Photo Copyright Gary Gardiner - SmallTown Stock

The request was simple. The execution slightly complex. The results certainly worth the effort.

The client, a furniture store, wanted several strong images to showcase how its furniture looked in a home instead of the cyclorama white wall in a studio.

The chosen home’s original furnishings were replaced with a selection of pieces that complemented each other and the home’s color scheme.

There were only a few restrictions, all centered on budget and time. The budget was fixed and too small for a full complement of focused strobes with grids, snoots, and shaping tools to light the room in one gigantic explosion of light. And, the furniture had to be removed by the end of the day so the family could return home to its normal routine.

The only choice was Strobist glory.

This photo combines nine separate images lit with one SB800 using a either a Honl snoot, an Ezy-Box, a straight strobe or a single bare tube. All but one of the frames were shot using strobe on a stick with Nikon D300 CLS lighting. The assistant, who earlier hauled in all the furniture, balanced atop a step ladder, leaned over the second floor balcony railing or stood an arm’s length away holding the strobe on a stick.

The doorway at left was covered with a Photoflex translucent panel to soften the light entering the room.

Although it isn’t perfect, it met the client’s need for budget and speed. And, I learned a little more about Nikon CLS, Photoshop layering, RAW conversions, and how lighting can effect the mood of a room.

A larger version

One Man’s Decision

I have a print of Jeff Widener’s iconic photo of an unknown Chinese man carrying shopping bags stopping the advance of a column of tanks as the military completed its crushing of pro-democracy rallies in Tiananmen Square. My grandchildren do not understand its importance or the signficance of one man’s decision to calmly place himself in harm’s way at the head of a rumbling column of steel. There was little the world could do as it watched Communist China’s bloody ending of student and dissident attempts at freedom and a lone man’s decision to defy his country’s military power being used against its own people. [ New York Times ]

From today’s commercial shoot of furniture for a catalog. This frame is the splash page image for beds and bedding.

Had access to multiple lighting sources, multiple studio flash with all sorts of light modifiers, soft boxes, umbrellas, light panels, and scrims. But, being the simple Strobist fan, I decided to finish the day with two SB800s using Nikon CLS, with a couple of Strobist-style modifiers.

The light at right has an SB800 with a round globe modifier. This is similar to the Gary Fong modifier but much simpler. It’s a translucent globe that fits over the end of the SB800 like a paper lantern. Perfect for simulating the light from the lamp.

The light at left is an SB800 on a stick with a set of barn doors to narrow the light to simulate a reading light on the head of the bed.