04.10.10 Let There Be (Studio) Light

Fellow artists, this one's for you.

Several days ago I mentioned a new lighting set-up for photography. Here it is, a two-light kit bought locally at Idaho Camera in Boise.  There are plenty of similar kits available online and perhaps your hometown photo center has a selection as well.

Two weeks ago Idaho Camera hosted a studio lighting workshop at the Vista Ave store.  The one-hour session was geared primarily towards portrait photographers, but the basic principals apply to product photography.  

It was a nice introduction, covering the pros and cons of four types of studio lights: 

1. strobe, or flash 
2. continuous lighting with "hot" incandescent bulbs and 
3. continuous lighting with "cool" fluorescent bulbs
4. continuous lighting with "medium warm" halogen bulbs

Let me get my notes out for you... they're not all inclusive so by all means do more research yourself.   That being said, here we go --

Strobe Light

Pros: Clean bright light that is color balanced for daylight; energy efficient; stops action.

Cons: You can't see in advance exactly the lighting effect that will be captured in pixels or on film; you  really must use a photography light meter to be able to judge what settings your camera needs.

Continuous Light, Incandescent Bulb

Pros: What you see is what you get; bulbs are available that approximate daylight (look for the blue tinted 5400º Kelvin photography bulbs, 250 to 500 watts).

Cons:  These darn things get really hot, like melt-things hot; the color of light given off by the bulb will change over time. (An additional con, many years ago I had a bulb of this type blow up awhile I was using it, scared me to death.) 

Continuous Light, Fluorescent Bulb

Pros: What you see is what you get, bulbs are available that emulate daylight (look for "Photo Fluorescent" lamps, "daylight balanced", 30 to 85 watts); these bulbs do not get as hot as incandescent bulbs thus are a bit safer and more pleasant to be around; they are also much more energy efficient than incandescent bulbs.

Cons: Fluorescent bulbs take a few minutes to warm up to their brightest light; these bulbs are more expensive than incandescent bulbs (but should last longer). 

Continuous Light, Halogen Bulb

Pros: What you see is what you get, bulbs are available that approximate daylight; these bulbs give off consistent color over time, some lamp bases come with variable power controls to fine tune how much light is given off.

Cons: More expensive than other systems; they can get a bit warm.

Long story short, I chose to go with a two-light kit outfitted with continuous light, fluorescent bulbs.

The Promaster two light studio reflector kit includes light stands, lamp bases and parabolic reflectors that accept a photographer's umbrella to bounce and diffuse light.  Do you see how the umbrella is mounted near the center of the reflector, just below the bulb?  The stem of the umbrella is secured in a channel built into the lamp base.  Do you see the stem protruding to the rear of the lamp in the lower left corner of the photo?

Bouncing light into the umbrella provides a nice soft fill light. 

I also tried turning the umbrella around so that it was pointed towards the piece as if it was a soft box.  The light quality is pretty nice, but there are really ugly reflections of the umbrella itself in the shiny surface of the gloss glaze.  See below.

Playing with the angle of the lights, the horse and the camera in relation to each other yielded the better, though not perfect, result seen below.

Table top "cube" set-ups are used by many of my colleagues. They achieve stunning results.  But with such fragile ceramic artwork, I simply prefer to have more open space to maneuver in than the interior of a tent.  These highly reflective surfaces may force the issue however. Another benefit is that this more open set-up is flexible enough to photograph flat work and sculpture that is larger in size.  Shoot, I could start doing portrait photography with it too (but I doubt I will!).

Final notes, the backdrop is a graduated "Flotone" brand vinyl backdrop from B & H in NYC.  And any day now a diffuser sock, which fits over the reflector, will arrive.  That should help to soften the harsh highlights of the main light, seen in the photo above as the bright glare on the hip of the horse.

Alrighty, that brings you up to date with the latest experiments in studio lighting here.  I hope the information is useful to you.  If you have any tips to share, please do!  We're all learning together.

