Metal

I decided to do another photo about specular highlights tonight.

For Valentines Day, my lovely girlfriend got me a Leatherman multitool. It's very shiny and perfect for photography.

I've talked about specular highlights quite a lot in the past, so I don't think I need to go into much detail right not. Basically, they are reflections of the light source in whatever object or subject you are shooting. It's the relationship between the specular highlights, true values, and shadows that give a photo its tonal range and feel. Someone with very shiny skin will have strong specular highlights and a photo of them may look more dramatic than one of someone with matte skin with no specular highlights.

Also, the smaller the light source, the more intense the specular highlight. A laser would have a incredibly intense highlight on my polished steel Leatherman, where as a nice, big soft box would have a lovely, glowing effect. You can guess which light source I used for tonight photo.

You can really see the effects of the specular highlight here. Just like a mirror, the polished steel reflects the light source. Where the angle of incidence of the light source intersects with the camera, the white soft box is shown. Where the angle is not consistent, the metal is dark, reflecting the dark room I was shooting in.

I had the soft box at a very low angle to give the most amount of texture to the image as possible. This way, only faces at 45ish degrees would reflect the soft box to the camera, and you get this very dynamic and dramatic lighting. The edges are lit the most, giving the look of rim lights being used instead of a single light.

I shot using a 560 at 1/128 power. Camera setting were f2.2, ISO100, and 1/80. The room was very dark I was shooting in, which helped give the shadows such a rich feel.

All for tonight, see you tomorrow.