photographing furniture and other woodworking projects

[joe smigiel]

John,

I came to the thread late, but have seen many very helpful suggestions. The key to lighting contrast is contained in the post by "MP" from which I now quote:

"I'd like to elaborate a bit further on this point, as it's important. The size of the light source in relation to the subject is what determines how hard or soft the light will appear. The larger the light source, the softer the light. When photographing woodwork, it's generally best to flood the item with soft, diffuse light, especially if the item has any pronounced sheen to it."

You mention above that you like some idea of outdoor shooting (which I missed so I'm not exactly sure of the context but) I think you will find that an overcast sky or photographing in the "open shade" of a building so that only skylight and not direct sunlight illuminates your piece will lend a very nice diffused lighting effect. The overcast sky or open skylight is a huge lighting source and, as MP has stated, will result in a very soft light. That's all photographers are trying to do when they employ large reflectors, bounce light from ceiling or walls, use umbrellas, etc. They are tryin to make the light source bigger (and thus "softer" or less contrasty). The sky is the biggest soft box and it is free. A sunny day is usually a poorer choice for photographing especially when the sun is high overhead during midday.

The problem with shooting on overcast days or using skylight as the source is that the light is very blue (has a "high color temperature" in photographic terms). A digital camera with a white balance control or warming filter (one of the filters in the designation 85 series) for the lens will take care of the excessive blue cast. You might want to add some light from a smaller daylight-balanced source such as electronic flash or blue photoflood to add some local contrast to parts of your piece if shot under overall diffused skylight or overcast conditions. A smaller light raking over the surface at a low angle will add a sense of relief and texture when balanced with the overall diffused source.

Joe

[John Grossbohlin]

David,

Thanks for the points to ponder. I appreciate your effort as I'm finding that the deeper I get into the woodworking the more design, meaning, interpretation, and aesthetics have become important to me. The mechanical aspects of woodworking have been gained through a ton of reading, watching, and doing and my level of understanding of the mechanical things has come along pretty well. Now I'd like to delve deeper into the art side of things and capturing that on film is far more difficult than I ever imagined!

I had a very interesting conversation with Michael Puryear (see the cover story on him in Woodwork last fall) at Woodworker's Showcase last month. From his reaction to the discussion I think it was interesting for him too as it didn't deal with the mechanical things that were at the center of everything else he was asked during and after his seminars. Rather our conversation dealt with how his back ground and interests in anthropology, Chi, hiking, bicycling, canoeing, learning, teaching and his overall evolution, came across loud and clear to me in his presentation. He isn't the same person he was 10-20-30-40 years ago... I mentioned to him the sense of frustration that I detected from Norm Abram last summer at the luncheon as Norm explained his evolution and how people continue to slam him based on years old reruns of NYW. Puryear commented (with a grin) that Norm still wears his tool belt but conceded the tool belt was now more of a trademark, a thread that ties him to his past, than anything else.

I'm not the same person either... just ask my father. He'll tell you that my working at Colonial Williamsburg ruined me! This because I used to slam things out with a relatively high level of workmanship and move on to the next project, now I worry about proportions, style, form, meaning, etc.! When he finds out I'm moving even further into the soft side of the art he will be sure of my complete ruin. Thanks for helping my progression to complete ruin via a better understanding of photography techniques. ;-)

John

[John Grossbohlin]

Thanks for the additional comments. From the feed back I don't think I articulated the weather pattern well by saying "overcast." Cloudy, windy and drizzly are terms that more accurately describe the weather. Any kind of light-duty light-reflectors would likely be blown over or away... and things would probably get wet if I didn't move quick! It's the kind of weather that goes right to your bones... Perhaps in a few more weeks, as spring develops and moves towards summer, outdoor efforts would work out.

Regarding shooting indoors using natural light I might be able to pull something like that off in the "playroom" if I moved all of the toys, bicycles, etc. out of the way. Just the thought of making room in that room makes me tired! ;-) I'm starting to feel that I'm on a mission though and will explore how to pull it off efficiently in that space...

John

[DLGlos]

And thanks for the appreciation. I really enjoy passing on what I have learned and it nice to hear that someone else might find my information helpful. Photography, like woodworking and many, many other activities, is technique driven. Yes, certain toys, like a camera, film if its analog, a computer and Photoshop, GIMP, etc. if its digital, and a tripod, are a given, the rest can be slowly added, and need not prevent you from making great images.

Best of luck with your endevors to make images of your beautiful furniture. Having patience to make such objects, especially by hand, puts you about 2/3 of the way down the path to photographic enlightenment. The marketing folks do a pretty good job convincing the inexperienced that they can be making great images within five minutes of picking up the newest, bestest "Wiz Bang SnapShot 2000." Of course they might make a couple of decent shots, more by accident than design. Its like turning a inexperienced newbie loose in a nicely equiped shop and expecting him to make a heirloom quality chest of drawers in the first week. Even if he has good mechanical aptitude, he will likely be overwhelmed by both the toys and the assignment. Reduce the tool kit to the bare minimum, and the task to something reasonable, say turn out a nice spice box, and he just might succeed beautifully.

Feel free to send me an e-mail if you have any specific questions. I don't always check the list on a regular basis.

David Glos dlglos at hotmail dot com

[Jim Polaski]

Charlie is right on using strobes. Consistency is what it's all about. Halogen is second best, but the lights all age and if you use more than one, you can have several lights all of different color, though around

3200 kelvin. Strobe is more or less 5600-6000 kelvin and like daylight.

The LAST thing you really want is to use overcast daylite. The light changes, the color balance is cool and it changes as you shoot sometimes.

While some of the lighting equipment has gotten cheaper, one way to save on a soft box if you can't afford one of the fabric boxes is to make a frame from PVC and cover it with translucent shower curtain. That will yellow over time, but is cheap to replace. You can put halogen or strobe behind it, you can move it etc. One way to support it is to get one of those small metal paint buckets, and put a 1 x2 in it embedded in some cement. It won't move and you can clamp lots of things to it and it's cheap to make several in an afternoon.

But if you're going to do an amount of photos, invest in a strobe of enough power to at least give you ONE powerful light source. With the frame and some reflectors you can do a lot. There is a LOT of used photo equipment with so many studios closing today. The day of the cheap, royalty free photo and the corporations not wanting to pay for anything is or has taken its toll. I'd say much stuff is available for .10 on the dollar.

Stay away from using multiple light sources. The amateur won't handle that well when even the pros have trouble. Remember, there is only ONE SUN in the sky!

While you can use foamcoare, don't dismiss matte silver cards. You can find them in an art supply store here and there. Some photo stores have them too.

Many say get white paper for small stuff to shoot on. A better re-useable choice might be white formica. You can roll it up. Best of all you can "sweep" it out along a table and wall to make a seamless background. That way you can have your product in the front, lit and a darker shadow in back, all the way to black if you do it right. Best of all don't bash it and it can be cleaned to stay white with household cleaners.

Got small stuff? Well the formica is perfect even in colors. Want it to look even better? Clean the formica then wipe it with some "Liquid Gold" and polish it in. The surface will have a sheen and produce some nice, subtle reflections in the foreground that will be stronger the lower the camera angle.

If you're going to use film, I'd use Fuji. It's far more consistent and such than the Kodak products. Provia needs little color correction with strobes if your box has silver inside which also gives better color saturation than white boxes while giving you more light.

I've had a studio in Chicago since 1976 and done food to cars, including furniture and rooms. Theres more of course, but it would take hours and lots of posts.

But ask questions if you have them or email me.

[oldsalt]

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