A large sheet of white backing was set up in the studio, and we set up two pairs of studio flash lamps with standard reflector bowls and placed these on stands either side pointing to the opposite sides of the backdrop. The symmetry was checked by standing in front of the backdrop looking forwards. The screen was also inspected to make sure that the illumination was even. The camera flash link was attached to the power unit of one of the lamps. All the lamps were switched to "cell - on" to synchronize the flash units to fire simultaneously.
Checking the position of the lamps
The lamp power was set in the centre of the range. The white backdrop creates an even backlight for the subject as well as acting as the background.
A table was placed in front of the backing and a few of the lilies were arranged on stands on the table.
The Linhof camera and tripod was set in front of the table pointing horizontally towards the screen positioned so that the lilies filled the frame. The camera was levelled and all movements set to zero as before. The white balance was set using the backdrop. The lens was focussed on some stamens in the middle of the flowers. The aperture was set to f22 and the flash power was adjusted until the exposure was appropriate for the back lit petals. We placed black screens on stands on either side of the lens and a black velvet cloth above the lens to minimize flare.
We checked the sharpness of the edges of the subject using liveview on the tethered laptop. The aperture was reduced until the sharpness was acceptable.
Richard suggested that a fill light from over the camera was necessary to illuminate the interiors of the flowers and some of the leaves. We moved a flash lamp and reflector a few feet over the camera facing towards the flowers. The backdrop lights were turned off and we photographed the flowers with just the fill light. Initially the light was too bright even on minimum power. The illumination was reduced and the light softened by clipping a neutral density filter cloth in front of the lamp.
The backdrop lights were turned on again and a photo taken to check the combined effect. Richard felt that some of the leaves under the flowers were a little dull. We therefore tried setting up a flash lamp pointing from up from one side towards the leaves. The same process was used of switching off the other lighting to adjust and control the effect of this second fill light.
Finally, there was a discussion whether to add another leaf under the flowers in order to break up an area of white background. Various positions were tried.
We reviewed a selection of the final images to choose which one was best.
Overview of contre-jour studio set up
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