Diffuse & Rake Lighting

1. Diffuse & Rake Lighting Bio 498/698

2. Outline • Issues with shiny, metallic specimens (diffuse) or highly textured surfaces (rake) • Lighting Intensity options • Useful Equipment: • Modeling Lights • Diffusers • Styrofoam cutouts

3. Issues with Shiny, Metallic Specimens • In images with shiny, metallic specimens, using lighting equipment and techniques is important because: • Areas of the image can be over-exposed • Areas of the image can be under-exposed • Background shadows • Often lighting set-ups will be different for each individual specimen

4. Modeling Lights and Intensity Full and Half and Full PV Intensity Ex. Modeling Light position 1

5. Modeling Lights and Intensity Half and Half and Full PV Ex. Modeling Light position 1

6. Modeling Lights and Intensity Ex. Modeling Light position 2 Half and Half and Full PV

7. Modeling Lights and Intensity Half and Quarter and Full PV Ex. Modeling Light position 2

8. Modeling Lights and Intensity Quarter and Quarter and Full PV Ex. Modeling Light position 2

9. Modeling Lights and Intensity Quarter and Quarter and PV turned down 2 times Ex. Modeling Light position 2

10. Modeling Lights and Intensity Quarter and Quarter and PV turned down 2 times Ex. Modeling Light Position 3

11. Modeling Lights and Intensity Ex. Modeling Light Position 4 Quarter and Quarter and PV turned down 2 times

12. Additional Lighting Tricks (Diffusers)

13. Diffusion Cylinders + Styrofoam Cutout

14. Additional Lighting Tricks (Diffusers) Quarter and Quarter and PV turned down 2 times + Diffuser Ex. Modeling Light Position 4 Without changing your lighting intensity or equipment, adding a diffuser will cause your overall image to become darker.

15. Additional Lighting Tricks (Diffusers) Quarter and Quarter and Full PV+ Diffuser Ex. Modeling Light Position 4

16. Additional Lighting Tricks (Diffusers) Quarter and Half and Full PV + Diffuser Ex. Modeling Light Position 4

17. Additional Lighting Tricks (Styrofoam cutouts)

18. Additional Lighting Tricks (Styrofoam cutouts) Quarter and Half and Full PV + Diffuser + Styrofoam cutout Ex. Modeling Light Position 4

19. Additional Lighting Tricks (Styrofoam cutouts) Half and Full and Full PV + Diffuser + Styrofoam cutout Ex. Modeling Light Position 4

20. Conclusion • Adding diffusers and Styrofoam cutouts will decrease your lighting intensity • Diffusers and styrofoam cutouts provides a more even lighting for a shiny, reflective specimen • Additional information: http://www.visionarydigital.com/Support.html

21. Raking Light(Textured Specimens) Bio 498/698

22. Outline Textured Insects What are raking lights? Using a Diffusion Cylinder with a Styrofoam cutout Using raking lights for textured specimens

23. Textured Insects With specimens that have a lot of texture, lighting and being able to emphasize the texture becomes tricky

24. What is a Raking light? • Raking light = the illumination of objects from a light source that is at an oblique angle or almost parallel to the surface • This technique provides photographic information on the texture of the specimen, ie ridges along a beetle’s back.

25. Top-down view of specimen with raking light setup • Raking light should be setup so that light is perpendicular to the texture’s direction Specimen Texture direction Diffuser Modeling light with diffuser (raking light)

26. Raking Light W/out diffuser W/ diffuser Put a diffuser on one of the lights Angle the light w/ diffuser so that it is closer to the specimen in a perpendicular angle to the texture Angle the light w/out diffuser facing towards the ceiling

27. Diffusion Cylinders + Styrofoam Cutout

28. Raking Light with Diffusion Cylinders + Styrofoam Cutout • Diffusion cylinders + Styrofoam cutouts are useful for creating a more even light – especially for shiny specimens • For specimens with texture, this often minimizes or does not accurately represent the texture.