Today I opened my new 'cowboy studio' someone on 365 had recommended. Excited to give it a try, I wanted to use an object that was meaningful to me and that would be a good subject for practicing 'low key' lighting. I chose this because of the memories it brings of teaching teachers in Hong Kong many years ago, allowing me to travel internationally and begin to immerse myself in new cultures. So, many practice photos later (Day 3 of manual - it's getting more comfortable), I like the way the light serves to highlight without actually lighting the entire "pipe". I'm still trying to work out high and low key and think this is getting close to low key.
An opium pipe! I never thought I would see one so similar to ours. Love the lighting - bit of a shame about the background / selection ( can definitely be seen large)
@steampowered Can you tell me what you mean about background/selection? Did I make it too dark? I see what you mean about how the lighting effect shows up much better in the larger format.
@taffy Hi Taffy - there is a distinct hard edge halo around the pipe where there is a lighter shade. I'll have a play and see if I can't darken it down for you sometime (dinner beckons first though!)
@steampowered
Thanks for offering. I'm wondering if I used an adjustment to cause it, like increasing saturation or something. Any advice is really appreciated. Enjoy dinner!
@taffy Hi Taffy. Here is the result of my playing. There has been a slight saturation of the colours as a result of darkening the background but it isn't too bad. http://snapchap.weebly.com/for-taffy.html
@steampowered I see...the 'fuzz' is gone from the gold part of the pipe. Is that what you were adjusting? I admit, I hadn't noticed it until I saw the 'after' that you did. How did you fix it? Did I have saturation up too high? Or not enough? Or was it another adjustment? Thank you so much for taking the time to help me improve this! You are always so generous with time and comments!
@deanpatrickphotography I bought two portable OttLites (which are natural light lamps that Junko (@jyokota) had recommended because they don't change the color of what you're photographing ( http://www.ottlite.com/p-343-folding-task-lamp.aspx). In this case, the opium pipe was inside the Cowboy studio, against the black backdrop. The sides are sort of translucent white and I put the lamps on either side (outside the 'studio', angled slightly away from directly shining in. Then, I just sort of played with them until part of the pipe was illuminated from one side, but the lamp on the other side reduced any shadows in the wrong place. It actually took over a couple of hours to get the lighting to work, but it was also the first time I'd ever used this little studio and the lamps and I was trying different combinations of objects, background, and lights.
@taffy Hi Taffy. The haloed / fuzzy area wasn't too far off being the same shade as the background and the background wasn't too far off being black. What I did was to call up the Levels command in Photoshop (Image->Adjustment->Levels or Ctrl + L on the PC, Cmd + L on the Mac) and dragged the black point slider to the right until the background and the haloed / fuzzy areas became black - only a really minor tweak.
@steampowered I can see the difference, however small. Thanks for explaining how you did it. I use Aperture -- Photoshop still scares me but I'm getting closer -- but have used the levels function in that one. I'm assuming it's the same function in both programs.
Taffy - the composition and lighting are so alluring! I've enjoyed reading @steampowered 's replies and tweeking of your photo. It's a lot of effort to pull together new shots, but your effort definitely paid off!
Oh, my. I need lessons. And your "cowboy studio." I agree with Michael -- you are being very strategic in learning through your photography! And when I get back, I'll be visiting your studio, sans opium pipe (alas, I don't have one to match yours and Paul's) but with something else to put in your studio.
@vankrey@jyokota
As always, thanks for your kind thoughts/comments. Coming from such good photographers, it means a lot. Other than the top of the studio collapsing (I need to figure out how to get it to stay up), it is a fun thing to have and will be more fun to use together.
Thanks for offering. I'm wondering if I used an adjustment to cause it, like increasing saturation or something. Any advice is really appreciated. Enjoy dinner!
http://snapchap.weebly.com/for-taffy.html
@steampowered
As always, thanks for your kind thoughts/comments. Coming from such good photographers, it means a lot. Other than the top of the studio collapsing (I need to figure out how to get it to stay up), it is a fun thing to have and will be more fun to use together.