Wine bottle with a sexy neck

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you, Christina.

Perhaps I should have mentioned for those interested in lighting that this is probably the first and still the only photo I have made using only reflected light.

[Brownbear]

May I ask how you used reflected light for this image, and if you could relate it to photographing something outside using sunlight?

Thank you, Christina.

Perhaps I should have mentioned for those interested in lighting that this is probably the first and still the only photo I have made using only reflected light.

[Mike Buckley]

May I ask how you used reflected light for this image, and if you could relate it to photographing something outside using sunlight?

Yes you may.

Seriously, for my first capture, I placed a piece of white foam core on the left front corner of the rectangular tabletop positioned at a 45-degree angle to the edges of the tabletop and subject. I shined a lamp positioned very close to the foam core so the reflected light would be a larger light source than shining the lamp directly on the scene. Doing so produced shadows with very soft edges. A small light source would have produced shadows with well defined, relatively hard edges.

For my second capture, I positioned the white foam core on the left side of the tabletop and again positioned the lamp between the foam core and the subject. Doing so produced the white band of reflected light on the red part of the bottle and less so on the glass part of the bottle between the red part and the label. Doing so added interest to the upper area of the bottle and helped define the shape of that area.

I then merged the two captures.

The technique used with the first reflector can be used outside to reflect sunlight for the purpose of softly filling shadow areas of portraits, flowers and anything small and still enough that makes the technique practical (though there are other and perhaps simpler ways of accomplishing the same thing when shooting outdoor portraits). People who regularly photograph flowers outdoors often keep a folded reflector in their bag that can be expanded.

This brings up a fundamental aspect of the physics of light: It's not just that the reflector will brighten the shadow areas; just as importantly, it will produce shadows with soft edges. That's because the reflector is a short distance from the subject, whereas the sun is nearly 100 million miles (150,000 kilometers away). When taking into account the size of the sun and the reflector and their distance from the subject, the reflector is a relatively larger light source than the sun. The sun can be made relatively larger by clouds that diffuse the light (disperse the rays of light in different directions). All of that is explained in Light: Science and Magic.

The technique used with the second reflector can also be used to reflect sunlight outdoors, though there are probably a lot fewer situations calling for it than the first technique.

[Brownbear]

Thank you Mike... Very informative and enlightening. I will try it on a flower or a bug sometime this year.

Your explanation is far more interesting than the books', and one that I can relate to easily. Thank you.

Yes you may.

Seriously, for my first capture, I placed a piece of white foam core on the left front corner of the rectangular tabletop positioned at a 45-degree angle to the edges of the tabletop and subject. I shined a lamp positioned very close to the foam core so the reflected light would be a larger light source than shining the lamp directly on the scene. Doing so produced shadows with very soft edges. A small light source would have produced shadows with well defined, relatively hard edges.

For my second capture, I positioned the white foam core on the left side of the tabletop and again positioned the lamp between the foam core and the subject. Doing so produced the white band of reflected light on the red part of the bottle and less so on the glass part of the bottle between the red part and the label. Doing so added interest to the upper area of the bottle and helped define the shape of that area.

I then merged the two captures.

The technique used with the first reflector can be used outside to reflect sunlight for the purpose of softly filling shadow areas of portraits, flowers and anything small and still enough that makes the technique practical (though there are other and perhaps simpler ways of accomplishing the same thing when shooting outdoor portraits). People who regularly photograph flowers outdoors often keep a folded reflector in their bag that can be expanded.

This brings up a fundamental aspect of the physics of light: It's not just that the reflector will brighten the shadow areas; just as importantly, it will produce shadows with soft edges. That's because the reflector is a short distance from the subject, whereas the sun is nearly 100 million miles (150,000 kilometers away). When taking into account the size of the sun and the reflector and their distance from the subject, the reflector is a relatively larger light source than the sun. The sun can be made relatively larger by clouds that diffuse the light (disperse the rays of light in different directions). All of that is explained in Light: Science and Magic.

The technique used with the second reflector can also be used to reflect sunlight outdoors, though there are probably a lot fewer situations calling for it than the first technique.