Energy Saving LED Bulbs Photo Shoot
I did a product shoot for LED bulbs back before Christmas. The aim was to compare traditional bulbs with the new energy saving LED bulbs and show that, whilst saving energy, these bulbs do not compromise the quality of the light compared to traditional bulbs.
Individual LED Bulb Photos
There were two aspects to the brief, one of which was photos of the individual bulbs. I used the Canon 5D Mk II with my 24-105mm lens and the bulbs were placed in my macro studio ready to be photographed.
Obviously a key element to successful product photography is consistency:
- Each product needs to have exactly the same exposure, so the manual mode on the camera is essential. I hooked the camera up to my computer and used remote Live View shooting, so that I could immediately see whether the exposure was correctly set. With my lighting setup I used a aperture of F22 and an exposure time of 2-4 seconds, which gave me very clear photos.
- Each product must be placed in exactly the same place in the photo, in a specific position. Where required I used some blue tack to place the bulb in the right position. Placement in the frame was sorted simply by covering a wider area when shooting, and then cropping the image afterward.
- The camera must be set at exactly the right angle to capture the LED bulbs correctly. For example, the photos showing the bulbs from the top was not actually photographed from the top, but from the specific angle that made that particular bulb appear in perfect profile. This varied depending on the bulb type.
- There must be no awkward shadows or other disturbing elements. It was a big but important job to ensure the lighting was adjusted correctly so that there would be no harsh and disturbing shadows interfering with the image’s perfection. The light tent was here an excellent tool for avoiding these issues, but I needed to improvise slightly as the bulbs also needed to be photographed from above. Interested in how? Just ask.
With all the above in place, and with some post-production, the photos of the LED bulbs came out quite nicely, as shown in the following examples, taken from the website currently hosting the photos:
Comparison of LED Light vs. Normal Light
As well as individual photos of each product, I was commissioned to do these LED bulb comparison photos in a homely environment. So what’s more homely than home? We used our own apartment, which is reasonably modern, to take the shots.
The principles in the previous section also apply here, and consistency is key. I used the same Canon 5D MkII and my Canon 24-105 lens. I did one set in our kitchen and one in the living room. Exposures for the kitchen shoot were at 0.4s, F16 and ISO 640, whereas for the living room I used 0.6s, F8 and the same ISO 640.
These are the results that are currently appearing on their website, from the living room:
LED Bulb Comparison to Normal Light Bulb in Living Room
The following are the photos from the kitchen shoot:
LED Bulb Comparison to Normal Light Bulb in Kitchen
So that’s it. Any thoughts on the photos are appreciated. Here are some useful links for this post:
- Website where photos are placed
- Individual Product Shoot (Edited in Green) (Smugmug)
- Kitchen Shoot (Smugmug)
- Living Room Shoot (Smugmug)
Cross Polarising Photo Experiment
Today I’ve achieved psychedelic colours through cross polarisation in my cross polarising photo experiment. It’s really simple to do and doesn’t require expensive gear. All I used was:
- Canon EOS 400D D-SLR Camera (any camera can be used)
- The standard 18-55 kit lens that came with the camera (the only lens that fitted my polarizing filter
- Hoya Polarizing circular filter (can also use a normal polarising plastic or your polarised glasses)
- LCD monitor
- Some see-through tupperware and straws (you can use almost anything made of plastic)
Here are the results:
The beautiful red colour in this abstract photo comes from full polarisation through a set of tied together straws, using an LCD monitor with a red background as a background. The photo has not had any post processing. 55mm, Aperture: F5.6, Shutter: 1s, ISO: 100
Another shot of cross polarized straws with a wide aperture. You can see the straws' bends are in focus. The photo has not had any post processing. 55mm, Aperture: F5.6, Shutter: 1.6s, ISO: 100
This colourful abstract is actually a tupperware lid setup between the lens and a white background on the LCD monitor. The lines in the bottom left are actual scratches, as this lid has been used many a time! 55mm, Aperture: F5.6, Shutter: 1/6s, ISO: 100
You can find more great shots by going to my smugmug. They’ll work very well as desktop backgrounds!
If you’re interested in how these photos were taken, see the shots below which explain how it’s done:
1. Get a polarisation filter or plastic and fix it to your camera lens. When you use the polarising filter against a polarising light source (In this instance an LCD monitor), you get cross polarisation and the filter can actually block out the light from the LCD monitor.
