A Photography forum. PhotoBanter.com

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Go Back   Home » PhotoBanter.com forum » Photo Techniques » General Photography Techniques
Site Map Home Register Authors List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Web Partners

leather products - lighting problems



 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old October 7th 04, 11:01 AM
Petros
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default leather products - lighting problems

Hello!

I'm doing some photos of wallets and purses that primarily will be
viewed in an online catalog, but may also be used in print. The lighter
colored leather seems to coming out OK, but the brown and black leather
is coming out like a solid dark blotch. Is there some trick to lighting
this that won't cause tons of glare off of the leather while bringing
out the leather itself? you can take a look here

http://petros.pl/Galleries/Sagan/index.html

Thanks in advance!

--
Petros
Ap' ola prin ipirche o Logos
  #2  
Old October 7th 04, 07:57 PM
Nicholas O. Lindan
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

"Petros" wrote

Hello!

I'm doing some photos of wallets and purses that primarily will be
viewed in an online catalog, the brown and black leather
is coming out like a solid dark blotch.

http://petros.pl/Galleries/Sagan/index.html


The big versions look fine. The thumbnails are pretty bad.

Suggestions:

o Polish the leather to get a bit more gloss/shine
o Overexpose and fiddle with the black level so that the thumbnails
show a dark-grey rather than a black.
o Increase the contrast in blacks, decrease it in the whites (you don't
have any whites but the background, after all).
o Don't use white as a background, use a dark red or brown.
o Look at photographs on the web for your competitor's wallets
and see how other photographers have solved the problem.

--
Nicholas O. Lindan, Cleveland, Ohio
Consulting Engineer: Electronics; Informatics; Photonics.
Remove spaces etc. to reply: n o lindan at net com dot com
psst.. want to buy an f-stop timer? nolindan.com/da/fstop/
  #3  
Old October 7th 04, 09:25 PM
Petros
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Nicholas O. Lindan posted:

The big versions look fine. The thumbnails are pretty bad.

Suggestions:

o Polish the leather to get a bit more gloss/shine
o Overexpose and fiddle with the black level so that the thumbnails
show a dark-grey rather than a black.
o Increase the contrast in blacks, decrease it in the whites (you don't
have any whites but the background, after all).
o Don't use white as a background, use a dark red or brown.
o Look at photographs on the web for your competitor's wallets
and see how other photographers have solved the problem.


Thanks for the suggestions! I agree that a different background would
be good, but the white is at the request of the customer. I think they
want to be able to easily cut out the wallets from the background
later. I will ask permission to polish the leather. I have looked at
some good sites with wallets, and the black ones tend to come out
either pretty similar or have more reflected light on them which:

1) helps to bring out texture but...
2) doesn't look very attractive.

Luckily the gallery you saw is not the final gallery, just a quick
gallery to let my employer (I'm just snapping the photos for the web
designer) see the effect, so the thumbnails aren't a big issue for me.
Thanks for your advice!

--
Petros
Ap' ola prin ipirche o Logos
  #4  
Old October 8th 04, 06:08 AM
Stefan Patric
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

On Thursday 07 October 2004 03:01, Petros wrote:

I'm doing some photos of wallets and purses that primarily will be
viewed in an online catalog, but may also be used in print. The
lighter colored leather seems to coming out OK, but the brown and
black leather is coming out like a solid dark blotch. Is there some
trick to lighting this that won't cause tons of glare off of the
leather while bringing out the leather itself? you can take a look
here

http://petros.pl/Galleries/Sagan/index.html


You've got a good, overall, general lighting set up. Now all you need
to add is additional illumination from the extreme sides of the
wallets and purses (They are called "kickers.") either by using
small, narrowly focused lights or small white or silver reflectors to
skim across the surface to delineate the texture of the leather and
highlight the edges.

You will probably still need to digitally retouch the images some in
post to get the most out of the shots, but there should be no need to
adjust contrast, white point, black point, etc., if you've lit the
subject properly.

--
Stefan Patric

  #5  
Old October 8th 04, 09:32 AM
Petros
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Stefan Patric posted:
On Thursday 07 October 2004 03:01, Petros wrote:

I'm doing some photos of wallets and purses that primarily will be
viewed in an online catalog, but may also be used in print. The
lighter colored leather seems to coming out OK, but the brown and
black leather is coming out like a solid dark blotch. Is there some
trick to lighting this that won't cause tons of glare off of the
leather while bringing out the leather itself? you can take a look
here

http://petros.pl/Galleries/Sagan/index.html


You've got a good, overall, general lighting set up. Now all you need
to add is additional illumination from the extreme sides of the
wallets and purses (They are called "kickers.") either by using
small, narrowly focused lights or small white or silver reflectors to
skim across the surface to delineate the texture of the leather and
highlight the edges.

You will probably still need to digitally retouch the images some in
post to get the most out of the shots, but there should be no need to
adjust contrast, white point, black point, etc., if you've lit the
subject properly.


Thank you for the ideas. I'll try to see if I can get a hold of some
more lights. If you saw the way I lit this, you'd laugh I only have
the shoe mounted flash (EF-500 DG Super), so I had to get creative with
reflecting my light. I hung a cork bulletin board over my workspace and
from the left side I hung a large piece of white paper. I set up a
couple of pieces of A3 paper to the right to reflect back onto the
wallets. I aimed the flash up towards the joint between the cork board
and paper with the flash's diffuser. The cork color warmed the overall
tone enough to be pleasing, so I didn't cover the cork with paper. At
that point it was just a question of experimenting with exposure times.

