People look at the above photo and almost immediately ask “what’s up with those funky clouds?” I tell them that this isn’t a straight picture, it’s a reflection out of a mud puddle. “Ooohhhhhh, now I see.” The inversion of this image so that the mountain is pointing up totally throws people off. It’s kind of funny to me, but it also makes me wonder how good of an idea it was to flip it 180° to satisfy my feelings on what looks better.

Compare the shot above to the original below:

Which works better for you? Or should I not have gone through all this, and instead used a different image I captured, from a little further out, that really puts the scene in context?

Me being me, I naturally continue to like the first the best. I think if it makes people talk, then it can’t be all bad, right?

I had an occasion where I needed to light an object from underneath (the glass of beer in the pic above). I wrestled with it for some time, and then came up with what turned out to be a pretty easy solution.

Using a flat fluorescent light fixture I picked up at Home Depot, and a piece of black craft foam, and my large DIY light tent with glass riser, I was able to get the photo above. I cut a hole in the black craft foam that was roughly the same size as the base of the glass. I then put my black backdrop into the light tent, set the fluorescent light on my workbench inside the light tent, and then placed the craft foam on top of that so no light escaped except through the hole I had created. From there I inserted my glass sheet to have a riser (which was conveniently about an inch higher than the surface of the fluorescent light), filled the drinking glass with beer, and turned on the light. This photo did not require any additional lighting other than the fluorescent underneath the product. And by using the pane of glass as a riser, a nice reflection appeared as well.

That’s all there is to it, hope it works for you if you need some illumination from underneath on an object.

Practical HDRI: High Dynamic Range Imaging for Photographers by Jack Howard is the latest book I have read on the subject. I haven’t touched my Photomatix software (indeed, even my camera) for some time. Reading through this book helped inspire me to get back out shooting photos, and also to see if Olympus was doing anything to help with the capture of HDR images. As it turns out, the recently released Olympus E-620 has far better support for proper image bracketing to get the exposures you need.

The book itself is fairly short - just 168 pages. But these pages are full of good information and practical examples using more than just one software package. What I like most about it is the frankness of the author when it comes to producing realistic HDR images, as opposed to some of the cartoonish extremes that have come to symbolize the genre. I much prefer a realistic image that has great depth in all ranges between the darkest and lightest sections of the image. In addition to the software examples (Photoshop CS3, Photomatix and FDRTools), the author tells you what to watch for when capturing the images, well before they see the computer.

All in all this was a very worthwhile book, with more than enough interesting bits for the novice and experienced alike. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is looking for more information on HDRI.

If you have read this blog for a while, you know that it is challenging for me to get a good picture of my youngest daughter. She is much happier making a silly face for you instead of a simple smile, as most any 3 year old would. This past weekend it all came together though. It was a nice day outside at our home in Lakewood (albeit a bit chilly), she was all dressed up because we were having company over for the big game, and she was in a good mood for pictures. She posed for me for a few minutes before we got too cold. This is one of the portraits that came from it. I love it when things come together like this.

Once I completed my very large PVC Light Tent, I was pretty certain I would need a portable one. The large one could be portable, but would likely be a pain to cart around. And I was right - just last week someone asked me to come to their location and do some product photos. That shoot should be sometime this week, so I took some time this past weekend and made a portable light tent out of PVC pipe.

I could have gone with the same plans I used for the larger one, but instead opted to try Bill Huber’s design. It is much simpler than the large one, with fewer pieces, increasing the portability. I didn’t really vary mine much from his, except that I used regular 90° elbows, and I didn’t glue any joints together. Not gluing allows me to break the pieces down for maximum portability.

When I went to the craft store to locate suitable heavy paper, I came across a higher quality posterboard that is double sided. Each piece measures 22″ in width, which is perfect for the width of this box. By using this posterboard, I have 8 different colors of backdrop - 2 shades of blue, purple, red, green, yellow, gold and silver. Following Bill’s trick of using a sheet metal or wood screw on the crossbar (drill pilot holes first before putting the screws in) and punching holes in the top of the posterboard, you get a VERY convenient method to hang the backdrops with. This also gives you added versatility. You can put the backdrop inside the frame and cover the tent with a sheet, or you can hang the backdrop so it is outside the frame. You might ask when you would need to do this, and an immediate example I can think of is a spherical object that reflects everything.

As the photos on Bill’s site attest, you can get some great results from this. I haven’t fully tested it yet, but will be experimenting a lot with light positioning, etc. when I do my product shoot in Highlands Ranch later this week. This is a very inexpensive piece of equipment though, and I anticipate using it quite a bit. I’ll be sure to post pics after the shoot.

Also, I’d love to see some other designs for light tents, as well as any other DIY projects you might think of. And you can click on any of the thumbnails in this article to see a larger version.