2. Setup your camera on a tripod and direct it toward the monitor, using a white background. Setup a plastic object (in this case a tupperware lid) in between the camera and the LCD monitor and you've got your experiment all setup! Now twist your polarising filter to get different effects as seen in the photos above and on my Smugmug.
3. Now you're setup, start experimenting with different objects and different colour backgrounds! This is the setup for my straw shots, where I used Scotch tape to attach the straws together.
You don’t need super gear to carry out this experiment, so nothing should stop you from running to the shop to get some polarising plastic and try this yourself! Please let me know if you’re carrying out the same experiment so I and other readers can see your creative routes.
Photo Experiment: Macro Photo Studio
In the end the Macro Photo Studio cost me as little as £3 (not counting the £5.20 I paid in parking and the petrol…). I managed to source the cardboard box from the office, tracing paper (or bakin parchment) from the kitchen, and scissors, carpet knife and tape from the cupboard.
In the end it was the background that would make or break the scene. Getting hold of those polystyrene boards was invaluable as you’ll see from the photos.
Looking through the house, I found a few interesting things I could use… Just like last time I used the 70-200mm F4 lens. I tried to source a macro lens, but not possible unfortunately.
In order to get as much detail as possible, which I got with a narrower apparture in my Aperture Experiment, I set the camera to aperture mode at the maximum of F32 and ISO 100. The variable was then the shutter speed.
Different Light Settings Shooting My Canon 18-55mm Lens
Firstly my kit 18-55mm Canon lens which I’m thinking of selling and replace with a better one – I don’t use it anyway. I took three different shots:
- Light coming from the left and right side of the light tent (left)
- Light coming only from the left (middle)
- Light coming from the left and top (right)
The photos below have not been altered. If wecompare this to the Orange Photo Experiment and Aperture Photo Experiment, it’s amazing how great it looks without any alterations!
Left: Light from left and right - Middle: Light from left only - Right: Light from left and top - Aperture: F32 for all, Shutter Speed: 4, 5 and 5 (from left), ISO 100
The left and middle photographs look good with a really nice reflection in the polystyrene, but I must say I’m the most impressed with the effect of the top-down light effect creating a natural gradient where the board is bent. This is the kind of stuff you usually generate in Photoshop and try to make natural – with this method it’s already there. In the end, whichever picture I use when I sell the lens, I think it’ll make it more desirable than a normal photo like I used to take.
Beany Pig on Black Background
Why not photograph some fun things as well? I found this pig lying around and figured it’d make a nice subject for a test on the black background. The conclusion is: If you want to find out how much dust you actually have on your lens/sensor, take a picture against a plain background. I was shocked and will definitely need to clean the lens. This picture has had some dust removed and had a slight Level tweak. Other than that this is as it was shot.
Beany Pig on Black Background - Aperture: F32, Shutter Speed: 1.3s, ISO 100
The bottom line is I like this shot because it’s a fun subject exposed in my opinion really well. You also here have the gradient background, which gives it the extra edge.
The Pillars of Love
The idea for this shot is how love sometimes can be built on unstable foundations. I bought these blocks in Portebello Market in London a couple of years back as decoration for the living room. My girlfriend said I’d never find a use for them, but you were (for once) wrong sweetheart.
This is without doubt my favourite picture out of the set. It was really difficult to get the light correctly setup to give reflections so that you can clearly see that it says “LOVE”. Because the letter blocks were very dark against a very bright yellow background, it also required some post processing but only on the levels, brightening it up.
Pillars of Love - Aperture: 32, Shutter Speed: 1s, ISO 100
I love it! If you ask me it looks more professional than any shot I’ve taken before (in my opinion anyways). I’ll definitely be doing more macro shots, next time possibly with some movement – How about the love tower falling down? Will have to reduce the shutter speeds then 
You can see the photos at Torstein Langeland Photography on Smugmug. You can also see what the Macro Photo Studio looks like externally by going to previous posts Professional Make-Shift Macro Photo Studio and Macro Studio – The Making Of…
Macro Studio – The Making Of…
As mentioned last weekend I’ve now started building a make-shift macro studio on a tiny budget. So far I’ve spent £0 using what I have. Have to go to the shop to buy black and White poster paper though, which might cost a couple of quid, but nothing that should make a major impact on the world economy. I’ll update once I’m all setup. Now I have to dig into this lovely bacon and egg sandwich.
