lighting question

System · April 2, 2006

trying to take a decent photo of our kitchen-

first one is with strobe-

this one is 2 exposures combined--available light-

what lighting setup would work best for this? what lights would you use and where would you place them?-

obviously, the highlights are blown on the fridge-

thanks in advance-

george

DavidTO · April 2, 2006

The available light is much better, IMO.

I would cut in half the number of things you have on the counter.

Nice shot, nice kitchen!

System · April 2, 2006

David-

thanks much for the response-

re the counter stuff-
that's uncluttered for us but I can see it's too much for what I was trying to do-
thanks again-

george

System · April 2, 2006

let me rephrase my question (for anyone):

if one were to take a professional (well, semiprofessional) photo of this kitchen, how would you do it, i.e., what lights and where-

Shay Stephens · April 2, 2006

Flat lighting (fill) to the rescue!!!
Keep the ambient look.

You use lights to solve problems. You mention that you don't like the blown highlights on the fridge area, so you need to use your suplemental lights to bring up the shadow density. In a case like this, direct flat lighting will be best. Use the biggest softbox you have, or umbrella, or bounce off a big white sheet behind the camera. Adjust the power of the lights to get a good balance between the highlghts and the shadows until the blown highlight becomes just a nice highlight.

I would probably meter the problem fridge-area and set the camera exposure to render it about +2-3 stops (to taste). Then meter (or take photo and review) and see where the rest of the room is exposure wise. Add the flash power until you get a good exposure for the non-highlight areas.

gefillmore wrote:

trying to take a decent photo of our kitchen-

this one is 2 exposures combined--available light-

what lighting setup would work best for this? what lights would you use and where would you place them?-

obviously, the highlights are blown on the fridge-

System · April 2, 2006

shay-

thanks much-

will try this out tuesday and post (if I didn't screw it up)-

appreciate the help-

george

ziggy53 · April 2, 2006

George,

My own .02, and possibly worth less than that.

Do you need to photograph both sides of the kitchen at the same time? If not, you might have an easier time of just shooting one side, then the other as a second, disconnected shot. This allows much easier placement of lights and reflectors and modifiers, etc.

You can also replace incandescent lights with daylight balanced compact flourescent bulbs, and you can replace regular flourescent bulbs likewise with daylight versions, to help control white balance. You can use simple scrims to cut down the illumination of individual lights as necessary. If necessary, you can do a composite shot of two exposures, one with just the "studio" lights, and one with just the ambient and built-in lights. That way you can adjust each for it's own properties.

Both incident and ambient light meter readings would help balance the scene, otherwise continuous lights, like HMI technology or flourescent floods, help visualize exacly what's going on.

Some pros will take days for a composition like this, and they may have "help" from art directors and creative directors as well.

I was involved in a set that had to resemble an outdoor farm environment, and it literally took about 2 weeks for prep work, including additional temporary electrical lines, and then another couple of days getting the set to look "right", and finally a couple of days to shoot for video and still shots. Maybe a dozen people directly involved.

Best,

ziggy53

System · April 2, 2006

hey zig-

great info-

three different lights in the kitchen: flourescent, incandescent, xenon--no, five, sunlight and candle-

I like the composite studio/ambient idea-

thanks much

george

kepople · April 2, 2006

The ambient is the clear winner. different colors of light show up at a glance if you are looking at the kitchen. When we remodled our kitchen recently, I used halogen everywhere for that reason. Looks like some time in PS might even some of them out.

Looks good though.

Kirby

System · April 2, 2006

thanks kirby-

very difficult dealing wth all the colors-

george

lighting question

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