Modeling Shiny Things

[Gage]

The obligatory glam shot to show off a shiny thing. Some Photoshop cleaning to compensate for the completely inadequate lighting situation. Had to resist the ever-present urge to super-high contrast and generally make it alien; played around with a little bit of gentle airbrushing effects.

[admin]

I like the pose of this shot, with the one eyed direct stare.
I think the lighting (if flash) may be better bounced from one side (models left in this case) rather than front on.
I'm on record as not being a massive fan of flash whenever there is a natural light alternative

[Analog6]

Frankly, I'd ditch the shiny thing and just crop to her face and beautiful shiny hair.  Her expression is great, really mischievous.  She looks as if she has something plotted!

[Gage]

I think the lighting (if flash) may be better bounced from one side (models left in this case) rather than front on.

How do you go about doing this?

At the time of the shot it was night, so natural wasn't an opinion unless the moon had been out and there was a lot of standing perfectly still. 

[Derek]

"In my humble opinion" - There are two points of interest in this image causing distraction. If you want to show the shiny thing crop the models head out. If you want the face which has great expression and eye contact lose the shiny thing. Personally I am partial to faces and would like to see that stay and I agree with 'AD Mark' that the flash should be bounced as it has created a harsh reflection off the hair and nose. Point the flash towards the models left and bounce/reflect the light back with something as simple as a sheet of white cardboard this will mainly light the visible part of the face which is the point of interest. If I am not mistaken this is a self portrait so I would love to see another attempt at it. The pose and expression is just great leaving the viewer to ponder what is going on behind those eyes.   

[bigbob]

why not try one of each, face and shiny thing show us two shots it can't hurt and it is all good experience

[Gage]

Point the flash towards the models left and bounce/reflect the light back with something as simple as a sheet of white cardboard this will mainly light the visible part of the face which is the point of interest.

Can this be done with a built-in flash? The only one I have is that which is built in to my Canon, and I tend to shy away from using flash - I don't particularly like it, and as a result, I don't have much experience manipulating it.

[Derek]

Point the flash towards the models left and bounce/reflect the light back with something as simple as a sheet of white cardboard this will mainly light the visible part of the face which is the point of interest.

Can this be done with a built-in flash? The only one I have is that which is built in to my Canon, and I tend to shy away from using flash - I don't particularly like it, and as a result, I don't have much experience manipulating it.

I can't agree more, sunlight is much better but often there is no choice and proper control of flash can produce some amazing results. Back to the issue, a built in flash is much harder to manipulate and is certainly not easy to bounce let alone the lack of power they produce so, apart from finding another light source such as a lamp or daylight I think you could perhaps only diffuse the built in to reduce the harshness.

[Gage]

I went shopping for lamps today, but no luck with something I wanted yet.
I'll try out some stuff tomorrow if the sun manages to break through the rain!

[Gage]

In the meantime, I played around with trying to subtly reduce the flash-glare on the skin with evening (although the evening tone might have been too bright), warm up the frosty shine it put on the hair, cleaned and brightened, and color corrected the shiny-thing.

[admin]

Auto barn style outlets often have pairs of 500w tungsten lights mounted on those yellow industrial style stands.
You can buy them in OZ for about AUD$30, so probably USD$20-25.
The intensity of the ligh can be contolled a number of ways:
Distance from the subject
Diffusion through sheer material, tracing paper or tissue paper
Bouncing of a large piece of white of light coloured board or into the underside of a white umbrella, or sheet of board covered in foil
Shooting through a 'snoot' (cone restricting the spread of light), a screen of any kind of mesh, or barn doors flaps made from cardboard, plastic, whatever.
Gels. I once went to a theater lighting outlet and bought a broad range of assorted theater gel offcuts for next to nothing. Everything from yellows and ambers, reds, blues, greens, purple. I cut them down to small rectangles that attach to my flash head.
In the same way you can filter any light, even cellophane (never in contact with the hot light surfaces)
Anything off-camera is good.

[Analog6]

I never realised that mark.  I've never had lights because I could never afford them.  Silly me never did the lateral thinking exercise of what could I substitute.  I'll have a look at the auto shop when I am cashed up.

[Derek]

I did something similar a while back. From the hardware store i picked up a large industrial lamp with a good reflector inside and then replaced the globe with a fluorescent lamp which was equivalent to a 240 watt incandescent globe. The thing I liked about the fluorescent was they stay pretty cool (tungsten gets VERY hot) and you can buy them in different temperatures needless to say I got the one which was at a similar temperature to sunlight. It was a very cheap alternative and the results were pretty good too.

[Truckman]

Nice looking babe... ...Ben

[OZZI-BLOKE]

I like the shot but agree on the comments above, try shooting seperately, the look on your models face
and the fact that she looks very attractive to start with would make a great shot on its own. The shiny thing is a bit blown out in places and probably distracts from the image a bit.
For the flash on your camera you could also try to make up some sort of diffuser for it to soften the light and spread it a bit more evenly. Being a canon you may be able to buy one for it.

[Gage]

For the flash on your camera you could also try to make up some sort of diffuser for it to soften the light and spread it a bit more evenly. Being a canon you may be able to buy one for it.

That's an idea I've been looking into recently while reading up on some flash techniques. When I'm able, I plan on trying out some different home-made diffusers and see if any of them are viable.

[Tim N]

Try tracing / baking paper ... if its not enough fold it a couple of times ... its cheap and all you need is a rubber band ! I once tried a green plastic bag folded a few times and it gave a pretty cool effect.

[OZZI-BLOKE]

I was just going to suggest tracing paper, but you beet me to it, I forgot to put it in my other post.
I read about in in a mag a while back, thinking of trying it myself.