Re: The Photo How to class I gave in Denver

OK, I had some requests for a demo/explanation of the class I gave at the Denver meeting on photographing drums, utilizing the LIGHT TENT. So here goes: The reason I thought this would be of benefit to the forum members is because I see many of you starting or running a drum making or hardware making/selling business. I firmly believe that any product is only as legitimate in marketing or advertising as the image that shows it; therefore, if you're going to try to sell something, it must look as professional and legitimate as you can make it look.

And I know, as a professional commercial photo studio owner, how much it would cost to have professional photos done of your products (way too much!) I also know that for the passionate hobbyist having a great pic of your handmade drum is way cool! So, in order to be able to get these images to look that good, I came up with a fairly simple & affordable way to do the photos yourself without buying a buttload of expensive photo studio gear and hopefully without a degree in rocket science. Of course, I HAVE a degree in rocket science!

When shooting a drum, a wood or wrap finish should look reasonably nice if reasonably lit. However I see all the time pics where the shell looks OK, but the chrome or brass lugs and/or rims are black. That's because when you photograph chrome or any reflective metal, the camera sees only what's reflected in the metal; and if what's reflecting in the metal isn't lit, it'll go black or dark. So the idea is to reflect (ideally) white at every angle around the hardware. To do this requires a white lit up surface all the way around the drum - a light tent! Here's what you need to build a light tent:

*a 4ft X 4ft (approx) frame made of wood or another material *3 or 4 white shower curtain liners (you can buy at a supermarket like Walmart) *spring clamps OR Binder Clips OR staple gun OR Velcro strips to attach the liners to the frame You'll also need:

*a barstool or drum throne (to set the drum on) *3 or 4 (preferably) 500Watt work lights & light stands (these are optional if you do your shooting outdoors) Optional - some background material or white cloth - about 3ft X 4ft Camera-wise. YOU NEED A TRIPOD!

Start by building a 4' x 4' frame; you can use wood, or it can be fiberglass tube, or anything else lightweight & at least a little rigid for hanging the shower curtain liners. I made mine by cutting 3/8in strips off a 4ft length of 2X4 on a table saw. Or you could buy 1X3's & only have to cut 4ft lengths. Here's how I put mine together:

Now you can stop & put 20 coats of tung oil on the frame if you really want, otherwise, continue - You'll need to mount the frame horizontally, either on some kind of stands or suspend it from a ceiling if you want. I used light stands I have, but you can also use mic stands, cymbal stands, or build legs with wood or pipe or something. The frame should be horizontal, about 60in off the ground, and your drum sits on a barstool or drum throne with the frame circling above it like this:

Then you unpackage the 3 shower curtain liners and cut them so they are about 36" high from top to bottom (ask your wife which is top & bottom - she knows! Actually, the bottom edge usually has magnets) Attach the first one, centering it on the back edge of the frame & running the ends of the liner up along the side edges of the frame. Then, run the other 2 liners, one at a time, overlapping the first liner edges about 6 inches, and each running around the front corner. Instead of attaching the liners across the front, attach only a foot from each front corner & leave the rest hang, leaving about a 2 foot opening on the front side for the camera to shoot into the tent. Here's an overhead diagram:

Make sure the liners run INSIDE any frame stands or legs so if you were inside the tent you would not see any stands or legs, only liners. You can attach the liners with a staple gun or grip tape, or spring clamps, or Binder Clips (those black spring clips for bundles of papers, sold at Staples) or Velcro strips on the frame & liners; choose what you want to use according to what works best for putting it up & taking it down a lot. Here's what it should look like:

At the front opening goes your camera, mounted on its tripod. Then clip the hanging liners together IN FRONT of the tripod (my photos incorrectly have them clipped together BEHIND the tripod) using office Binder Clips or clothes pins, something like this:

I'll get to lighting later, but first, at this point your photo would look about like this:

which is fine if you're going to take the stool out digitally; but if you can't do that, or don't want to, you can cover the stool with a white or colored cloth & your photo would look like this:

Another look would be to drape a nice material over the stool and attach it to the back edge of the frame like this:

and set your drum on top of the material like this:

And your photo would look like this:

Now if you happen to be shooting the worst scenario of all:

A CHROME or BRASS SNARE OR SNARE SHELL, then you have to make sure by looking through the camera that your liners are straightened nicely & there are no open gaps between them. And even then, you'll see wrinkled liners in your shell:

So you'll need to either relax all the front & side liners using a hair dryer, or put the liners in a clothes dryer for 10 minutes or so before you hang them so theyftre hot & they hang smoothly, which makes a big difference:

The other option is to do some nice Photoshop enhancing of the image like this:

If you're shooting a drum, you can use the stool idea, but if you're shooting a reflective shell, there's the problem that whatever you set the drum on can't extend beyond the sides or front of the shell or it'll be reflected in the shell. You could put an upside down drumhead on the stool & cover it with white cloth, but it'll still reflect in the shell at the bottom. You'll notice on the last photo that I took the stool out with Photoshop. If you don't have that ability like us pompous, arrogant digital types, and want the shell to float, you have some creative thinking to do! One solution is to suspend the shell using a few pieces of wood or pipe crossing atop the frame, and hanging the shell with fishing line, which might not be visible in the shot or barely visible (I didn't try this out, but have done it on other product shots & it works well sometimes; make sure you put pillows down under it first!), or make a structure inside the shell that a mic stand or cymbal stand can hold up, then drape white cloth over the stand. OR learn Photoshop! If you REALLY need this done, you could email me the image (tom@tvogel.com) & I'll do it for you.

Now, about lighting! First of all, you can set up your light tent outside in an open area & shoot without additional lights. The one thing I'd recommend is that you should use a 4th liner to drape over the top of the light tent & clamp it to the frame & trim it so it doesn't overhang much. Having the tent in direct sunlight is fine, overcast day, better, cloudy day, OK, but in shade your type of camera will determine if there's enough exposure, just try it. For shooting indoors, your best bet would be to use 4 500 Watt worklights with stands; 3 could work also, 2 lights work, but you should be trying to light both sides & the back of the tent. Remember that you'll need more than 1 circuit when you turn on more than 2 of these lights. Also, NEVER position the strip or tube type lights to be vertical - they'll explode! The lights should be set at about the same height as the batter head of the drum. The 4 light setup would preferably be set up like this overhead diagram shows:

If you have the kind of worklights that have 4 lights, but only 2 stands, try to light the front & 2 sides like this:

If you have 3 lights & 3 stands, use the 4 light setup without one of the back lights, still lighting the back, but with one light only. If you only have 2 lights, put them far to the left & right of the camera; experiment by moving them more & more to the sides to try to balance out where light is & where light isn't. This light tent doesn't work with an on camera flash!! Don't waste your time & energy if you're not going to do it right. Now, a little about exposure & color.

If you're shooting a regular 35mm camera, you probably know how to get a reasonable exposure; try to use the smaller f/stop/longer exposure setting to get good depth of field (the front AND back of the drum in focus). If you're shooting digital set your color balance to ftauto balanceft. Also, if the brightness of the image on the rear screen doesn't look bright enough, most digital cameras have 3 settings in the Menu to increase the exposure. Get out the manual & figure it out!

Colorwise, if you're shooting film and using the light tent outdoors, use normal daylight balanced film. If you're shooting indoors your best bet is indoor (tungsten) film, although if it's print film, many of them are pretty forgiving (If I'm not up on the latest films, I haven't shot film for about 5 years.) Regardless if you're shooting film or digital, you might want to buy a Kodak 'Neutral Gray Card' at any good camera shop, and set in on top of the drum for one shot:

Then if you're getting your photo printed , you can tell the photo lab that there's a gray card in one frame for color reference (although, if you take your film to Walmart, they may laugh at you). Also, for digital images, you can use the gray card to color balance the image in Photoshop. If you're interested in that, email me for an explanation. OK, even if you're still awake at this point, that's all for now. Undoubtedly, I'll realize after I post this that I left out something huge. Sorry if I oversimplified or undersimplified this explanation; well whatcha think I am, a rocket scientist?