Bonsai photography

[james]

Setting up for spring work. I like to take pre and post photographs of the trees. Here is my garage set up. I don’t have a studio, yet wish to have reasonable documentation. Thoughts? Can also do black background, thought this light grey of wall worked well, more soft.

 

[Fidur]

You have a lovely studio and a great subject!.
To me your illumination makes a great job with the bark, but the foliage is a bit flat
I would try to avoid that flatness experimenting with different scenarios. For instance, dimming the right light in a 50% , and using a rim light , down to the right.

 

[james]

Thanks for your thoughts Fidur. I can play with each of the lights, decreasing or increasing intensity, position and height. As I look at the image again, I agree, foliage looks flat. Will play around with the lights to try to gain more dimension/depth, etc.

 

[chicago1980]

Nice photo. Lighting is darn tricky with bonsai. I am also practicing taking photos of my work. I am still developing a style myself.

 

[chicago1980]

Here is a recent photo of my practice.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Looks good. It’s about what I did for a long time until I built a counter with a chalkboard wall and a pull-down projector screen to have white and black options.

 

[james]

Adjusted lights a bit to try to give a more depth to the foliage.

 

[maroun.c]

What I find tricky in bonsai photography is whether you want all the tree uniformly lit to see all branches and foliage uniformly and well lit, or if you want to show the tree more "realistically" as our eyes are more used to seing trees lit by a single light source coming more from the top, with resulting shadows and light direction ... same like in portrait photography where the subject can be lit with multiple lights and huge softboxesand reflectors... yet a certain order In light direction is still there to have a main light dictating where light is coming from and all other ratios and light positions are there to show shadows.
Maybe experiment with a single light coming a bit from above and a reflector from other side, or if using 2 lights have the other light at 1/4- 1/2 strength of the first light. A light from the back hidden behind the tree and at much less strength hitting either the background can work to reduce shadows cast on the background or to give separation between tree and background to get more depth or 3 dimensional look. Also play with a back light aimed at the tree to give separation from background and give a nice delineation and visibility of the foliage.

 

[xwintersgloomx]

Any recommendations for softboxes to purchase for portrait photography or for bonsai?