Thanks again for you advice.

--
Petros
Ap' ola prin ipirche o Logos
  #6  
Old October 8th 04, 09:14 PM
Nicholas O. Lindan
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

"Petros" wrote

If you saw the way I lit this, you'd laugh I only have
the shoe mounted flash (EF-500 DG Super), so I had to get creative with
reflecting my light. I hung a cork bulletin board over my workspace and
from the left side I hung a large piece of white paper. I set up a
couple of pieces of A3 paper to the right to reflect back onto the
wallets. I aimed the flash up towards the joint between the cork board
and paper with the flash's diffuser. The cork color warmed the overall
tone enough to be pleasing, so I didn't cover the cork with paper. At
that point it was just a question of experimenting with exposure times.


That's the way to do it.

I use Luxo lamps, 4x6" notecards, lumps of modeling clay, bits of foil,
rolled black paper for snoots ...

I prefer using incandescent light and a blue filter. That way I can
use any household lamp that comes to hand.

--
Nicholas O. Lindan, Cleveland, Ohio
Consulting Engineer: Electronics; Informatics; Photonics.
Remove spaces etc. to reply: n o lindan at net com dot com
psst.. want to buy an f-stop timer? nolindan.com/da/fstop/
  #7  
Old October 10th 04, 02:51 AM
David Dyer-Bennet
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Petros writes:

I'm doing some photos of wallets and purses that primarily will be
viewed in an online catalog, but may also be used in print. The lighter
colored leather seems to coming out OK, but the brown and black leather
is coming out like a solid dark blotch. Is there some trick to lighting
this that won't cause tons of glare off of the leather while bringing
out the leather itself? you can take a look here

http://petros.pl/Galleries/Sagan/index.html

Thanks in advance!


What you need are *some* reflections. Here's how you get them, and
how you control them: Find the range of angles within which the
leather will offer back a reflection. Now, set up a small sheet of
reflector to fill however much of that angle you want to have some
reflection on, and light that sheet to the level that will give you
the reflection you want. Or make some sort of pattern on it. Or
whatever you want.

Also, when you've done this, you can adjust the black point a bit
differently, so the darker bits of the leather become really black,
but are saved from being a black hole by the reflections. That'll
give the pictures a bit of snap, keep them from looking washed out.
--
David Dyer-Bennet, , http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/
RKBA: http://noguns-nomoney.com/ http://www.dd-b.net/carry/
Pics: http://dd-b.lighthunters.net/ http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/SnapshotAlbum/
Dragaera/Steven Brust: http://dragaera.info/
  #8  
Old October 10th 04, 10:35 AM
zeitgeist
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default



I'm doing some photos of wallets and purses that primarily will be
viewed in an online catalog, but may also be used in print. The lighter
colored leather seems to coming out OK, but the brown and black leather
is coming out like a solid dark blotch. Is there some trick to lighting
this that won't cause tons of glare off of the leather while bringing
out the leather itself? you can take a look here

http://petros.pl/Galleries/Sagan/index.html


when photographing black you want a huge soft diffuse hightlight that you
expose for. black is black, texture is revealed in the highlight. So in a
sense, you WANT glare. Normally glare is a blocked up highlight that kills
detail, but with black textured items its the only thing that shows it.

to break up the reflected hightlight, take a piece of black tape across your
light source or reflector.


  #9  
Old October 10th 04, 10:35 AM
zeitgeist
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default



I'm doing some photos of wallets and purses that primarily will be
viewed in an online catalog, but may also be used in print. The lighter
colored leather seems to coming out OK, but the brown and black leather
is coming out like a solid dark blotch. Is there some trick to lighting
this that won't cause tons of glare off of the leather while bringing
out the leather itself? you can take a look here

http://petros.pl/Galleries/Sagan/index.html


when photographing black you want a huge soft diffuse hightlight that you
expose for. black is black, texture is revealed in the highlight. So in a
sense, you WANT glare. Normally glare is a blocked up highlight that kills
detail, but with black textured items its the only thing that shows it.

to break up the reflected hightlight, take a piece of black tape across your
light source or reflector.


  #10  
Old October 10th 04, 11:33 AM
Petros
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Thank you all for the great advice! I've done the best I could for this
shoot with the equipment that I have at the moment, and the customer is
happy. Your comments will help me with future work, and they give me
some idea of what equipment I'm going to need to make things work
better in the future.
--
Petros
Ap' ola prin ipirche o Logos
 




Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Focal plane vs. leaf shutters in MF SLRs KM Medium Format Photography Equipment 724 December 7th 04 10:58 AM
Canon 300D - focus problems Martin Wildam Digital Photography 31 September 22nd 04 09:41 PM
Nikon D70 colour problems David Kilpatrick Digital Photography 7 July 15th 04 12:04 PM
Theme : identifY chemical products/ graphic arts, photo-lithography,alternative techniques. Albane In The Darkroom 3 June 20th 04 01:52 AM
Home studio Shadowless lighting on a budget - help Randy MacKenna General Photography Techniques 3 December 6th 03 03:26 AM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 09:29 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 PhotoBanter.com.
The comments are property of their posters.