather than on the camera body. shoot through a (rear). an economical strobe starter kit.

Camera and tripod lenses. Whatever camera you You can use any camera to shoot use, it should include manual Strobes are more expensive, but your work, ranging from a DSLR settings for speed, offer(flash) much or “hot” more (constant) control. The lights. , and ISO, and should enormous selection of strobe inexpensive compact camera. For lighting includes everything from serious(Digital ,Single Lens Reflex) a DSLR, to an bottom for tripod mounting. like the one shown in Photo A have a threaded fitting on the units (Photo B will produce excellent images Lights, reflectors, portable camera-mountable flash due to its fairly large sensor and and diffusers ) to power packs large selection of good quality Studio shooting is all about that feed multiple flash heads, interchangable lenses. That said, producing and controlling light, so isto combinedself-contained in one “monolights” unit (Photo C many smaller , including don’t stint here if you can afford whose power pack and flash head inexpensive compact models, it. Your basic choices are strobes ). can take very nice shots in spite expensive,Hot lighting–using but the heat bulbs can as of their smaller sensors and bestrong uncomfortable as 500 watts–is and even less dangerous if placed too closely

material. If you use hot lights, mountto reflectors them inor appropriatediffusion Photo D

bulbsfixtures don’t ( provide). Althoughnearly as muchmost compactlight, those fluorescent with at least (CFL)

work for some smaller projects, D E anda 150-watt are cool equivalency enough to use will in Reflector floodlight kits, with CFL bulbs with a minimum their porcelain sockets and wood lumen rating of 2250 are fairly (Photo E handles can withstand the heat bright, and cool enough to use in astandard couple of clamp sturdy light stands fixtures to from 500-watt incandescent bulbs. standard clamp light fixtures. position your). You’ll lights also (Photo need C

30 woodcraftmagazine.com April/May 2014 ). Basic Lighting Setups One light One light and a reflector board Poster board Project

Project

The most basic setup A simple but effective setup consists of a single light consists of a single light aided by (here, a soft box) aimed at Umbrella a reflector on the other side of the project. This has limited Camera the project to fill in the shadows. practical use, though you can Umbrella produce dramatic effects. Camera

Two lights Two lights and a reflector board Poster board

Project Two lights plus a One of the best Project reflector can handle setups uses two many challenging lights. Adjusting arrangements– their position with the reflector and intensity illuminating areas allows great the two main lights lighting flexibility. Camera fail to reach. Camera Umbrella Umbrella Umbrella Umbrella

For best results, place a light on illuminate either the background of the light source and soften each side of the camera, aiming or areas that are too dark. Other shadows in the process. A soft each toward the project at about options include combining a box holds the lamp within dark single light with secondary set one strobe twice as bright illumination bounced off a white material and faced with diffusion as90° the to other.the other (If using light. hotInitially lights, fabric lined with reflective Another reason to use Note that the size of a light is board, a reflector, or a wall. relativefabric. (See to its photos distance above.) from the use a 250-watt bulb in one avoid the harsh, unattractive subject. Just as moving a light shadowlight and to a give500-watt the project bulb in the shadowsreflectors produced or diffusers by ais very to forward boosts illumination, someother.) depth, This will while create avoiding enough small light source such as the it also increases the effective bulb itself. By bouncing the size of the light. Use this to You can move the lights your advantage. For example, aroundflat, uninteresting and adjust brightnesslighting. to alleviate harsh shadows, to emphasize important details throughlight off ofa whitea reflective translucent umbrella umbrella,(See photo, or page using 32), a "soft shooting box," even a small light can cast you effectively increase the size softtry moving shadows the when lights close closer– in. such as joinery in the work–or addPhotos: a John third Blackford, light Paul (or Anthony reflectors) to April/May 2014 woodcraftmagazine.com 31 Photo Essentials

Aperture: depth-of-field and light control The size of the lens opening (the

Smalleraperture) affects both (higher depth- of-field (DOF) and light control.

numbers) produce greater DOF–the range of “acceptable At an aperture of f4, the depth of At f11, the entire image is in focus, focus.” For example, the DOF field is shallow, so part of the image though the scene receives three of a project 36 inches from a (the rear, here) is out of focus, times less light (three f-stops), 50mm lens at f4 is 1.89 inches, which you may or may not want. requiring a boost in the lighting. admitswhile at twice f11 it’s as 5.38 much inches. light. Opening the aperture one f-stop

