Games People Play

BlueHoseJacket · January 25, 2007

Here's my attempt a numbers...hey it's just a numbers game. I will need to reshoot, but wanted to throw out the Games People Play idea...

Jeroen · January 27, 2007

You might be on the right track here, but I believe it will work a lot better if you choose just one of those games. Simpeler is better in this case (or in most cases IMO)...

Good luck, Jeroen

FotoPhocus · January 27, 2007

Jeroen wrote:

You might be on the right track here, but I believe it will work a lot better if you choose just one of those games. Simpeler is better in this case (or in most cases IMO)...

Good luck, Jeroen

I agree, or stick with a theme -- like maybe lose the pool balls, but add poker chips for a casino theme. Excellent shot though!

thegreenegg · January 27, 2007

I really like the concept.
I don't agree that you should choose just one because than the title wouldn't fit as well.
I think you should reshoot it however. Try a lot of different angles and set up and set your camera so that the yellow lamp you used is not so apparent.
Very good try!
Ashley

douglas · January 28, 2007

I like the idea, I would experiment some more with angles and lighting.

LiquidAir · January 29, 2007

Try building a tent around your scene out of a white sheet or tissue paper. The diffusion from the tent will give you much more even lighting. Srongtly directional light outside the tent will give you much softer shadows inside. Also, turn off the on-camera flash. The on-camera flash is generating a harsh glare in the billiard balls and it is not color balanced with the rest of your light.

From the look of the shot, you have an incandescent bulb to camera left, a flourescent (?) light overhead, and the on-camera flash lighting the scene. All the light sources have different color temperatures: the incandescent bulb looks orange, the overhead looks white (presumably that is what you balanced for) and the flash looks blue. For this shot where you want to feature the color of your subject (as opposed to the color of your light) I would try to match all of your lighting.

To start with, I'd turn off the on-camera flash. Aside from the mismatched color, the flash is generating an unpleasant glare in the billiard balls. I'd also turn off the overhead light and just use the incandescent bulbs so you can safely set your color balance to tungsten.

Beyond that, I think the light would benefit from some diffusion. A simple way to do that is to hang a white sheet of tracing paper between the light and your subject. Better yet, build a small tent over your subject with a white sheet. That will both let you move the light around and provide some fill from reflections inside the tent. If you still have too much contrast, bring in a second incandescent bulb and place it further away on camera right.

BlueHoseJacket · January 30, 2007

Very Good Liquid Air
I am very new to this photography madness and was amazed that you pegged the lighting in the shot...then I went back and looked closer at the shot and saw how you picked that up (all of the lights reflecting off the 5 ball) Maybe one day I will be able to recognize these type things.

Thanks for the tips...I will try to shoot this again in the next day or so. I have never tried to build a tent for lighting...how far away from the subject should the tent be and how far away from the tent should the light be.

I am assuming that the suggested light setup will help with the yellow tones in the shot, but due to the gold felt on the pool table I will still have some yellowish tones ???

Thanks again for your help

LiquidAir · January 30, 2007

BlueHoseJacket wrote:

Thanks for the tips...I will try to shoot this again in the next day or so. I have never tried to build a tent for lighting...how far away from the subject should the tent be and how far away from the tent should the light be.

You want to keep the tent as tight around your subject as you reaonable can without getting it in the frame. The light should be far enough back from the tent that it evenly lights the side of the tent. Even under the best of circumstances it is going to be pretty dark under that tent if you are using household incandescent lighting so your exposure times will be long. You need to support the camera, ideally with tripod. Since you are working on the table a small pocket tripod will work just fine.

Here are a couple links worth looking at:
The simple tent approach:
http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/08/tupperware-and-trash-bags-pt-3-of-3.html
Getting slightly fancier:
http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/07/how-to-diy-10-macro-photo-studio.html

BlueHoseJacket wrote:

I am assuming that the suggested light setup will help with the yellow tones in the shot, but due to the gold felt on the pool table I will still have some yellowish tones ???

The gold table will still look gold. If you look at your shot the table looks much more gold where it is lit with incandescent light than where it is shadowed by the billiard balls. If you change your setup so all your light has the same color temperature then your shadows should have the same color as your highlights.

BlueHoseJacket · January 31, 2007

My second attempt at Games People Play #83
Ok,
I shot this concept again using a "homemade tent" out of a cardboard box and tissue paper. I think the color is MUCH better (thanks for the link Liquid Air). Give me your honest opinion about this shot (I'm ducking)..

aliciahex · February 2, 2007

I like the first one better, even though it is really busy, I like all the games incorporated. and I like how the dice lead your eye down and then the pool balls lead your eye around. very cool!

LiquidAir · February 3, 2007

The lighting is much better in this one, but I do like the arrangement better in the first one. In the new one I think the billiard balls obscure the cards and monopoly money too much. The first one gave each game close to equal billing in the scene which works better for me. As for the lighting, the one thing I'd do is move the lights farther away from the tissue paper so the hotspots in the reflection get a bit less pronounced.

vangogh · February 4, 2007

I like the concept of this and liked the reshot one. I was just wondering if you had some green material that you could spread out under the shot before you reshot again (if you plan to). At the moment because the beize is gold its creates an overly yellow tone, with the notes and some of the yellows on the whites of the balls. Over here a lot of pool and billiard tables are green which makes the colours stand out more.

Or not as the case may be....

Games People Play

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