The Little World

Remember when I said I got it wrong with my tabletop picture – by using more than one light source? Well, so I did, but that is not completely accurate. I got it wrong by using two equal light sources. I was that close to the proper thing, if only I had realised it.

Go outside. Look up. If there’s a sun, it is casting a shadow of you on the ground. If you cannot see a shadow, it is too cloudy. And that’s the two extremes  – sharp shadow or no shadow. You can take an authentic-looking tabletop picture with either illumination.

I often go for a compromise – a single flash light source for the sun – placed high above the layout and directing shadows to wherever they do the most good. Then I fill in the shadows with a large sheet of light blue or light grey paper – just as a clear or cloudy sky might do. If I match the colour of the fill to the colour of the sky scene I’ll use, it all makes your mind think it is seeing reality.

The sun is bright here in Western Australia. It is less so in Europe and parts of Asia where pollution has dulled the sky. if you purport to  show a scene from a particular part of the world, adjust the intensity and diffusion of the light to suit.

The sun also has a particular colour temperature – about 5500º to 6000º Kelvin. It is the standard that our instincts have come to accept. If you want to make the scene look bright, set your camera to 5900º Kelvin and shoot with studio electronic strobe lights. You’ll be well within the ball park as far as colours go. If you need to use a steady solid light like a tungsten bulb or an LED bulb, activate the custom temperature mechanism in your camera to set the white balance so that the camera thinks it is looking at a sunny day, despite how you produce it.

The giant rolls of paper I use for reflecting light are a professional accessory – if you can’t afford them, use a big sheet of foam-core board from the art store as a rigid reflector. You’ll soon find out the angle that works best to send light onto your tabletop without the sheet getting in the way.