TedSokolowskiDemoJune2002

Ted Sokolowski Demo.

Contact Ted through his web site: Sokolowskistudios.com

Ted sets up for the demo.

Some of the equipment Ted uses:
-35mm SLR camera
-Tripod
-Flood lights
-Umbrella
-Seamless paper background

Ted prefers a neutral gray background. Lay out a nice curve with the seamless paper. Remember, too long of curved background results in a dark background, too short causes curved shadows.

Use an 18% gray card to get a meter reading for correct exposure. Fill the viewfider with the card. No focus is necessary.

Here Ted explains the difference between an SLR camera and a "point and shoot" camera. As you can see by the diagram, with a SLR camera (top), you see what the camera sees. With a regular point and shoot camera (bottom) your eye and the camera lense may be seeing an item at a slightly different angle.

A white umbrella is used to difuse the light. Another good fabric to use is sail cloth. Ted uses 500 watt 3200K lights made by GE, Sylvania or Westinghouse. These burn HOT so use a porcelain fixture, not paper or plastic.

You can use a white reflector card to help fill in light around the subjet and eliminate most shadows.

You can experiment with light at different angles. Having the flood lights directly on the subject can cause "hot" white spots to show up in the photo.

Here the 18% gray card is used to get the correct meter reading for exposure. Ted uses "bracketing" to get the best photo. "Bracketing" is where you shoot one or two photos with a slower shutter speed and one or two photos with a faster shutter speed. Each will give you a slightly different result. Ted uses Kodak Tungsten Ektrachrome professional film.

Ted used a helpful drawing to describe "Depth of Field". Depth of Field is the zone of sharpness in your subject on either side of focused distance. DOF at any aperture extends about twice as far behind where you'ved focused as it does in front of it. For best results focus about one third of the way back on the piece.

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