I am curious if anyone would like to share any specific advice or show their photography set ups. I am using a small self contained 24" cube table top studio rig that I bought off amazon. It has plastic "seamless" backdrops, 2 banks of LED lights. The lights are moveable and dimmable. I am not terribly happy with the results. It is designed to produce very diffuse lighting. I find the light is too diffuse as it doesn't show texture or depth very well. I would prefer that I could get the background to be more gradated (from light in the foreground to dark in the background) as I see in many of your photographs posted. I am looking to find a better system. Any help would be hugely appreciated.
It’s possible to have better results with the outfit you’re presently using. A real camera would help, but that’s something different all together.
Add directionality by moving your lights into one bank (as tightly grouped as possible) and position them at the near left edge of your box. Adjust the height of your lights to suit.
Try removing that front ‘shield’ and turn off the house lights. Have only the one light source. Removing that shield will eliminate that one reflection, which will increase your contrast.
There are excellent tutorial, as mentioned. A few general thoughts though.
Some directionality is good. We are animals, and respond best when things fit our world. Because we have a sun, we come to expect light to be coming from a place, a thing. Because it (light) has a source, it will create a shadow. Big, small, hard or soft, it’s there with these different qualities. Small light far away (our sun) produces a hard light with a hard, sharp shadow. A big light source such as the light on an overcast day has soft shadows. It’s a big soft box.
A shadow can be inky black, or justly slightly (or not at all) noticeable. That’s controlled by reflectors in the environment, nature’s or ours. These reflections ‘fill in’ the shadows. The shooting boxes are generally max softness and minimal shadow. It’s good for showing what something looks like, but provides no life. No drama. We like drama!
The quality of light, hard or soft is controlled by the size of the source and it’s distance from the object. Smaller and further = harder. Larger and nearer = softer. Hard light = sharp shadow.
Fill light/darkness of shadow is controlled with a second light source. Could be another light, but usually a reflector of sorts. By changing its placement and proximity to the object, one can lighten or darken shadows.
Soft light is easier to deal with, is more forgiving, but not as exciting.
Harder, more directional light, with harder shadows has more drama, shows detail and surface quality. For instance, if I want the chatoyance to sing, I’ll want to be using hard light, especially if my surface is flawless. It’ll really ‘pop’. If you have scratches though, or torn grain, or other blemishes, you and everyone else will see them.
So, it’s not a method — I don’t do methods or recipes very well. So, I leave you with a way to think about light, and what is it that you might want to share, a starting point for your own exploration. It’s so awesome that digital has allowed us to do that so easily.
