Reverse engineering of images

Hello all,

Some time ago, with lots of help from this forum, I learned how to use my K10D with external flashes. Many thanks for this. I think I can take a decent indoor picture now, in most cases. I use manual mode for both camera and flashguns, and usually I bounce a small external on-camera gun into the ceiling or a wall behind me. Then I carry an optically triggered slave with a diffusor in my left hand, which I use as a torch light to light up the darkest areas in front of me. This setup may be combined with a radio triggered gun in another room and/or one extra optically triggered gun.
I shoot in raw, ev 200 - 800, and try to even out shadows & highlights and color temperature differences in photoshop.
Now, since I found these images (see links below) on the Internet, I want to move on to the next level... Because these are all far beyond what I can produce.
So, I would appreciate if you could help me analyze how these were made.

First, we have these
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I can see no signs of flashguns being used at all. Very soft and evenly distributed light. If I use a flashgun to support existing artificial light, I expect big trouble with blue tones from the flash (or yellow/red tones from the lamps). So my guess is : No flashguns used at all. Multiple images with different exposures are taken with the use of a tripod. It looks like a very big EV span in one image to me, but I can see no sign of "HDR look", so I go for image blending into one image in photoshop.

Then this one
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A strong front light, but almost no shadows behind the vase. My guess is dual umbrella mounted guns, just above and beside the photographer´s head. Or is that to much of a setup to expect for just one picture in a property-for-sale offer like this ?

If you can find out anything of the behind-the-scenes making of these pictures, I would be most grateful for your advice.

Thanks
Ragnar

I Think I know how the last link (image) was done If you look here is a shadow coming from the main light window and maybe some reflectors bouncing the light back as I don't see any flash high lights on the vase or table.

James

I also think that most of the images you have posted are using natural light and the ambient light available with a tripod and a correcting fitter
and a spot of hdr

James

Looks like HDR to me
The "HDR look" you speak of is actually just tone-mapping.... usually over cooked

The billiard room shows the most obvious signs. The RHS of the bookcase should be in shadow (in fact there is an obvious shadow across the floor), but the brightness of the books makes it look unnaturally bright.

You could do it with manual exposure blending in Photoshop, or it could be HDR software (with the controls in the "sensible" region!).

I do remember seeing a very good Photoshop multi-layer room image in one of Katrin Eismann's books. It was detailing handling multiple light sources with different white balances. The photographer had shot RAW, then processed multiple output images for each light source and hand blended.
The result was well worth the effort.

Will see if I can dig up the reference...
EDIT: think it was page 133 of "Photoshop Restoration and Retouching" - alas, not available on Google books

Matt

looks like the photog is bouncing the lights up and backwards, letting the reflected flash light add fill, probably using reflectors as well. He appears to be using his flash units or daylight balanced lights inside the room light fixtures as well, or is aiming his flashes right at the light fixtures.

here's a (not so great) hdr:


and a flash shot, with indirect flash:

that pool table shot...
imagine a flash unit on the floor behind the table with a cto gel on it pointing straight up hitting the ceiling beside the trac lights... that fills under the stairs and the whole corner...
one flash unit clamped to the long far edge of the pool table to light the bookshelf...
one bare bulb flash in an ajacent room to light the front of the table and one bounced (backward for reflected fill) at the camera position...

James,
On the vase & table picture, I think reflectors used to catch the incoming window light could not light up the whole scene from the small shelf to the front of the table so evenly. Also, the shadow under the front of the table top points to some light source above and behind the photographer.

Matt,
The bookshelf was the first thing to catch my eye too. Too bright and a little different in color temperature. I enlarged the picture and found that there is a small shadow on the bottom surface of the top shelf (middle section) and on bigger one the top surface of the books in lower shelfs. I just can´t figure out what light source and posistion is used to get that result. Must be high positioned.
What edition of the book were you referring to ? I might find one on ebay...

Don,
Yes, I suppose there are reflectors or fixtures in combination with flashlight in the vase & table picture.
But in the pool table scene, a flash gun on the floor behind the table would have cast some obvious shadows. And also filled out the stairs shadow on the red wall under the stairs.

Thank you all, I think I will start practising picture blending with multiple exposures. My flash guns can rest for a while...

Ragnar