Studio lighting course - still life

Well last week's part of the course was a bit of a flop for me personally.  I was looking forward to having a go at shooting some flowers or candles with flash lighting but the session turned out to be a bit of a non-starter.

Up until now we had been working in groups - the same group every week - and this was working well for me.  I enjoyed working with the couple of girls I was partnered with - one was pretty knowledgeable when it came to lighting and the other like myself was a quick learner.  However, last week the tutor changed the groups round and it appears I drew the short straw.

It is difficult to work with someone who's not a team player.  I think that is the most diplomatic way of putting it.  And when you are left to do most of the setting up your self it takes a chunk of valuable shooting time away.

However I did learn a few things from a photographical perspective especially about light shapers.

• You should never put a metric thread into your camera.  Cameras take whitworth sized threads.  

• Super clamps are very useful for holding your camera on a table or a tripod leg.  They are also useful
•  for moving your light around.  

• Rostrums are useful if you do a lot of shooting down on things.  

• Snoots make the light smaller and more directional. Produces hard light.

• Honeycomb filters create a beam of light rather than spreading out the light.  The light is soft edged.  

• Black wrap can be used to make snoots.  You can buy Cinefoil from good camera and film shops. 

• Compact mirrors can be used to direct light onto your objects. 

However due to the group I was working with and the time constraints I didn't get round to experimenting too much with the above.  I used the black foil to make a snoot for the light.  I didn't get too many good shots either so I have none that I want to share here. 

We also got the opportunity to shoot tethered.  This was interesting.  I have Lightroom and I was under the impression that if you are a Nikon shooter you have to have some special Nikon software to shoot tethered but apparently Lightoom does the job.  

I saw shooting tethered as shooting where your pictures are automatically displayed in Lightroom.  However you can also use Lightroom to shoot the image.  

I'm not sure if I will get to make good use out of shooting tethered as my version of Lightroom is on my PC and not my laptop.  I suppose if I wanted to take pictures in my office it would be useful.  

My last session of the course is tomorrow and I will not be wasting another lesson working with someone that hinders my progress again.