Backstage: Mini Photo Studio
This post is a little look backstage at Q-BA-MAZE to see where the photos come from. This first photo is mostly complete. I'd still like to see how it looks with the background completely whited out. But I'll have to find time for that tedious Photoshop exercise another day. If you want to build this configuration, here is the Excel plan.
Just back up the camera a little bit and a bunch of equipment sneaks into the frame. Here I am working on structures for an upcoming cantilevers and helixes post I'm planning. I want to get some extreme shots that show how structures can tip and spin without coming apart.
I'm using this new compact fluorescent lighting system from Interfit. The light is very close to natural light and the bulbs maintain their color for thousands of hours, so I should have color consistency over time. These lights run SO much cooler than other types of lights which is a real bonus on a hot summer day. I'm shooting with a Canon Rebel XTi using the standard zoom lens that came with the camera. Note the Manfroto tripod and Manfroto 329 RC4 quick release head. It is very handy to be able to easily disengage the camera from the tripod and later reattach it and still have the same shot composed. I also still use my Nikon Coolpix 995 from the digital stone age because it still does what I need it to do and I have this insane 72mm wide angle lens for it that helped me get all of the backstage equipment into this last photo.
This is the basic setup. There is a bunch of experimentation with the lighting to follow. The filtered lights are for making the background bright and white while the bare bulbs are for creating a bit of sparkle in the cubes.
My next step on this shot is figuring out how to best shoot a stop action film of a cantilevered, zig-zagging, helixing structure. And now that I"ve made this backstage view, I"m thinking I like the rough do-it-yourself look complete with the orange Pony clamps. Four of these clamps are holding a long sheet of paper in place. The paper begins on the table top and curves up behind in order to create the seamless white background.
I've lost any sense of logical order here, but I consider the photography a part of the "making of" series so:
This is post #5 in a series on "The Making of Q-BA-MAZE"
