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Here is a shot I got of my old set of watercolor paints. I wanted to capture a picture that would look rustic and artistic. Does anyone have any ideas for improvement or for next time?
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Great subject! I would have two comments: The thing I find most distracting is the shadow on the left – there isn’t any visible reason for it. I do think it would be great on a more zoomed-out photo where you could see a container full of brushes or something. My second comment is that if you are this zoomed in, some more vivid colours would probably help to keep people’s attention.
@dfrazer, Thank you for those ideas. I will definitely remember them for next time.
Unless you are wanting the harsh lighting as an “effect”, then I would diffuse the light as well. You’ve got blown highlights and deep black shadows.
@buddingphotographer, Yes, a friend of mine also said something to that effect as well. He suggested buying blue/cool lights to help with harsh lighting. Do you guys have any thoughts on those?
- This reply was modified 54 years, 9 months ago by .
I don’t think that the color of the light is going to change much about the harshness of it. What you need to do is diffuse the light.
For example, if you’re shooting outdoors in sunlight, try having someone hold a white sheet between the sun and your subject. The sunlight will be diffused through the sheet, and make nice bright even lighting that will make soft shadows, not hard ones.
If you’re indoors, try bouncing light off of a white wall or ceiling. If you’re using external flash, it’s very easy to point it at a white substance, or put a piece of paper in front of it to diffuse the light.
You can even diffuse your on-board flash if that’s all you have. I’ve used copy paper, or even Kleenex to diffuse my flash! 🙂
Ok thank you for those tips. I will try them.
BTW: I know this is off topic, but do you have any recommendations for lights to use for product photography? Like for a light box?
- This reply was modified 54 years, 9 months ago by .
So @joseph, speedlights and bounce flash are what I normally use to get soft directional lighting on subjects. However, I recently picked up two soft boxes that are just amazing. They are continuous lighting, so it’s easy to get the light just right. This is similar to what I bought, but I don’t think I got a better deal than $75.
I really love the subject of the old paints by the way. I think you could compose it better by cutting off the top and left sides of the containers as much as the bottom and right.
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