Orbisflash for still life

For this test we found quite an unusual subject for the Orbisflash, a still life. I’m pretty sure that this ring flash was not designed for anything like that, but we had fun for half an hour trying different angles, and finally comparing it with a Lumiquest Softbox III, a Lumiquest Snoot and finally a bare SB800.

In this first image we have the Orbisflash on axis with the lens. That is, the lens goes through the hole :-) . The light gently wraps the whole subject

Now we moved the Orbisflash from the lens to camera left. The light is still nice and wrapping, we have more shadows and probably a more interesting picture

The Orbisflash is on top of the subject. This is the option I like the least, the light is a bit dull and there’s quite a loss of contrast and details.

Here we have the Lumiquest Softbox III right on top of the lens, trying to mimic the direction of light of the Orbisflash. The result is quite similar to that of image one, thus the light is not as wrapping and creates more edges

Lumiquest Softbox III on camera left. Compared to the second image we have more contrast here, darker shadows and stronger highlights. Is more contrasty

Softbox III on top of our garlic. The result is not too different from the one we made with the Orbisflash with the same settings.

Here we go for a very hard and narrow beam of light. The Lumiquest Snoot creates some kind of bad chiaroscuro, with very harsh and unflattering shadows.

Another hard light configuration. The SB800 is now bare, and the light again very unflattering. Lots of unpleasant contrast, same as in the previous example, yet we have a wider beam of light and it spreads more around the subject.

Metal Still Life

I studied THE BOOK “Light, Science and Magic” trying to understand the big deal of the Family of angles. Reflected and diffused light and did a bit of experiments

Using a black vinyl background and a metal lure can be a dangerous combination. I needed to keep the background black and make the lures shine, with a bit of reflection on the glossy plastic.

To achieve such result I used a combination of two lights, SB800 of course. One is bouncing the light off a big Lastolite 40” Umbrella box and the other one has an Orbis Ring Flash with it. Both light triggered with Nikon CLS.

First of all I made a sticky ball with duct tape to lift the jigs from the bottom. I put it in the back in order to achieve a bit of angle, reflect the light and show the length, height and width. Then I poured few drops of water to get more reflecting surface and decorate the image.

The Umbrella Box was placed 90º with the table. By doing so I had the light reflecting against the jigs but not the background that remained black. On the back of the jigs I had the other flash with the Orbis Ring to bring up the shadows a bit

Honestly, I love these still lives and will keep experimenting