The subject was again raised up on a small block resting on a black velvet cloth on a table top. The mains flash lamp was 45 degrees downwards pointing towards the camera position, with a honeycomb and tracing paper diffuser. The flash power was set at central position in the range.
The Nikon was fixed to the tripod and moved into position at the other end of the table pointing downwards to the subject. The level was checked with a spirit level. The white balance was set to flash. In manual mode, the speed was set to 1/50th and the aperture set at f16.
The test photograph was overexposed. The aperture was reduced in steps to f22 and f29 but the highlights were still blown out. The flash power was turned to minimum, but the subject was still too bright. Richard advised us to place a neutral density filter cloth on top of the diffuser frame and this brought the light and dark areas reasonably into balance.
Note: the metadata shows that the Iso was set at 250. If we had reduced this to 100, we would not have needed the neutral density filter cloth.
We magnified the image in liveview to check the sharpness at the front and back of the subject. We had placed the subject sideways in the frame as we knew that depth of field was going to be limited. Fortunately, the edges of the subject were acceptably sharp in this position.
Image 1: Single light
Lens 18 - 70 mm at 56mm: Iso 250 f29 at 1/50th
Having established an initial exposure, we went on to refine the lighting. We noted several dark areas in the subject in particular the front right hand side of the metal foil.
A silver matter reflector was placed in various positions to light up these areas and took a series of photograph to judge the effects. We fixed the reflector in a clamp in the best position There were still some prominent shadows on top of the foil subject. Richard suggested that we use another lamp to fill in this shadow.
The lamp with a honeycomb was placed by the side of the camera pointing down at the foil on the table. The main lamp was switched off and a photograph taken using the additional lamp only. Note: this is important to see exactly what the additional lighting is doing.
The lamp was too bright at the initial setting, so the power was reduced in steps. The main lamp was switched on again and a photograph taken with both lamps and reflector.
Image 2: Main light, fill lamp and silver matt reflector
We experimented using similar technique with some squashed drinks cans and some keys.
Image 3: Coke can with spritzer
Lens 18 - 70mm at 70mm: Iso 250 at f29 at 1/50th
Image 4: Pepsi can
Lens 18 - 70mm at 70mm: Iso 250 at f29 at 1/50th
The bunch of keys provided plenty of opportunity to use multiple reflectors. However, there were too many elements in the subject to create an effective composition.
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