Tabletop photography can offer many hours of relaxation, a chance to learn how light can work for and against you and a way of cataloging some of your collections. You can use any camera that lets you get close up. This can be done by choice of lens or by putting close-up lenses in front of your lens to let you get up close. I prefer a single lens reflex because it lets you see what your results will look like without having to worry about parallax problems. Parallax is the difference of what the viewfinder sees and what the lens sees in non-reflex cameras such as rangefinder cameras. Most digital cameras offer you a view of exactly what you are photographing on the rear LCD. Lighting can be almost anything you can think of. Whether it is natural light coming in, or in my case I sometimes use these LCD lights that have become so popular. I mount them on miniature tripod stands. Remember though, that color balance may be affected by the color of the lights being used. Some of these LCD lights have a blue cast but some of them have a yellow cast. Try to use lights that match approximately in cast. In the above picture you will note that daylight is coming in the window so that too is going to affect your color balance. If the product is being shot for a catalogue rather that just for pleasure, you may have to make all your lights are exactly the same and have the same color temperature. You can then correct the color balance using one of the photo editing programs.
Here we have another picture showing the setup, the art director and our studio assistant. The assistant is taking a break from throwing things on the floor during the shoot. The art director is complaining about my composition and use of cheap lights.
Here we took a picture of a product just to give an example of how the lighting works using just LCD flash lights. Later we got into an argument with the studio assistance over the flavor of the product. He prefers marmalade.
After the argument, I decided to chill out and just have some vodka. This picture could have used a dark background so that the lettering would come out clearer.
Raising the camera angle, I took advantage of some of the shadows to bring out the lettering. Also the shadows made by the glass on the background give the picture an added interest by having some interesting patterns. I still wish the lettering had come out more distinct.
This is a vase crafted by the artisan Bill Healy in Flemington, New Jersey.
A tilt of the camera shows a bit of the view of what the inside of the vase looks like. This piece has a great deal of detail and the workmanship is of excellent quality.
Here we see the bottom of the vase which also is full of detail.
Another view of the vase with a variation in lighting. One can truly appreciate the fine detail in the work that went into this piece. Bill Healy learned his trade in Ireland and today runs his own gallery with his son.
Here we have a setup for photographing a lacquered flower. The lights were moved around so that certain parts of the flower would be evenly lit. I have given lacquered flowers to my wife because they will never die and always be a thing of beauty. They will perpetuate the spirit of the memory long after real flowers have become dust. The flowers were mounted in a velvet backboard and I did not want to destroy the mount so I left them on the board. A bigger swatch of black velvet would have probably enhanced the picture. Note that microphone holders do very well for holding the LCD flashlights in place. Little table top tripods are not that expensive and have quite a bit of adjustability if outfitted with ball head mounts.
A close up of the lacquered flower. A live flower is lacquered and then some parts are dipped in gold.
Another close-up of a portion of the whole flower arrangement.
This is full view of the arrangement in its mounting. Lighting was changed to highlight different parts of the arrangement.
Still another simple setup for photographing small crystal objects.
The picture here has a flaw, the top is not sharp and attention is drawn to it by the annoying highlight. This is a good example of what to avoid.
Here we got rid of the highlight, but as you will notice, the top of the light house is still not in total focus.
Here we closed down the f stop in order to create greater depth of field and the illusion of sharpness.
A picture of a tea cup and its saucer
The lighting had to be worked in order to make sure that the subject had lighting all over it. It is difficult to photograph round objects because if you are not careful, you will get the lights reflected back to the camera and create annoying, distracting hot spots. I added lighting to the sides because otherwise the sides would have been too dark and would not have had any detail in them. The spotlight effect accentuated the base of the cup and brought out the detail because the saucer?s back edge darkened a bit helping the cup stand out. Yet there is enough light so that the gold detail on the rim of the saucer stands out.
There are many small subjects that can be photographed in tabletop photography such as jewelry, pens, coins and other small objects.. In some cases small cardboard reflectors or aluminum covered reflectors can be used to lighten dark areas and give some highlights. One has to be careful though, that the highlights do not become glary hot spots that would detract from the picture. Lighting can be one of the most difficult tasks that one faces in doing any kind of photography. When lighting can be controlled the full spectrum of the subject can be captured and yet have it fall within the scope or range of correct exposure. In this exercise I have only used simple lights and no reflectors of any kind other than the table itself.
The art director wanted to know when we were going to stop and party.
Well at this point before I sign off I advise you to grab your camera, look at the things around you and just let your creative juices flow. You never know what you will come up with and at least you will have some fun in trying something new. The cat is optional, use only when you need a laugh or two but try to train it not to break the displays.
Douglas John Vergara
