Flashlight Photography

KevinL

Flashlight Enthusiast
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Jun 10, 2004
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So, what do we mean.. taking photos of flashlights or using flashlights to take photos, or using flashlights to take photos of flashlights.. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

If you guessed the latter you're right on track. While shooting some pictures of the collection, I discovered that the light of a U2 is perfect for illuminating the subject in addition to the flash on my Canon 350D.

For those who say "Get a real Canon 550EX or macro ring lite", I take both cash and CC Paypal, please send money to my EOS slush fund /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/naughty.gif

The interesting thing is that not only do my eyes perceive the LED light as "white", the camera's 8MP sensor, auto-white-balance and autofocus agree with me. I shot these pictures in AWB mode lit by both the U2 and the flash. If I use the flash alone, the image is very much darker and there are shadows, but the smooth light of the U2 and L4 help brighten it up and eliminate the shadows. To test further, I even extinguished the room lights and took a photo.
fldb-l1.jpg


I've tried illuminating macro subjects like this in the past before using some of my other lights but the results have been dismal. I tried with my Lux3 4D Mag, well, imagine holding a camera in one hand with the gigantic club in the other. Plus, the hotspot shows up in the picture as way too intense. Whereas, in this case, the creamy smooth Surefire flood illuminates the entire object evenly. And it has none of the drawbacks that incan lights have, because all my other incans show up as yellow. Adjusting AWB to Tungsten makes the image too blue. Sure, one can clean it up during the postprocessing stage, but my philosophy is "why clean it up after when you can get it right the first time?" (also in line with the reasoning that the more you mess with the image, the more damage you can potentially do).

Additionally, I discovered that at short ranges of up to 15ft, the U2 can add quite a lot of those precious fractions of a second to your shutter speed to combat handshake blur. Ain't gonna help much for group photos though /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/str.gif

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/happy14.gif to Surefire and yet another extremely useful tool to add to my arsenal. At this rate, the U2 and L4 are going to save me lots of $$ on dedicated macro lights. The U2 - it not only helps you avoid cracking your shin while maneuvering for low-light photography, it helps you get the shot too!
 

KevinL

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Glow Bug: /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thanks.gif ! The L1's not as nice and doesn't have as interesting a background as your U2 pics though. Those were awesome and kept me drooling for months till I got my own /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

flashlight: cool.. which models? I believe incans can have their place too if you're not going for the 'white' look.

My L4 looks whiter to the camera, it has a slight bias towards the blue side in real life (probably Luxeon Y0 bin) - slight enough that I wouldn't call it a tint. To totally wash out the hotspot, the F04 beamshaper works great too.
 

chamenos

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incandescents are the only way to go for film photography though...i've been using a surefire M3 for this purpose /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 

Flash_Gordon

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Apr 3, 2005
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Kevin-

Great technique. Are you generally using your U2 at high power? Have you tried it with a beamshaper? Seems like that would make almost a mini studio light.

I have bee trying to shoot some eBay photos of some sterling flatware for my mom. The built in flash of my Olympus digital is useless. Just one giant reflected hotspot.

Maybe my U2 on high with beamshaper will provide enough diffused white light on its own.

Another great reason I needed this really expeensive light!

Mark
 

KevinL

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Incandescent? Film? What is this ancient rubbish? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif just kidding /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif



I learned a couple of tricks from flashlights that I'm applying to my newfound interest in photography. I learned how to shoot using a flash - through glass. Ask me two months ago and I wouldn't have said it was possible, but just like looking at yourself in a mirror with a flashlight - you do not point it directly head on, otherwise you'll blind yourself very effectively.

Glass isn't a complete mirror, some light will go through, hit the object behind the panel and come back through your lens. The trick is to aim the flash at an angle so that the bulk of the light bounces away instead of bouncing straight back into the lens and 'blinding' the camera. Same for reflective objects. I used to have this problem with the flat surfaces on Surefire lights because they were reflective enough to overexpose the resulting image.

For the U2, yup, running on lithium ions so I feel no guilt whatsoever in letting it go full blast /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif no beamshaper though, anybody got a cheap FM64 to let go? Saved me a bundle on 'proper' studio lighting. I'm just a /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/broke.gif hobbyist photographer /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif I do have the F04 beamshaper for the Surefire L4 and it is basically perfect. If you have one for the U2 I HIGHLY recommend it!

What I did was hold the camera (actually mounted on my new tripod) at around 45 degrees, with the U2 shining down onto the subject from 90 degrees perpendicular to the ground.
 

greenLED

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Mar 26, 2004
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La Tiquicia
How do you handle the reflections (ie. minimize them like in your pic)? I had the hardest time taking a pic of the gold minimags I'm selling 'cuz there was too much reflection off the light (and I wasn't even using a flash!).
 

sniper

Enlightened
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Jan 7, 2005
Messages
630
[ QUOTE ]
chamenos said:
incandescents are the only way to go for film photography though...i've been using a surefire M3 for this purpose /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Nice photo!

Not really: Incan lights are in the neighborhood of 3200 (really orange) degrees Kelvin, and film is generally balanced for daylight at about 5600 Kelvin, which is bluer. LEDs and electronic flash are higher...up to and beyond 5600 K (bluer) color. The difference can be made up at your 1 hour photo processor, where a high-school graduate will run the film through from one end to the other without knowing what is happening in betweeen, until you tell them: "LOOK, the prints are really orange: FIX IT! Then, Maybe. Oops...forgot. You guys with digital cameras can just set the white balance. Man, that looks handy!

I was using my manual camera to document some structural damage on a freeway,(Talk about a REALLY insecure feeling! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif) and my buddy was holding my 3 cell Mag (INCAN) so I could focus. We left it on for a couple of pixes, and there was an orangish spot in the middle of the photo. The flashlight overcame the flash, causing two reasonable pixes to be round filed. Learn something new every day.
 

Pila_Power

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Sep 2, 2004
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Perth Australia
Hey Kevin, nice shot! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

GreenLed: Try a couple of things: multiple diffused light sources will help eliminate shadows and possibly help prevent shiny spots you might get say, from a single 100W globe.

Also, along the lines of what Kevin was saying with regards to shooting thru glass, try to change the 'angle of the dangle' so that there is not a direct reflection from the light source and subject and into the lens. This will cause a bit of lens flare (I think this might be the shinyness you are experiencing with no flash).

Alternatively, if you have photoshop you can load up an affected pic and alter the brightness/contrast to a desired level. I fix a lot of problem pics this way at work.

I am no expert however - I have just picked up a few tricks along the way. Hope I was of some help!

Tim.
 
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