Bauhaus Reconstruct

My friend Aaron G. took apart and remade the Mies masterpiece. The steel mass that makes the cantilever possible is full of 300lbs lead shot. It turned out quite nice.

Banjo Maker

My friend Lance made a couple of banjos and I shot them yesterday afternoon. Lovely.

An Afternoon with LX-5

Went on a walk and took Bec’s camera. It is easy to get nice focal length shots, but at high apertures photos look decidedly pedestrian. The camera at default jpeg settings seems to over-saturate a bit and focusing is a challenge. For a point and shoot it snaps quickly, but I think I will stick with my old trusty D80. Note: all of these are straight out the camera.

Photo Tunnel

My friend Anne happened to snap me snapping in Baltimore. Thought it was neat-o.

Simple Table

Snapped some photos of my friend M. Prado’s crafty work tonight.

Visited: Willoughby Lake

The frozen glacial beauty in northern Vermont. I would recommend staying here.

Visited: Central Baltimore

Scene of the Wire and much speculation throughout the past couple of years, here it is in all of its glory. I was impressed with the city but frightened by the posture toward crime enforcement. A scary exciting American city. A studio project and a master’s thesis to follow.

Looking Back: National Media

The National Media Museum is a great resource for historic images. The UK museum of the same name is devoted to photography and hosts an extensive collection including the earliest surviving photographic negative(!).

The Photographs Collection reflects the multiple identities of photography and enables the Museum to present different accounts of the impact of the image on society… [it] selectively traces the aesthetic and technical developments of photography, from the early experiments by Talbot and Herschel in the 1830s, to examples of contemporary practice.

Resources like this are not only inspiring, but provide a grounded sense of context for our design. Lest one think that the classic style prolific right now is somehow new. But while the man above may look like he is sitting in Brooklyn yesterday, the woman’s outfit has missed the cut on sartorialist lately. Tis cliché, but [as designers] we have to remember where we came from to know where we are going. Check it.

Lulu Wang Center Visit

Visited the Lulu Wang Center in Wellesley, MA by Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects today.

CDisco Part 5: Photography Studio Setup

Taking photos of your work in a proper studio can change the quality of your work tremendously. Luckily a nice setup can be had on the cheap. With a couple of key items you will be off and running with minimal setup and (hopefully) effort. Let’s go through what all of this looks like.

A couple of weeks ago I recommended some cameras for general photography. Read it and then beg, borrow, or buy a good one. Next get intimately familiar with its basic use. If you are new to digital photography perhaps you should pick up a good, albeit at times dorky, book about the topic.

Next we need to stabilize the camera. This can be done with a pile of books, a table, or a tripod. As the book idea sounds dangerous, I can recommend the Manfrotto 7302YB as a good entry level tripod with a ball head. The head is the part that connects to the bottom of your camera; ball type heads allow the camera to move on any axis and be locked for the perfect shot. For a little more flexibility the combination of aManfrotto 190XPROB and Manfrotto 322RC2 Joystick is more expensive but can go perpendicular and be used to take photos of art or books lying flat on the table.

Photography is all about light, so our lighting scheme is essential in the studio. Two desk lamps positioned oblique to the object can function very well as direct light sources. In this case it is helpful to get CFL or halogen bulbs with a color temperature (the hue of the light) close to white. Incandescent bulbs tend to give a yellow color and fluorescent lighting often appears green. However, for a little more than the cost of desk lamps there are studio lighting kits available that will offer flexibility and possible performance. The advantage here is the built-in diffusion of light with kit’s umbrellas. The ability to easily diffuse light is advantageous as it is more even and softer on the object. As a general rule of thumb diffuse reduces shadows, direct increases them, and the distance between direct light source and the object determines the resulting sharpness of the shadows.

Pick a flat surface and hang a large sheet of paper or cloth for a background behind it. Draping the paper over the table and leaving a little slack at the joint between wall and table will create a continuous surface. White, gray, or black are the preferred colors as they provide a high contrast with most objects. The contrast will be essential if removing the background for de-contextualization, for example a collage, is the goal of the shoot. Specialty paper made for photographic backgrounds are available at most photo stores and, of course, here. Just make sure you buy the right size for your new studio.

Now place your object into the studio and set your white balance using a gray card placed in front of the model. The specific method for setting custom white balance differs depending on your camera model, so see your manual for specifics.

With a stable camera, good lighting, and proper white balance you are now equipped to shoot your objects like a professional. Go now and make a proper exposure, move your lights, object, and tripod around for desired effect and shoot away!