Photographic Experiment: Effects of Different Aperture Settings
Education while having fun is great! My question is how does the aperture setting affect the photography? Photographers with some experience will know that aperture has a direct effect on the depth of field, but what other effects do you get?
I don’t have a macro lens, which is a bit stupid. Not deterred by that setback, I used the Canon 70-200mm F4 IS USM lens on my 400D instead. I set the zoom to 200 to get a real good close-up so I could compare the details. The object was a decorative candle, a gift from my dear brother and his fiancee.
The studio used is the one seen in the previous post, inside our living room cupboard. I shot a range of pictures with the same frame, with only aperture and shutter speed being the relative variables. To show the difference below I’ve shown two pictures; Left: F32 Aperture & 1/5s Shutter Speed; and Right: F4 Aperture & 1/320 Shutter Speed. ISO: 100
Left: F32 Aperture & 1/5s Shutter. Right: F4 Aperture & 1/320 Shutter
Initial Observations about the F4 shot:
- The F4 shot has a shallower depth of field (as expected).
- Everything except the in-focus area is darker on the F4 shot. While capturing enough light to make the in-focus area, the shutter speed doesn’t appear to be sufficient to capture enough light for the background. Any views on why this is the case are welcome! I’ll try to find out myself.
- The light feels more saturated on the F4 shot than the F32 shot, probably helped by the darker background and shallower focus depth.
With those observations in the bag, I’m interested to know which shot has the best details. I know that F32 will capture a greater depth of detail but what about in the focused area?
Zoomed Area
The below images are the two same images only zoomed in on a small part as shown above.
Zoomed in: Left: F32 Aperture & 1/5s Shutter. Right: F4 Aperture & 1/320 Shutter
The focus point is just below the big indentation in the middle. Despite the whole area being in focus in both shots, we can see that the F32 image is clearly sharper! Unless there’s something wrong with my lens (and it cost too much for there to be something wrong!), I think the conclusion needs to be: Unless you’re looking for a view with limited depth of field or are shooting moving objects, then a narrower aperture is better (the larger number the narrower right?). So make sure you bring that tripod for the longer shutter speeds! I will.
I could probably have read this in some magazine, but hey! Much more fun finding out yourself right?! Stay tuned for more Photolicious experimentation!
Photography Experiment: Photograph Light, Not Objects
I figured I’d experiment with some light this morning so I setup my own little make-shift studio in the study. This is the setup, it’s quite simple! Just need the camera, some white paper, a few lights (scavenge the house, your partner will love you for it), and some reflective surface.
Make-Shift Studio
As I don’t have a fancy macro lens I used my Canon 50mm F1.8 on my tripod. I set the camera to aperture mode and F22 to get as much depth as possible. This is the result, not very exciting! Just used the study lamp and no flash or reflective surfaces.
The First Shot
Realising that you need alot of light to make it work I set all 4 ceiling spots towards the orange (you can see it on the shadows). I also brought the standing light from the living room to as a reflective light to give the orange some shine (the strongest light we have)! With this picture we’re moving towards something that potentially can look good, but the shadows are all too much and very firm. Need to spread and soften the light!
The ceiling spot lights gave quite sharp shadows!
So how could I soften and spread the light? Many people use light tents and I’ve read articles on how to make them. But I figured why not use a reflective surface like kitchen foil? That should give a good spread. I also started using the flash and on the shot below this is directed into the kitchen foil to not be too direct. After some experimenting I managed to produce the image below, which technically does the right things (I think): Provides shine to the orange and no hard shadows.
Finally got it somewhat right, but still quite boring!
Still not too exciting though! But then again I don’t believe professional studios can get away from doing some fixing in Photoshop or Lightroom or whatever. Althought it’s sharp it could still be slightly sharper (is it the lenses fault? Shouldn’t be any camera shake).
The next step was to bring it into Photoshop. I used the Dodge tool to whiten the grey areas around the orange. I changed the levels just slightly so as to make it a little brighter and then used the sharpening tool to just improve it that little extra. This is the result:
How about this? Photoshopped and ready!
Didn’t spend too much time on the Photoshopping, but I think the result isn’t too bad. Just needs cropping and inserting into a fruit magazine 
. I got some more examples in my smugmug, so check it out.
