Behind the scenes of the Oil Lamp shot

[Canis Vulpes]

Today I set myself a little challenge, photographing a bright shiny oil lamp with spherical surfaces that would catch almost anything in the room as a reflection. I realised that I needed to construct a light tent to control these reflections. Using two polystyrene pieces (rescued from the office skip) I placed a large lastolight diffuser and light the oil lamp from above using 1/4 power from an SB-800

http://www.foxaviationphotography.co...f/lighting.jpg

The oil lamp image looked dull and lacked sparkle so I pondered how to record its shine without altering the lighting. I figured that skim flash may be the answer to I set another flash unit on identical power (1/4) aimed to just skim the oillamp and any remaining light would bounce off the polystyrene and have an overall positive effect. Skim flash did the trick, see below.

http://www.foxaviationphotography.co.../skimflash.jpg

Final image below and in still life gallery.

http://www.foxaviationphotography.co...lampresize.jpg

[inacar]

Excellent behind the scenes followup. Thank you for sharing your secrets.

[Don Hoey]

Very good Stephen. Those polystyrene blocks certainly do the trick.

Next mission has got to be the Spitfire.

Don

[Leif]

Originally Posted by Don Hoey

Very good Stephen. Those polystyrene blocks certainly do the trick.

Next mission has got to be the Spitfire.

Don

Should that not be:

"The next mission - should you choose to accept it - is the Spitfire."

Seriously though, the polystyrene idea is neat.

[Canis Vulpes]

Originally Posted by Leif

Should that not be:

"The next mission - should you choose to accept it - is the Spitfire."

Seriously though, the polystyrene idea is neat.

I cannot take any credit for the polystryene blocks, Don has one or more and they feature in 75% of all Don's shots.

[Don Hoey]

Originally Posted by Leif

Should that not be:

"The next mission - should you choose to accept it - is the Spitfire."

Perhaps you are right Leif. The large flat areas of the wings will be very tricky. Serious thought required.

Don