A studio session on producing still life images was the topic for the Atworth Camera Club’s meeting on Monday 25th March.
The club reports, “The session was led by Derek Mason who first explained how the shots were going to be set up, using a large ring light acting as a flood light to illuminate a bowl of fruit. Derek explained that images shot directly through the ring light would lack texture and appear flat, and so moved the light to one side to provide better modelling. He then moved the ring light back in front, lowered the power and introduced a small LED lamp to provide supplemental lighting from one side, which gave even better modelling. Setting his camera to ISO 400, he suggested using an aperture between f/8 – f/16, and a small focal length – 40mm or less – to increase the depth of field. Members were then invited to step up and try it out for themselves.
“Following a short break, Derek demonstrated the use of tethered capture. This used the same set up as before but this time Derek’s camera was mounted on a tripod and connected to a laptop computer. Derek was able to control the camera settings (ISO, aperture, etc.) and release the shutter directly from the laptop, which also provided a live view of what the camera was seeing. This allows the photographer much greater control of the subject he is taking and with live models allows the model to also see what the camera sees as it happens.
“The software that Derek was using was Olympus image capture and Olympus workshop. Similar programs exist for other makes of camera (Nikon Capture, Canon EOS Utility), and these can generally output directly to Adode lightroom. There are also Freeware programs that provide similar functions.
“Our next meeting will be on April 29th at which members will have an opportunity to show their autumn pictures and perhaps some of their ”winter events” project images too.
“Our meetings are held on the last Monday of each month at 7.30pm in Atworth Village Hall, and the £2 fee includes refreshments. All are welcome.
