Tabletop photography - Photographing puns.

Puns, plays on words, are a source of amusement for me. I find that I constantly manipulate words in my mind to see if there is something silly to be said, sometimes when alone and other times in the midst of company. Occasionally I will attempt to physically compose one to photograph. I shot this image in 2006 and used very simple lighting to accomplish the task. That's the nice thing about table work; you don't need a lot of equipment and often you can get reasonable images. The bottom and background should be something uniform, although there are always exceptions. In this case I used white 20x40 inch corregated plastic sheeting. You may want to consider buying a simple and inexpensive light tent; there are lots for sale on Amazon.

I like to use a mild telephoto lens; it allows you to shoot from a number of positions without being too close or uncomfortably far away. In terms of camera settings it is a good idea to use a small aperture (f/11 or smaller if possible). Keep ISO low and use a tripod so that shutter speed doesn't matter. I like to set the mode dial to manual and operate shutter speed and aperture independently. A shot like this will usually underexpose the image as the white background will throw off the camera's meter. Normally, I would overexpose the image by 1 stop, but it is easy enough to take a picture and then examine the resulting histogram. Adjust the shutter speed and take another photo then recheck. Continue this process until you get the right exposure settings. Once achieved you don't have to change the settings unless the lighting changes.

This also presents a wonderful opportunity to play with lighting. Overhead fluorescent lighting can be harsh although it typically is a broad light source and so it produces soft shadows. You can use small table lamps if you like; putting a shade on them or a light veneer of cheesecloth will soften shadows. A single light source will produce stark contrasts. It is usually a good idea to use several light sources. Keep the same kind of bulbs in them so colours are consistent and vary distance according to what pleases you. The further away a light source is the less effect it has but the more even the lighting is over the shooting area. Move them around until you have something you approve of.

Before starting to shoot I will often do a custom white balance. This ensures proper colour reproduction and is another reason why you want all the lights to have the same colour temperature. Once everything is the way you want it, start taking pictures. Jack and the beans would approve.

Thanks for reading.     Ericspix     Eric Svendsen