:John:

: Thanks so much for sharing your secrets!! So many of us benefit
: from the amazing information shared here!!

: Can you tell us about the lights used for this photo? Hot / cold;
: always-on / strobe?

Jeff,

There are no secrets really...and really no need for a lighting system like mine to take great watch pictures. My lighting system makes a picture like this easier because it makes so much light but it is such a pain to set up that if it hadn't already been set up as the result of another project I would never have taken this picture.

OK, now for the secret. My lights are made by Elinchrom in Switzerland. I have two Elinchrom systems. One is sort of a portable (fits in the back of my SUV) system consisting of 5 self powered strobe heads ranging from 1x300 Watt-Second to 2x600 WS to 2x1200 WS. The system you see in the picture is not as portable as it has the big 3,000 WS power pack you see on the floor which can power 3 light heads and can vary the light given off by each head in 1/10th of an f-stop increments. Each of the 8 heads can be fitted with a huge array of light modifiers from large "Soft Boxes" which give off a very soft, non-glare even light to grids which focus the light like a spot light. The light modifiers along with various reflectors and transparent scrims are what shape the light. If you notice the nose of the IndyCar in the picture I posted yesterday the two little highlights on either side the nose were very intentional and created by two light heads with narrow strip light boxes affixed.

All of these lights are flash or strobe lights. They all have incandescent "modeling lights" which can be set proportionally to give you a little bit of an idea about what the setup is doing. The great thing about flash/strobe lighting is that these heads all fire about a 1/2000 of a second burst of light. This means that the camera shutter speed has almost nothing to do with with the exposure speed (the duration of the flash sets that) so it is almost impossible to have camera stability/vibration effect the photo. Camera shake is the primary killer of all macro photography. The bad thing about flash/strobe lighting is that the modeling lights don't really give you great information about what the scene looks like so you have to develop an instinct for it and also since the camera is digital just bang off shots and look at them until you get it right.

The 2 other really bad things about these lights is that it takes a long time to learn how to use them and they cost a lot...a real lot. If I did not use them to make money I would never be able to afford them. Every time I use them for IndyCar I take one of the younger guys and have him help and teach him "the secrets" and they still seem to hire me and pay me my exorbitant rate.

The good thing about light is that other than the fast burst of the flash and the ease of using the light modifiers you can make the same light this system makes with window light and reflectors made of foamcore or with some LED video lights with scrims and reflectors. I think if I put the camera on a tripod to eliminate shake my lume picture could easily have been taken in window light. Honestly, the secret of lighting is more about being able to see it in your head first and then being intentional about turning the vision in your head into reality than it is about the physical lights.

I hope that helped but it probably didn't...

Best,

JohnCote