As a photographer, nothing makes me happier than a cloudy day.
Clouds are the world’s most effective, least expensive and least predictable diffusers. They mute shadows, mellow colors and reduce contrast. Why am I telling this to a bunch of woodworkers? Well, as a magazine editor I received hundreds of “print my article” submissions that featured a beautiful highboy in a grassy setting with full sun.
I know what these guys were thinking. Taking the photo outdoors allowed them to use a fast shutter speed and small aperture without a tripod. It also made the furniture look unnatural, like a wookie in a thong. All the details of their piece are hidden in shadow (actually a good thing with thonged wookie pics). All the corners are blown out in high relief.
If you take photos of your work, buy a tripod. Period. Buy a good one (look for used Italian ones on Craigslist). Get a shutter release cable for your camera. Use a medium aperture (like f8) and let the shutter go as slow as it wants. Some photos I take require a three-second shutter speed.
And, if you are going to shoot outside, make sure your project belongs outside (birdhouse, planter, punji stick trap for opossums) and wait for a cloudy day – or shoot at first light in the morning or at last light in the evening so the light is more diffuse.
Today I took some photos of my Roorkhee chairs before sending them out to their new homes. The photos in the morning were with full sun and were a disaster – I was trying to find some dappled shade. After dinner I went out under some full cloud cover and tried again.
— Christopher Schwarz
I had to take a short reading break at “wookie in a thong”…..dang, that hurt mentally…
I have been noticing my pictures of finished projects look nicer at slightly lower light levels and longer exposure times.
Your pictures are always really nice. Some of your black & white ones capture the subject perfectly.
Thanks Chris.
how would that hurt ? wookies don’t wear pants as it is!
Nice columns in your home Chris.
I think that’s at Devou park, right?
The overcast photos are Devou. The full-sun photo is at Alms in Columbia-Tusculum.
Funny you should say that. When my wife and I got married, it was an overcast day. We were a bit upset because we thought that the clouds would ruin the photos. However, the photographer was really excited about it for exactly the reasons you mentioned, and the pictures were wonderful. Of course, we didn’t take photos with a 3 second exposure, but you get the idea.
Nice Point – I used to shoot wedding photos and I always joked that I was the only one praying for a cloudy day for the wedding.
Oh, gee thanks, Chris!!! Now I have this mental image of a wookie in a thong! You’re absolutely right about your photography tips. My other hobby is fine art landscapes. The best pictures I ever got were days I thought the sky was going to open up and dump on me. On bright sunny days the light is flat and contrast is horrible. days Many people don’t appreciate that their Mark One, Mod Zero eyeball is more sophisticated than any camera yet invented. Whatever you take a picture of, it won’t look like what your eye saw or as good/bad.
Total nitpick: It’s spelled “Wookiee”.
Sorry.
One of my favorite parts about your work are the photos. Especially the black and white ones.
Wookie’s in thongs are hot on my planet!
Nice photos. Years ago I was into photography and read about shooting on a cloudy day, as colors are not changed by sunlight. And the same goes for car shopping, if you want to see what a car color actually looks like go on a cloudy day.
Good tips Chris. I have a Manfrotto tri with multiple heads and use electronic shutter control on my DSLR. I do like to meter separately using a Sekonic Cine for the task, but ‘f8 and go!’ works fine for most basic shots.
In the film business, the short period of time after the sun goes below the horizon but there is still lots of daylight is called the Magic Hour – enough natural light for a decent f-stop and a fairly fast shutter speed. No direct sunlight means no shadows.
Coming to your neighborhood tomorrow; try it.
Photography and the art of furniture landscape….my this has been an interesting week on the Lost Art Press. I spent the weekend attempting to get pics of the salmon river near my cabin. There are some ospreys and try capturing them in a good light situation. I once painted an adirondack engine red to go with my uncles architecturally designed vernacular house. i thought it would give it a Van Gough like look. oh it was a lovely color with that house. NOT to digress very interesting schwarz this talk of photography and furniture. You might put an article in your next book.
Birds are really hard to get good photos of. You really need a 300mm (minimum) telephoto lens that can stop down to f2 ($$$), good luck, good light, and dedication to getting the shot. I spent one whole afternoon on my belly prefocused on a thistle to get some hummingbird shots. I was also using a Bogen tripod about 14″ off the ground and a cable release for the camera. Got some pretty good pix that day, but I had to work for them! I call it hunting photos, and curiously enough, stalking is exactly what you have to do.
correction: that should be open up to f2… stopping down would be the higher number, like f22 that I use for max depth of field in landscape shots.
I’ve been taking pictures along time, but apparantly have been using light (mostly) incorrectly all this time. Thanks for posting this article, it will certainly help.
Is the ground not level or is one leg short?
Good eye. The Roorkhee adjusts to the landscape as soon as you sit in it. All four legs go to the ground. In that frame I had just moved the chair from a grassy spot to the patio. And I had not sat in it. So its legs are still catawhumpus in that shot.
What’s really happening is that the chair is trying to walk off. That’s a problem with campaign furniture: always on the move.
This is like a Cincinnati version of “Where’s Waldo?” Call it “Where’s Roorkhee?” Waiting for the shots from Fountain Square, the top of the Eiffel Tower at KI, pitchers mound at GABP, and the center of Findlay Market.
From the title, I thought you were going to mention using exposure compensation (±) to expose everything a bit dim so you have no blown highlights, another good tip. You can “fix” dark, but with 100% white there’s no data for recovery.
Shade on a sunny day has similar effect, so long as your entire background is in shade as well. Wacky HDR photos excepted.
And always double-check that background. Wookiees love to hide in places that only appear after shooting.
Chris, can you photograph your next chair with everything dis-assembled as if it was getting ready for travel. I’m Interested in seeing how compact this chair can get, maybe replace some of my camping chairs.
Thanks for the tips, Chris. Here in the Northwest we have “predictable overcast” (one reason Hollywood loves the area for movie-making), so waiting for such a day doesn’t require a lot of patience.
Some great tips there, I’ll be trying them out. I often think about using a tripod to photograph my work but rarely used it when I know I should. Thanks
Kev,
One of the often overlooked reasons for using a tripod is that it slows your pace of work, making you more contemplative. Get the general composition with camera off tripod, then set up with camera on tripod. The improvement can be startling.
Richard
In a pinch, if you have a D/SLR, you can use a polarizing filter too.
I like that photo in the sun, has an Old Raj feel to it.