{"id":97,"date":"2013-08-06T22:20:26","date_gmt":"2013-08-06T21:20:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.rubberduckdoes.com\/?p=97"},"modified":"2013-08-06T22:32:50","modified_gmt":"2013-08-06T21:32:50","slug":"dark-field-lighting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mattbristow.net\/index.php\/dark-field-lighting\/","title":{"rendered":"Dark Field Lighting Technique"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Dark Field Lighting Technique.\u00a0Its not some evil Star Wars hocus pokus. Its a lesser known method for dramatically lighting glass and liquids.<\/h2>\n<p>I first blogged about Dark Field Lighting way back in 2010. Since then I have had the conversation with so many people that I thought I&#8217;d repost it again, with a few edits here and there.<\/p>\n<p>Have you ever tried to photograph something thats made of glass? If you have you&#8217;ll know the problems with reflections, it usually results in your mugshot in one of the reflections possibly grining, or the window with the number 7 bus driving by! Not wholly professional and certainly it wont be of a standard that\u00a0a client is willing to pay for.<\/p>\n<p>Your solution therefore is the dark field method, before I get flamed by those in the know, yes there is an opposite technique called, yes you&#8217;ve guessed it Light Field Photography. Its a bit like the Ying and Yang of product photography lighting!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"httpss:\/\/mattbristow.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/DarkField-MB1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1232\" alt=\"Dark Field Lighting\" src=\"httpss:\/\/mattbristow.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/DarkField-MB1.jpg\" width=\"600\" height=\"900\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mattbristow.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/DarkField-MB1.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.mattbristow.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/DarkField-MB1-200x300.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Firstly and most surprisingly theres no direct light and only one strobe used here, you could use a second snooted strobe camera left or right to pick out any detail if you felt like it.<\/p>\n<p>The glass subject sat on something black I used foam core with glass ontop for that shiney look.\u00a0A further piece of foamcore just big enough to fill the frame.So here&#8217;s the set up and its really simple.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1230\" alt=\"Dark Field Lighting\" src=\"httpss:\/\/mattbristow.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/DarkFieldLayout1.jpg\" width=\"492\" height=\"598\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mattbristow.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/DarkFieldLayout1.jpg 492w, https:\/\/www.mattbristow.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/DarkFieldLayout1-246x300.jpg 246w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 492px) 100vw, 492px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The strobe is set below the table pointing directly at a white wall immediately behind all this. The room needs to be very dark to eliminate any reflections. In a small room you will have problems with reflections from the walls etc.<\/p>\n<p>My product studio is small so to get round this I used reflective umbrellas black side out to both left and right nice and close in any other black &#8216;flag type&#8217; props will do the job.<\/p>\n<p>Heres a less styled shot with a bit more colour.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1240\" alt=\"Dark Field Lighting\" src=\"httpss:\/\/mattbristow.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/DarkField2-MB1.jpg\" width=\"600\" height=\"900\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mattbristow.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/DarkField2-MB1.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.mattbristow.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/DarkField2-MB1-200x300.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>That is all there is to it, give it a go. I would\u00a0be interested in hearing how any of you get on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A how to setup your Dark Field Lighting. <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mattbristow.net\/index.php\/dark-field-lighting\/\">Continue Reading &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1159,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[30,31,32,8,419,33,154,28,34,36,182],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Dark Field Lighting Technique - Matt Bristow<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dark Field Lighting Technique. Its not some evil Star Wars hocus pokus. 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