This black and white candid portrait of my daughter is one of those rare, elusive moments that make you feel lucky you had the camera out. Whenever you ask a young child to actually pose for a picture, there is a 50/50 chance you are going to get some sort of oddball response. But you have to keep at it, as you never know when lightning will strike. When taking photos of other families and kids, you have to put them into situations that allow them to be themselves. If you take yourself out of the equation, you are much more likely to get “the shot”. I certainly think I was able to here.

Dan Achatz, a regular in the Flickr PFRE group, put together one of the best HDR tutorials I have seen yet. He goes through his process of compiling the images into a realistic representation of what he saw in person. It is well worth taking some time and watching the video.

After watching it, I followed his steps when making the HDR image shown above. It’s the used tire warehouse at Metal Movers, a Denver, Colorado based auto recycler. I am doing some website consulting for them and needed some photos of the different products and services they offer. A tire warehouse of this size is a lighting challenge due to all the dark colors and shadows, so I thought it would be best to do an HDR to represent it. This particular image is a combintation of 5 exposures, taken at the intervals that Photomatix recommends. I think it came out pretty well, the notable exception being the fluorescent overhead lights. I need to practice with HDR more, but I am really pleased with the results I am starting to get.

Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays to all. I have been seeing great pictures of holiday lights this season, and finally decided to try and take one of my own. The photo above is an HDR Exposure Blend (using Photomatix) of 7 exposures I took one morning. I also took some photos just using the ambient light and not doing the HDR thing. After reviewing these shots on the computer, I decided the white lights just aren’t very interesting. Normally we decorate the two large fir trees in front of our house with colored strings, but we opted not to this year. Rest assured, we will next year. That will give it some “life” I think. So instead, I will go out in search of other homes in our neighborhood to take pics of. I had better hurry, only a week to go before most people take their lights down.

Oh, and I should point out that the inspiration for this, besides the photos I linked to above, was a Strobist article about holiday light pictures. As is the norm with Strobist help, this article was wonderful for a rookie like me.

My daughter goes to an in-home preschool/ daycare with a few other kids here in Lakewood. My wife thought it would be cool for me to go over there and take some “class pictures” of them. So I took my new Homemade Softbox and went over. I think the pictures came out pretty well. But let me say this about groups of young kids (ages 3-4) - you have to have patience. When one would start to do something silly, the rest would start doing similar things and bedlam would ensue. It was all good fun though. They were excited to be in front of the camera and look nice for their parents. And thanks to Whit House Custom Color, I’ll have prints by the end of the week, in time for the holidays.

I did learn one thing though - I definitely need to get some sort of mobile backdrop system for portraits. Relying on surfaces on location just isn’t giving me the kind of background I want. Oh Santa…

This weekend I decided it was time to build the homemade softbox featured in my article of Do It Yourself Ligh Modifiers. With shopping list in hand, Natalie and I went to Michael’s to get everything we needed (and a craft for her to do at the same time).

Once we were at Michael’s, I had to make some substitutions. They want $35 for a piece of mat board, so I opted instead for a 3 pack of white poster board pieces. Also, the staff there had never heard of mylar drafting film. Wasn’t totally sure what to do, but as I was walking down the drafting/ needlepoint supply aisle, I spotted something called “plastic canvas”. I grabbed a couple sheets of varying sizes and hole densities and figured that would work.

Than I got into the construction phase. Cutting the foam was pretty straightforward (the authors tip about using a thin sheet of plywood for a cutting board was perfect). Then I started cutting the posterboard. In the authors revised directions, he indicates you should leave extra around the edges (on the trapezoidal pieces). I did this, but I am not sure what function that serves. As I was finalizing construction, These oversized pieces were difficult to work with and I still don’t see the point. Somehow I managed to get it all together though.

Since I wasn’t using the drafting mylar (I’ll check Hobby Lobby next time), I needed a different way of adhering the diffuser. I used 12 velcro squares and cut them all in half. I then mounted the hook pieces to the 1″ strips of foam on all the sides of the box. I glued two pieces of the plastic canvas together (hot glue is awesome) and trimmed it to fit the opening in the softbox. Next I mounted the loop parts of the velcro on the plastic canvas to match the locations on the softbox frame. Pressed it all in and voila - softbox done.

The photo above is one of the sample pictures I took. The photo at left is another. Since I was using the flash off camera with my Cactus remote trigger, I had to fiddle with the flash settings a few times. The photo at left is still overexposed, but a quick treatment in Lightroom makes it suitable, as you can see in the photo at right.

In the time since I made my original post, I think the author of the instructions for this softbox has made some revisions. I’d love to see more detail on why the trapezoids should be oversized, since it caused me problems. But overall, I am happy with the output from this box. I am actually going to be playing with it later today when I do “class photos” for my daughter’s small preschool class here in Lakewood. I’ll post up another time about how that shoot goes.