Using an egg to see light
This weekend while its raining outside I decided to photograph eggs. Not really an exciting subject I know, but I actually learned a lot from it. I have understood the basics of good lighting but I have felt like I was missing something.
My main goal for this was to better understand the inverse square law and how it affects a photograph. From what I had understood about the inverse square law and what I had seen in peoples videos explanations of it is that - for each doubling of distance that light travels its' fall off is about 75%. There is a great youtube video were Peter Hurley explains this that can be seen here. One of the other videos that I watched about it was by Joe Edelman and he was the one that talked about using the egg.
I started off in an extra room that I use a lot for photo stuff because I can leave stuff setup without it being in the way. I was using the YN-360 light that @irreverent-dan had suggested to me a while back. That light makes things so easy and I have fallen in love with it. One of the first photo shoots I used that light for was used in an ad for a local business. (I was really excited about that.) After each shot I moved the light back one foot.
I quickly ran out of space so I moved to the garage and started using three eggs to better visualize the light fall off. Once I got through a round of this with the YN-360 I tried it again with a speed light and umbrella.
After I had finished with the photos in the garage I started to make some of @lizelle's Bacon & Egg Breakfast Cups to take to a get together with friends. Everyone loved those things so I think from now on I am going to look for more steemit recipes to take to potlucks. Anyways the reason I brought that up was while I was in the kitchen I noticed the light coming through the window and started photographing an egg again.
Inverse square law? Never heard of it 😁 I'm gonna watch the video as soon as I get home tonight :)
I hadn't heard of it either before the other day. Instinctively I knew that as a light gets closer it is brighter but I hadn't really thought about why and I don't think I understood correctly what it did to the shadows.
Either you or my phone display is playing pranks on me with that photo with 3 eggs. From the shadow fall off, the light is presumably on the left of the camera. Did I say "presumably?" If Inverse Square Law is anything I know it to be (and you've said it is) the egg on the farthest right should get the least amount of light. But that's not what I'm seeing. Trust me I've squinted and I've tilted my screen to look at it, and it's still an opposite of what I would expect. Please unravel the mystery. Interesting post ;-)
You did say presumably, and you would be correct that the light is on the left. Sorry about any confusion but yes the light on the eggs in that photo should be pretty even because in that one the light was about 8 feet away. (I probably should have said that in the post) Once the light gets farther away it takes more distance to see a difference.
In this one the light is at about 2 feet from the eggs. I hadn't thought about this until you said something but the egg on the right could be showing more surface with light because of the angle to the lens maybe using a telephoto lens might have a different result with the light egg on the right and the shadows of the egg on the left.
This is a really interesting topic, and it will be very helpful even for myself to help understand how light would work on subjects.
I knew the about inverse square while I was using 3d programs for my CG. I almost thought that your photos are CG output, they look so clean and perfect.
That's cool, it's been so long since I played around with 3d software I had forgotten about the light sources in them. Never really got the hang of it. I had just tinkered around with blender.
Do you use the 3d stuff for your architectural designs?
Yes I did a lot before, it's the reason why I do photography, for me to understand light and composition for my 3d renders.
I end up liking photography more :D
I tried a bunch of softwares, but 3ds Max is the one I favor :)
Your photos reminds me of my first tests for my 3d renderings, with the infamous "teapot" as my subject :D
Haha, it does look like one of the spheres. That's really about as far as I got with it. Dropping in a sphere or cyclinder and moving the light around.
I love hearing how people get into photography. Especially when it is something like that where you start off doing it to understand aspects of photography for something else.
Isn't it fun to experiment in 3d? I was to serious about it before until photography, few sleepless nights with my computer running straight for few days.
Anyway, about the contest, I like the idea of your photography session, a simple / specific object turned to a work of art :)
Thanks for the compliment.
I think it could be fun to see what others might do with a simple object like an egg. I would expect there to be some very different photos submitted.
A very interesting and informative post.
Every photographer should understand the light :)
Great photos.
Regards.
Yep, something that seems so simple can have a huge affect.
Thanks @jarosalawszafran
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