Learning to Use Light: Another Example

Another illustration of foods for healthy eating.

What's wrong with this picture?

In my previous post I wrote about an assignment I received early in my career to do tabletop photographs of various items of food for a piece on healthy living. This one didn't make the cut.

You're probably thinking "No wonder! It's too dark!"

That's true, but it's not the only problem with the photo. The deeper problem is that I didn't use a fill light. The main light was high and to my left, as in the previous photo, but there should have been another light, about half the strength of the main light, from the front, at camera position, to fill in some (not all) of the shadows. Consequently, this photo is unusable as an illustration for anything except poor technique.

If I had been more knowledgeable, I would have placed another light, again, about half the strength of the main light, high and about 90 degrees to the right of the set. This would have opened up the shadows on the right and given a little highlight to the vegetables in the basket.

When we were all shooting film, the best way to learn to light was with constant light sources, such as floodlights. Now that we have digital cameras with screens on the back, we can use flash instead of floods by setting up the flashes as we want them, make an exposure, evaluate it on our screens, and make adjustments to the flashes to achieve the effects we desire. Rinse and repeat as needed.

Like the photograph in the previous post, this one was made with a Nikkormat FTN camera with (probably) a Vivitar 100mm f2.8 lens and Kodak Ektachrome 200 film.

Click on the link at left for information about ordering original signed prints from the Rock City Barns book.

If you like my pictures, visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography    film photography   commercial photography    photographic lighting   Nikkormat FTn camera    studio photography    Vivitar 100mm lens     food photography    Kodak Ektachrome 200 film

Learning to Use Light

An illustration for healthy eating.

This is one of the first commercial photographs I made after opening my own business. It's one of a series I did for a piece on healthy eating.

I was working from home in those early years before I had a studio, so I arranged the items on a piece of burlap stretched over the pool table in my basement and photographed them with a Nikkormat FTN camera with (probably) a Vivitar 100mm f2.8 lens and Kodak Ektachrome 200 film. That was in 1978, so forgive me if I don't remember all the details.

I didn't have studio flash units in those early days, so I used flood lights -- which is a great way to work while one is still learning the trade, because you can see what the light is doing. With flash, one has to learn to visualize what the light is doing. That comes with practice and experience.

Notice how the light almost cradles the food items with warmth and texture, while the shadows define their forms. Lighting is the second most important skill in commercial photography.

The most important skill is the ability to find clients who will commission your work and pay you for it.

Click on the link at left for information about ordering original signed prints from the Rock City Barns book.

If you like my pictures, visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography    film photography   commercial photography    photographic lighting   Nikkormat FTn camera    studio photography    Vivitar 100mm lens     food photography    Kodak Ektachrome 200 film

The Precarious Life of an Independent Photographer

 Seamstress in a textile mill, Chattanooga, 1987.

This picture represents a major disappointment that almost put me out of business.

It was 1987, and I had a nice studio in an industrial area of Chattanooga. I had been on my own for eleven years, and although I wasn't setting the world on fire, I was making  a living. I had made contact with an executive of a large textile company who had big plans for an advertising campaign built around my photographs.

We made a trip to a knitting mill in Georgia, where I spent the day photographing, then. . .nothing. In a few days I learned that the company had been sold to another company which had plans that didn't include me. I had counted on spending most of the summer on that project, and now I was left holding the bag without enough work lined up to sustain us.

I closed the studio, which I could no longer afford, let my assistant go, and moved the business to the basement of my home in a close-in suburb. Somehow, we made it through the summer, and business began to pick up again in the fall. It was a difficult and disappointing time and I did some serious praying, but we survived. 

Such is the life of a small independent businessman.

The photo: A Hasselblad medium format camera with (probably) the Zeiss 50mm wide angle lens and Fujichrome film.

Click on the link at left for information about ordering original signed prints from the Rock City Barns book.

If you like my pictures, visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography    film photography   medium format    textile milling     Chattanooga    Hasselblad camera    photography studio    Zeiss 50mm lens     textiles    Fujichrome 100 film