Light size and falloff Aperture & light falloff Doubling the distance from project Light size affects the type to lamp results in one-fourth as Lamp much light reaching the subject. of shadow. A small light Quadrupling the distance results 1 th produces sharp shadows and in ⁄16 as much light reaching the subject–because light intensity falls an abrupt transition from as the square of the distance. light to dark. (See photo below 8' (4Y) soft shadows and a smoother 4' (2Y) left). A larger light produces 2' (Y) Intensity Intensity Intensity As shown in the diagram at 1 1 (X) ( ⁄4 X) ( ⁄16 X) transition (below right). to the square of its distance. Therefore,right, light doublingfalls off rapidly–equal the distance yields only a quarter Proper f22 f16 f11 f8 f 5.6 f4 f 2.8 of the light (two f-stops).

The project is lit by a single small light source (here, The same project lit by a larger light source results a portable flash unit), resulting in a sharp shadow. in a more pleasing, softer-edged shadow.

32 woodcraftmagazine.com April/May 2014 The emitted by this daylight- The warm orange cast of CFL bulbs often present an odd balanced strobe is similar to incandescent light may flatter wood mix of hues that makes finessing sunlight at noon on a clear day. or may require color adjustments. the white balance challenging.

White balance work well enough. When shooting Accurately capturing in photos RAW format (which captures all Tip Alert the warm, inviting of the Use only one of the 3 light types: woods you use in your projects color adjustments must be made 1) tungsten and halogen; can be a challenge. When duringavailable computer photo data), processing any desired 2) daylight-balanced strobes, or shooting JPEG images, setting afterward. That's because the 3) compact fluorescent (CFL). your camera's white balance for camera's white balance settings Avoid mixing the types, as color whatever light you’re using (such are bypassed in RAW format. correction can get dicey. as flash or incandescent) should (See “Light Right,” issue #57.) Exposure Exposure refers to the amount the correct amount of light. You or the size of the aperture. With of light the camera records. A cansubject–results adjust exposure from by capturing changing hotsensitivity lights, you (ISO) can of also your vary camera, the the intensity of your lights, their will yield similar tones to the distance from the project, the properly exposed photo–which (which is fixed when shooting with strobes.)

Underexposure. The photo Proper Exposure. This image Overexposure. The photo is is underexposed, with the is properly exposed, with the overexposed, with the histogram histogram peaks shifted too far histogram peaks right of center peak shifted well to the right and toward the left edge, indicating but not crossing the right edge. partially cut off by the right edge, information lost in shadow. All visual data has been recorded. indicating clipping and lost data.

April/May 2014 woodcraftmagazine.com 33 Case Study: Shooting a table

A B Use the camera’s Final adjustments shift the histogram to ensure histogram peak to the right, proper exposure, adjusting yielding a clear, well-lit photo lighting and aperture until the peak of the suitable for posting to the Web, submitting as histogram is located center-right. an show entry, or printing for your portfolio.

