Saturday 25 March 2017

White on white tabletop is a challenge for Keith Robins Photography
 With a roll of £3 wallpaper as a background, a recycled bottle from someone else's waste bin, a couple of glasses from a charity shop, plus a £7 can of white spray and a plastic rose the costs are hardly mounting up.
 Now add a framework to support the wallpaper. Two long reach woodworking clamps, fixed to each end of the recycled kitchen unit used as a bench, have plastic overflow pipe slotted over them.
 At the top of these are two Tee joints through which rests a length of metal tubing from an old shower curtain. This supports the wallpaper which is pulled out and secured with three large clips.
 Lighting is from the 'Lighthouse' LED lamp which runs on a pair of AA batteries.
 Out of an 8 second exposure I illuminated the background for two seconds stationary and then waved the light sideways to reduce the shadows coming forward.
 This is my favourite shot out of twenty or so images.
This is the light I used.
Here is a slight variation on the method of lighting, mainly, waving the lamp up and down to create reflections.
 I've also brewed up some tea for what I think Malibu looks like. To avoid scum and the cut down condensation I used cold water and merely floated a Red Bush teabag on top for three minutes.



Black on white tabletop photography using lightpainting.
Well, actually it's mixture of lightpainting and blending multiple exposures in Photoshop cc using black masks. Blending reveals small areas of additional photographs taken via long exposures while I wave a small torch around to either reduce shadows, cast extra shadows, produce highlights and reflections.

The yellow and black torch is from hardware stores under the name 'Lighthouse' and cost around £5.
The tiny black metal pocket torch runs on a single AA battery, emits a flash white balance compatible light which is unbelievably strong (150 plus lumens) and costs £5 from Screwfix.
The right-angle plastic plumbing fittings is from a toilet overflow and reduces the stark bright light to more of a usable glow. The idea is to hold this torch only a few inches from each of the items in turn, at such an angle that textures can be shown up and reflections gradually built up during, say a ten second exposure.