How to bring out the inner glow of your jack-o-lantern

 

Photo by Skyler Sawyer on Unsplash

     Halloween is fast approaching, and one of the traditional decorations is the jack-o-lantern.

    Some range from the minimalist designs with a mouth, nose and eyes cut away from the gourd, while others are more elaborate pictures. The best way to photograph them is with the primary light source being the one that is inside the pumpkin. And that means adjusting your camera to only capture that light.

    Over on Instructables, user jenleigh offers some basic tips for doing it. She suggested making sure there is a fairly strong light inside the pumpkin, either a pumpkin light or a bright flashlight. I think you might get a good effect with a remotely fired flash inside the pumpkin. The best way do that would be to have the flash on the bottom and pointed at the top, illuminating the inside.

Pringles can offers macro flash diffusion for less than $2

    In a recent post, we discussed ways to do macrophotography if you don't have a dedicated macro lens.

    Now, lets talk about lighting those extreme close-ups.

    While you can use continuous light, such as a desk lamp, you might not have that option if you are shooting outdoors, or if the lights you have won't permit a fast-enough shutter speed to avoid blurring.

    One of the best ways to do that is through camera flashes, but you are going to need to diffuse the light to make it flattering, as well as work well up close.

    One low-budget way to do it is to use a Pringles potato-chip can as a snoot/diffuser for the pictures.

    A Pringles can is particularly suited for this task because the inside of the canister is silver colored, making it more reflective. It also has a clear cap, into which you can put diffusing material to soften the light.

    Plus, Pringles don't leave the same greasy residue behind like traditional potato chips.

    There are multiple tutorials online for how to make this rig, but here's how I made mine.

    First, I picked up some Pringles at the local Walmart for just under $2, and had a nice snack at work for a couple days.

    Then, after sweeping all the chip crumbs out of the tube, I cut out a hole in the side about a quarter-inch from the bottom that was the same dimension as the flash head. While some people cut away the cardboard completely, I chose to leave it as two flaps to better grip the flash head.

    While some people will mount the flash in the back, I found the side mount is better, as the head is straight up, and you can angle it to light the subject in front of the lens. The other way requires sculpting the tube into a particular shape, which only works if you are going to use one particular lens for your macro shoots. I personally prefer to keep my options open.

    For my diffusion panel, I put a circle of copy paper in the cap. After making sure it worked, I then put black duct tape on the outside to give it a relatively professional look.

    This is how the rig looks when on the flash and camera, before being covered in duct tape. 

 

       (Note the guide number of the side of the flash, a tip from an earlier post on flash photography.)

     

     Here's a photo taken with ambient light in the room, with no flash as the control.

    

  

    And here's one with the diffuser.

    For this shot, I was using through-the-lens metering for the flash, but you can use a manual flash, but it might take a bit of trial and error.

Panoramas allow you to go wide, even if you don't have a wide-angle lens

        Baltimore Harbor, as seen from the ramparts of Fort McHenry.

     Panoramas are probably one of the oldest types of photos, dating back to daguerreotypes with sweeping views of cities.

    It is a format that's especially good for landscapes or if you're capturing something really large. Photographer David Bergman has done "gigapans" where he captures ultrahigh resolution panoramic shots where you can zoom in on individual details in the photos.

    There have been special cameras made for panoramas, including some that had rotating lenses that would cover multiple frames of film to capture the image. But a more common way to do it is to put multiple pictures together, which is how the originals were made.

    In this day, it is fairly easy to make panoramas regardless of what camera you use, especially with computers doing the stitching seamlessly.

    If you have a cellphone camera, you most likely have a pano feature built into the camera. All you have to do is press the shutter button and move the camera in the direction shown on screen to capture a panorama.

    The key to a successful one is to keep the camera steady, not jerking it around up or down, which will ruin the photo.

     If you have another type of camera, be it a point-and-shoot, bridge, mirrorless or DSLR, there are ways to create panoramas. It involves taking a series of pictures and then stitching them together in a computer.

    To get the best results, you want to shoot in portrait (vertical) orientation, as this will make assembling the panorama easier, as there will be fewer awkward edges that will have to be cropped out.

    You also want to lock your exposure to ensure the pictures have a uniform look, or the finished picture is going to look awkward, unless you spend extra time balancing out exposures in post. You should have some overlap, about 10-20 percent, to make it easier to join them and avoid any gaps.

    There are a few options for stitching them together.

    One way is a bit more artisanal. Basically open the pictures in your photo editor and line them up, doing some cropping and masking to eliminate seams.

    Some photo editors, such as Adobe Lightroom Classic, will automatically stitch the pictures together into a seamless panorama.

    There are also free software options that will stitch your photos together. One of the best is Hugin, which runs on both Windows and Mac, that lets you stitch traditional 180-degree and 360-degree panoramas.  

How to get extreme close-ups with the camera you have

     I've always said that photography can show you things that you can't see, as well as record the things that you can see.

    One of those ways is macrophotography, where you can go in for extreme close-ups of various objects. This allows you see details that may not be readily apparent to the naked eye, as well as create a new perspective on an otherwise mundane object.

    There are dedicated lenses for macrophotograpy, as well as filter-like diopters you can use to magnify the image in your lens. There are also extension tubes and even bellows that can put the lens farther out to create a close-up image.

    But if you don't want to invest in that gear, especially if you're trying out macrophotography for the first time, there are a couple easy solutions.

    If you're using a cellphone camera, you can use a simple magnifying glass to get a closer look. Just put the glass in front of your lens and you might have to move your camera back and forth to bring it into focus.

    That's how I got this photo of a coin commemorating the 75th anniversary of the B-17 "Memphis Belle" completing 25 missions over Europe in World War II.

    If you are lucky enough to have a camera with a removable lens, there's a way to get a great macro shot. It's a tip I first learned in high school back when we were still shooting film.

    Take off your lens and hold it up backwards against the camera's lens mount. You'll have to hold it tight to prevent a light leak and then move back and forth to get the image in focus. If you're using a lens where the camera sets the aperture instead, you'll have to hold your finger on the lever that adjusts the aperture to get it to stay wide open.

    I took this shot using a 50mm f-2 Rikenor lens that I reversed.   

    For perspective, here's a shot of the same coin, taken with the 50mm properly mounted on my camera.

PVC stand attachment provides extra "hands" for using poster board reflectors

    This post is a bit of a two-for-one deal. Two DIY projects in one post.

    The first one is a DIY reflector to bounce light on to your subject. You can use these indoors or out.

   There are expensive models, but a couple of photographers, including Joe Edelman and Daniel Norton, recommend using white poster boards. Norton calls the ones he uses "Brooklyn Reflectors." The boards are inexpensive — you can get them for $1.25 a piece at the so-called dollar stores, or your usual big-box store.

    With it being back-to-school, you may be able to get them on sale.

    Here's Edelman's demonstration with one.

   
    You can use the reflector with a voice-activated lightstand — also known as an assistant — but if you're shooting alone, it could get tricky trying to take the picture and hold the reflector yourself.

    Edelman proposes building a PVC holder for the reflector that lets you adjust it and put it on a lightstand. This allows you to use it hands free, and the rig can also hold flags (the light-blocking variety, not the state or national emblems) and Gobos, which go between a light source and a subject to create a pattern of light, say simulating light coming through a Venetian blind.

    Edleman's plans are in this video, although I would probably also use a joint to mount it to a PVC lightstand.