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Re: [OM] How to take proper product pics outside (WB?)

Subject: Re: [OM] How to take proper product pics outside (WB?)
From: Moose <olymoose@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2010 21:29:24 -0700
On 10/21/2010 3:29 PM, Olaf Greve wrote:
> ...
> The results are pretty pleasing, but not perfect. If you consider this shot 
> (full size, unedited):
> http://www.millennics.com/test/PA215718.JPG
>
> The WB was not yet set properly; in reality, the backdrop is plain white.
>
> Now, my two main issues with the pictures are:
> 1) Some shadows still occur. This was surprising to me. Perhaps the high, 
> perpendicular, position of the flashes relative to the subject, caused that? 
> Is this something that can easily be improved (reflector?
> 45 degree angles from above? something else?)

Shadows and WB are trivial to fix in PS.
1. Select background.
2. Filter=>Blur=>Average.
3. Unselect.
4. Levels or Curves=> select central dropper, click on background.

> 2) Another unexpected issue are the two 'gleam' lines running over the length 
> of the subject.

I don't think this can be fixed in post. The histogram spikes of the 
reflections show that tonal detail is missing in 
both highlights and, less so, in shadows. Sure enough, working on them in PS 
can change the brightnesses, but they 
become detailless areas.

I haven't been following this thread, involving as it does lots of things I 
know little or nothing about. I just looked 
up what brolly boxes are. I'm not sure either they or soft boxes will fully do 
what you want.

Look at the geometry. Reflection is from a small, curved surface. If you use a 
small light source, you get a thin, 
bright line. The larger the source, the broader the line. Do a little drawing 
of the set-up and do some ray tracing. 
You'll see that only light from  up to a certain angle reflects to the lens. 
Beyond that, the reflections miss the lens, 
causing the dark lines.

The geometry of a brolly box is worse than a soft box of equal size, as its 
surface drops away from the subject, 
reducing its effective angular coverage. Ray tracing will show that a dark line 
will persist until soft boxes touch. 
Brolly boxes can't quite do that, due to their shape. I'm not sure you can 
completely avoid light/dark lines without a 
full, 180 deg. source.

Was there discussion of using a light tent? That should be much better. Also, 
this kind of subject is what the Oly T8 
flash head with large reflector was made for. At least in the samples I've 
seen, it killed specular reflections from 
things like shiny watch innards so well they looked almost too flat. One could 
fix that these days in post.

If I understand your description of your set-up, getting the brollys up and at 
45 deg., so they come close or touch at 
the top edges should help.

> To illustrate this, consider:
> http://www.millennics.com/test/PA215718_with_comments.jpg
>
> Could it perhaps be that the light was not diffuse enough?

Exactly, broad and diffuse.

Moose
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