~ Lynn

P.S. Blog Triage docs and fellow students -- this is not my Lesson Two post. Though it uses some principles from that lesson, it's a follow-up post I promised readers on April 7th.  The Lesson Two post will be done by Sunday night.  Promise.

04.08.10 Thinking of You

I've been thinking of you, the reader, a lot this morning.  

Well, I do that every time I sit down to blog; "Do I really have anything to share that readers would be interested in? What's just the right balance between verbiage and pictures?  How much time do you have to read, should I edit more?"  Et cetera, ad nauseum.

But today's question is "Who are you, dear reader?

This question arose in the very first day of the Blog Triage Online Class which I signed up for in an effort to bring more vibrancy to my blog.

Perhaps I know you well,  you are a longtime friend.  Perhaps I don't know you at all, this may be the first time you've ever stopped by (Welcome!).

You love animals in general, horses in particular.  

You are curious.  You enjoy learning about the process of creating art, though perhaps you don't have the time nor inclination to make things yourself.

You like to get the inside scoop.  Who doesn't?

You love beautiful objects.  Can't resist holding them in your hands, turning them end over end to feel the surface and study the details.  You love to see how these objects relate to others in a collection.

You find satisfaction in connecting with others in this internet age.  You may be across town from me, or across the planet.  Regardless, you are interested in what life is like out yonder.

If these characteristics somehow don't ring true, please don't click away -- take a minute to tell me more about you!  In the meantime, I'll continue to ponder and wonder about you for the rest of the day as I go check to see how the latest kiln load turned out, clean some greenware, and if I'm lucky, build up more wax on the legs of the new sculpture.

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On the other side of the reader/author equation, Blog Triage instructors Alyson Stanfield, author of the highly motivating ArtBizBlog, and Cynthia Morris of JourneyJuJu.com asked students to think about what I, as a blog author, get out of investing the time to write and illustrate a blog.

Blogging offers an opportunity to practice writing, and through that to explore some ideas, share some news and just in general connect with you, the reader.

I admit that I've always enjoyed writing.  Writing as a craft.  Finding just the right word, the turn of phrase that illuminates an idea in a different way is very satisfying.  To an extent I have writing in my blood.  My father trained as a reporter, then worked as a marketing specialist in heavy industry.  My godmother is still a reporter at my hometown newspaper.  Thanks to this early imprinting, my idea of what I can offer through writing has been more about journalism than being any sort of novelist.  Even today my natural inclination for pleasure reading is non-fiction over novels (thank god for my bookclub gal pals who break me out of my rut!).

I just spent about 45 minutes exploring some ideas that arose at a literary/book club event last night. However, those paragraphs have been pasted into a draft of a completely new blog post.  That happens more than you might think.  I'm not one for much public navel gazing.  But hey, on a Meyers Briggs scale I'm an ISFP, the touchy feely artist type: I angst, I ponder, I mull.  I'm good at it.

I also like to teach and view the blog as a wonderful tool for informal teaching.  Which reminds me, have you had a chance to share your preferences for the general time frame for another Wire to Whinny workshop?  I could really, really use your input, even if you have no plans to travel to a workshop this year, your insights are valuable to me!

There's a poll right here, at this blog: right hand column, third item down.  Please participate. Comments are welcome to!

Okay, so this feels like an uncharacteristically long ramble.  And there are no pictures.  Are you still with me?  Should I edit?

Pondering  ~ Lynn

04.07.10 A Sneak Peek at New Work!

Here he is, all bright and shiny!  "Enviado", a Paso stallion, number four in this series.  You saw him in progress here and here.

He'll be available via auction soon!  This auction will be scheduled to end on a weeknight evening -- I know weekends are getting busier for people as the weather improves.

