Still life - Jason and the Argonauts test shot 2

I was planning on shooting my final shot for my still life idea today, however, I forgot to bring the gold painted coins and the silver goblet which would have added some shine and an element of wealth to the image.

Instead I practiced my test shot again with most of my own props to see how they compared to the substitutes I had used before hand.

I used the same lighting set up as before with a large soft box above, a medium soft box to the right hand side, and a reflector front/left of the set-up.


I used flash at first, but decided to opt for constant tungsten bulbs and created a custom white balance.

As I was using tungsten bulbs, a longer exposure was necessary than is used for flash. I used an exposure of 2 seconds and ISO 100, so I needed to use a tripod; as I had a tripod I decided to set a remote shutter of ten seconds to lessen the amount of shake in the camera.

I had the right hand main light on for the whole exposure, I held the reflector and stood next to the large soft box. When the shutter opened I turned the top light on for approximately 1 second (half the exposure time).
This light hit the reflector and also shone directly down on to the props taking the hard edge off the shadows cast by the main light. I decided to do this instead of playing with the brightness of the bulb as it was easier for me to manage.

I shot in Large Jpeg and RAW file format. Having never worked with or used RAW files I had to experiment a little when I uploaded the image. I do think it has had an effect and my image was much more editable than a Jpeg file would have been.

In Photoshop I had to straighten the image slightly, I also applied the curves tool and the oil paint filter at 68%. The background is just a plain grey studio curve, but I have layered over a black and white photograph of a cloudy sky to give the mottled patchy paint work effect to imitate a wall.

Overall I am happy with the lighting and composition, the image is much brighter and cleaner than the first test shot; but the whole image is mainly grey/yellow tones. I think I need to add some different coloured items in the image, perhaps some grapes (fruit can signify wealth and fertiliy in dutch vanitas) and a red cape similar to the one Jason wore towards the end of the film, this will make a more eye catching photograph. I think that I should probably move the fleece, as the fleece is the most precious item and the main focus of the myth and might also remove or change the appearance of the white headband as it looks a bit like toilet paper!

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