Monday, April 4, 2011

High Key

I recently added some paper rolls to my photography collection of toys. High Key is a lot harder than it looks. Last night I tried out the white paper for the first time. I used a key light (large octabox mounted on an AB 800) only just to see what the photos would look like. They turned out ok but required too much editing because the lights did notblow out the white paper imperfections like wrinkles, tears, and shadows. This afternoon I pulled out my second light and clamped a large piece of foam board to flag the light and focused it to feather across the background. Then I taped 4 large pieces of foamboard together to create a large reflector as my fill light. With the main in the same location the photos turned out MUCH better. Only 3-4 minutes of editing per photo or less! Hooray! Thanks to a fellow photographer for letting me borrow her light meter. I nailed the exposure of my subject and then raised the light level of the backdrop light by a stop. For perfection I really "need" a third light since the backdrop light was obviously much stronger closer to the light. Correcting the light drop off took the most editing time....that...and cleaning off my child's booger nose and ketchup face!

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