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2D and depth

Posted by Pat Sorbini on January 25, 2017 at 10:41am in Ask the Photographer

A show director told me the photos of my collage were OK, but did not show the layers and depth of the piece. I notice some of mine are better than others, but I guess it is most luck. I wanted to get professional shots done this year, but not going to be able to afford it. I use a Canon Rebel T5. AN suggestions?

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  • Kevin Knittel March 23, 2017 at 10:56am

    Pat,

    I struggled with same issue but may have found a good solution.  I positioned one light (with diffuser) to the right and the other light nearly directly above.  I hand-held the downlight and used a timer on the camera.  I think the downlight most closely simulates a gallery setting and seems to produce the best dimensional view without needing to offset the camera position.  I attached an example.  Hope this helps.  Cheers

     

    8451 22X22 2017.jpg

    • Cindy Welch > Kevin Knittel March 23, 2017 at 12:12pm

      I also am finding that even with the 3-d pieces I do that a downlight provides a better photo.

    • Pat Sorbini > Kevin Knittel March 23, 2017 at 11:30am

      Thanks, Kevin. I love your work! That down light option is intriguing. I had the good fortune of speaking to Larry about this and his tips (including lighting from the side) really helped. I will experiment with your technique, also, if I make a piece I really like and want to use for next year's juries. Thanks again.

  • Bari Tarmon March 6, 2017 at 2:03am
    I have taken photos of textured acrylic paintings using natural daylight with no additional lights. The photos were taken in a garage with the light coming in from one direction. The texture is very evident since the one direction light was not cancelled by another from the opposite direction. That was just my technique and by no means the only one. You can check out the art photos on the artist's site at http://www.marie-claudemoisegallery.com

    I didn't do much post processing except to bump up the clarity and sharpness. This I did in PS using a plug-in from Macphun called Intensity. It is a very diverse and easy to use plug in and adjusting a setting to a low percent you can get some fantastic results that will show of dimension and texture like the original. Hope that helped.
  • Marc Rochkind February 1, 2017 at 12:11am

    To expand on what Larry said: Where is the light? If you have on-camera flash, it's no wonder that the object looks flat. At the very least, invest in an off-camera flash, and experiment with the two flashes both firing (on-camera and off-camera) and with only the off-camera. Then, try different positions of the off-camera flash. Also, various reflectors, and bouncing the off-camera flash. A light stand with umbrella (available from BH Photo or Adorama) is very inexpensive.

    If you want to get it really right, experiment with TWO off-camera flashes.

  • Pat Sorbini January 25, 2017 at 10:46am

    Thanks, Larry. I will.

  • Larry Berman January 25, 2017 at 10:45am

    E-mail me a few pictures for evaluation. But also try to position one light more towards the side and shoot from a slight angle showing the side or two sides if possible.

    Larry Berman
    http://BermanGraphics.com
    412-401-8100

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