Successful photography depends 1 Pull your seamless paper down 4 Take a test shot with the camera on following an organized onto your staging to create a may end up varying the edge. Place your project near the set at f8 and ISO 100 to yield planapproach–even as you proceed. though Follow you centervery gradual and well roll-off away at from its rear the insetgenerous in Photo depth A of indicates depth of proper field these general guidelines to paper wall. Then position the exposure.and fine grain. But we The can histogram do better produce a nicely composed, piece and camera in tandem for (The widest, tallest section of best composition. In the case of the histogram represents the the one of this small table. a rectilinear piece like this table, well-exposed photo, such as angle it to indicate its depth, and the image is too dark, open the raise the camera enough to show cameramost prominent aperture visual one stop data.) (from If the table top without featuring it. 2 Position the main light to of light recorded. If the image is illuminate the broadest forward toof8 to light, f5.6) close to double the aperture the amount one surface of the project, and stop, to f11. As you change the shadows cast by the main light. Tip Alert 3locate Adjust a fill the light main to lightcontrol to the illuminate the main surfaces For natural-looking perspective without washing out detail. If when composing a photo, keep necessary, reposition it to create both eyes open, with one naked, Check the focus by zooming in and the other at the viewfinder. on your camera’s LCD screen to on the bead at the bottom of this Zoom and/or move forward and scrutinize details, as well as the shadow definition, such as that backward until key elements near and far edges. If blurry, use match in size in both eyes. smaller f-stops such as f11 or f16. quarterstable's aprons. of the Adjustmain's the intensity. fill light to between half and three- 34 woodcraftmagazine.com April/May 2014 Detail Shots No matter how precise your In a detail shot, you can use photography, there are always selective focus with a shallow important details that are either depth-of-field to direct attention obscured or too small to render where you want it, and to give the properly in an overall shot. photo a distinctive look. In the For example, the dovetail joint case of this drawer, we focused on on the extended drawer in the the joint, and set the camera to a photo at right is an important fairly wide aperture of f4, which feature that's hidden in the main yields soft focus toward the rear table photos on the opposite of the table, drawing attention page. And sometimes details to the joint itself. Creating sharp that are evident in the main focus throughout would simply Whenever you shoot projects, photo simply don't get their due be a matter of throwing more get in the habit of looking for without their own picture to light on the subject, and closing small, unique elements that draw attention to themselves. down the aperture to f11 or f16. deserve their own close-ups. aperture, the peak portion of the sharpness (See photo at far it for focus, composition, histogram will shift left or right. left, opposite proper exposure, and any Adjust exposure to shift the bulk odd shadows or highlights ), and reduce the that may need correction. (To the right, without any clipping 6aperture Take another (to a higher test shot number) and if really scrutinize the picture, againstof the histogram the edges. about When 2/3 using to tweakyou need the greater light balance, depth focus,of field. temporarily slip the memory strobes, shutter speed changes and composition as needed. If card into a computer for won't help; just leave the shutter shadows crawl up the vertical set to the synchronization speed part of the background, do Photo B shows the completed shown in your camera manual one of the following: Raise the photographviewing on a of larger our example. screen.) The 5 lights, move the project closer table is attractively positioned, of the way into the depth of your in focus, accurately exposed, project. Initially Placing focus the about center one-third point light to wash out the shadow. and well lit with nice contrast of your autofocus system on 7to Ifthe the camera, project or itself use astill third fill and no undesireable shadows that spot will generally produce has undesirably dim areas, or distracting elements. n the best overall sharpness. After taking a shot, zoom in on however necessary to bounce lightposition into an those additional spaces. reflector About Our Authors 8 At this point, you should be John Blackford writes about the spot using the LCD panel pretty close to home. Take one photography, technology, and andto confirm back edges focus, of and the adjusttable for how-to-do-it projects. He’s if necessary. Check the front the former editor of several final test shot and double-check computer magazines and Sources exhibits his photography at You can purchase photographic gear at hundreds of retail outlets, as venues in the Northeast. well as online sources. The latter include Adorama, B&H, and Calumet Senior editor Paul Anthony Photographic, all of which offer workshops, online training, used has had over a thousand equipment purchase or rental, and printing services. KEH, another photos published in various online resource, specializes in buying and selling used equipment. magazines and books. He For links to these and other sources, go to also shoots for woodworking woodcraftmagazine.com, and click on Online Extras. portfolios and advertisements.

April/May 2014 woodcraftmagazine.com 35 SUBSCRIBE! 2 YEARS for $29.99!

go to woodcraftmagazine.com and click SUBSCRIBE -or- Complete the form below and mail in an envelope addressed to: WOODCRAFT MAGAZINE PO BOX 7020 PARKERSBURG WV 26102-9916

□ Payment Enclosed □ Bill Me Name Address City State Zip Country E-mail

Best-ever DECORATIVE FINISHES Build Better Send in now to get LUMBER RACK Done Right with a CUT LIST

Projects, Techniques and Products

Build this 2 Years for $29.99! classic SPICE BOX And learn how to… Dovetail a case

Divide a cabinet into compartments or go to woodcraftmagazine.com and click SUBSCRIBE Create a cornice

By providing my e-mail address, I am indicating I’d like to receive information about my subscription and other offers from Woodcraft Magazine via e-mail.

Outside of the U.S and Canada add $30 for postage. Plus… Foreign orders must be prepaid. Payment in U.S. Funds only. 4 more projects Famous furniture