As I previously mentioned in my last posting, I always like to check out the physical properties of almost everything I am shooting, unless I am in a mad dash. I am always hoping my subject matter has the light passage qualities of a snakeskin or piece of agate. Especially in controlled lighting situations, a translucent object expands our lighting options vastly, and allows for a rethinking of how something actually looks.
However, translucency is not an on/off switch, and from item to item, or even within a given subject, the degree of translucency can vary greatly. As an object drifts closer and closer to transparency, the lighting options narrow as we begin to begin to get concerned about reflections or specular lights turning up from our light sources. Another thing to consider is if we merely want to backlight your subject, or if we want to both backlight and front light it simultaneously. Usually in such circumstances, my preference is for using a white balanced light table as my primary light source, and any front or side lighting is functioning a fill light.
To that end, let's discuss the photo above of Nori. In this photo, my primary goal was to visually rethink the dried seaweed used in making sushi. The last thing I wanted to create here was another food photo. To that end, the subject was laid out on my light table in a simplified graphic in total isolation and simply lit from below. The initial visual outcome was problematic, as substantial blocks of the dried seaweed were close to opaque and some areas were near black. Accordingly, I set up a small soft box and used it as a fill light, to shift the black areas into the dark green. In this way, it was possible to expand the green values across both pieces of Nori, leaving us with an image that feels far closer to late 20th century conceptual painting than editorial food photography.