In a quick comment yesterday on Laf'n Bear's facebook page I mentioned that I was trying out a new studio lighting set-up.  These photos are from that test session. Soon, these and several more will be added to our webpage.  My goals for the new lights are fewer and softer shadows, accurate color without corrections and better balance throughout the image. Already in the test shots I have better overall illumination.  I will keep tweeking the set-up until I can get good photos of the "white" areas of my pieces.  I put "white" in quotes, because in my work these areas are *never* straight bright white.

The little chestnut tobiano Netzky claybody custom recently arrived at her new home.  Owner Liz Shaw wrote, "I adore her color and face but you know I also really love the subtle tonal changes in her lower legs, mane and tail, really, really beautiful and a nice surprise - I love EVERYTHING about her!"

It was a surprise to Liz because my former lighting set up blasted so much direct light on the piece that the "whites" were completely washed out.  These photos are better.  I'm still not quite capturing the nuanced pinking in the lower legs and at the back of the heels, nor quite the dustiness of the lower tail, but it's definitely better.  I will go into more detail about the lighting set-up in the next day or so.  For now, I hope you enjoy these photos of the newly completed "Enviado".  ~ Lynn

04.04.10 Visit to BLM Mustangs

The mellow spring sunshine was deceiving. Out on the sagebrush plain south of Boise a determined wind stampeded tumbleweeds and tangled Mustang manes and tails. Wind whipped, my fingers fumbled to focus the camera lens on the Mustangs.  Oh my god -- Mustangs!  Real Mustangs... pardon me while I revert back to being a 10-year old horse crazy girl.  I think Leslie was as thrilled as I was.  It was Leslie who had arranged this special visit for us -- thanks Leslie, you rock!!

Steve Leonard, BLM Wild Horse and Burro Specialist, went out of his way Friday morning to meet with us at the corrals south of Boise. Thanks Steve!  Steve has been instrumental in developing a program unique to the Boise BLM Mustang project in which local 4-H clubs gentle Mustang weanlings.  You need to go read about it, it's a really lovely story.  I'll wait here. 
















Okay, you're back. Isn't that just the coolest program partnering with local 4-H youth?!   

Boise friends -- did you catch those important dates?  On April 17 you can meet the 4-H trainers and their Mustang students at the Idaho Horse Expo in Boise.  On April 23-25, the weanlings will be available for adoption at the BLM Wild Horse Corrals.

Check out this lovely young cremello, I'm not sure if this youngster is part of the 4-H program or not, but I thought you'd like to see those striking blue eyes.

In spite of recent snow and rain, the corrals had surprisingly dry footing for horses with a case of the morning friskies.  Steve told us that the corrals are scraped out and eight inches of clean sand is put in to prepare for the horses.  One mare had managed to find her way in to a low feed trough but hadn't quite figured out how to get back out.  I was so impressed with her good sense, waiting patiently for a solution. Help arrived. Steve and another BLM staffer removed one side of the low trough (sensible design!) then out she stepped.  

Too bad not all problems are so easily solved.  Steve told us that he has had 14 individuals in the corrals this year that do not appear to be Mustangs; rather, domestic horses which were probably abandoned in the desert.  In the current economy I suppose I should not be surprised by this.  In her March 15th post at the Equestrian Vagabond blog, Merry describes spotting two horses out in an area of the Owyhee rangelands that normally does not have horses; the rancher who uses the grazing allotment she hiked through suspects the two were dumped.  Mustangs? Dumped pets? Hard to know for sure.  Just like any number of questions about Mustangs and how to best manage Western public lands.


Here's what I know for sure: the horses that I saw Friday appeared to be well taken care of; the staff that I met and saw working was competent and compassionate. 

I hope my prints turn out.  I took a number of photos of two greys playing. We also spent a good deal of time admiring four new foals. Of course there were many noble faces, sturdy bodies and interesting colors.  I also hope the April Mustang adoption event goes well!  With luck it won't be so cold and windy later in the month, but just in case I'm going to find a new pair of gloves...   Lynn