FIRE AND STROBES

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It is often difficult to capture fire with strobes or flashes. To get good images of fire it is best to use natural light, and let the shutter stay open as necessary. There are circumstances however when you may need to use strobes to light people or places, but need natural light to capture the flow of fire.

A local bartender named Shawn Horgan from the Alehouse in Saint John, New Brunswick asked me to do a shoot of the above drink, lit on fire. We lit the scene and subject with strobes, but found that the fire was very weak in appearance. An easy fix was to create two exposures; one for the subject (strobes), and one for the fire (natural light). As soon as we took the first photo with the studio lights we immediately took a second photo in Aperture Priority mode with no flashes. The result of the second photo was a nice flowing stream of fire. Since the pictures were taken so quickly one after the other, the subject didn't move at all.

In Photoshop, I simply cut out the fire and pasted it over the first photo. The results look realistic, and everyone involved was happy with the final product.

Mark's photographic prints for your wall can be purchased at www.markhemmings.com
Mark can be hired as a photographer or filmmaker via www.hemmingshouse.com

SMALL INTERIORS

Dear reader, if this entry or my other blog entries don't answer your specific photography questions, you can call me on the phone anytime for advice by clicking here.

Have you ever needed to photograph a bathroom? It is very tricky due to the size of the space, and lighting issues. Often you will need to rely on the ceiling light, which creates unpleasant shadows. A way to make small spaces more attractive is to take a bedsheet and pin it up (if possible) at the four corners of the ceiling. The bedsheet will sag a bit in the middle, which is fine. The single ceiling light now acts as a giant softbox, filling in harsh shadow spaces.

Here are the problems with this approach: You may not be at liberty to pin a sheet up on the ceiling. Hopefully you can find some other solution for the bed sheet; as long as it fills most of the ceiling, and of course covers the ceiling light, it should be fine. Problem number two is the diminished light strength, due to heavy diffusion (the bed sheet). The solution is to have a longer exposure.

Mark's photographic prints for your wall can be purchased at www.markhemmings.com
Mark can be hired as a photographer or filmmaker via www.hemmingshouse.com

NIKON 35mm LENS & FOOD PHOTOS

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A friend of mine recently bought the relatively new Nikon AF-S 35mm F1.8 lens. I have been using it lately for food photography, specifically menu items that don't need to be blown-up beyond 8x10 inches. The most important aspect of the lens for me is the ability to get in very close to the subject matter. The closest focus distance is 30 cm, which is quite valuable for certain types of food photography. The closer your lens is to the subject, the more options you have for creative depth of field experimentations.

While professional food photographers might not use this lens because it is not full frame (DX, used with normal consumer Nikon DSLR's), it is a great lens for practicing the art of food photography. A good way to start shooting food is to offer menu photography for your local diner or family-run restaurant. They probably won't have money to pay you, but why not work out food credit? When you get confident in your food lighting skills, and are ready to handle larger commercial jobs with dedicated photography budgets, you will already have a decent knowledge of how to present and light the dishes.

Mark's photographic prints for your wall can be purchased at www.markhemmings.com
Mark can be hired as a photographer or filmmaker via www.hemmingshouse.com