This is what we shot for the catalog cover (the full catalog photo session are here and here), a close-up shot of one of the catalog boots. Customer wanted to show the boot on a cove and wanted to have the most rich, tasty and sexy (here I’ve run out of my English vocabulary :) look possible. They selected that high black rigid boot with their logo on the front to be shown, all on the black background.
Below is one of the images from this photo session:
I like to shoot products, working quietly in the studio, putting all my skills and creativity to get job done. There are three major types of product shots we are dealing with:
1. Sometimes ugly prototypes, where post-production and retouching may take ten times more efforts than photoshot itself. They are good challenge to work with, and it helps a lot:-)
2. Regular off the shell products, with shape and finish that can be very straight forward to shot or require hours of complicated setup built and very precise lighting to be done right.
3. Designers products, which are very unique and usually very interesting to work with.
In this article I’ll show our recent photoshot with a third, most enjoyable to work type of product.
I am talking about the photo-shot we had recently for Doug James (StudioDoug.com). He brought very interesting and unusual products of his studio to be photographed: LED tabletop lamps along with other cool stuff.
After we have successfully done a boots catalog photography for Refrigiwear, they decided to go with us on the rest of their 2010 catalog. This time we had a uniform 7+ hours photo-shoot with 4 models, about 30-40 outfits and four people (not counting photographer helping in a studio.
It was fun: Four ladies from Refrigiwear was helping Elite models to get dressed on heavy fireproof jackets, Mylène Farmer with her sexy music videos on a TV, humor, laugh and funny model’s faces at the end of each set.
The uniform we were shooting are made for work in a refrigerators and freezers, with temperature down to zero Fahrenheit. I was trying to keep studio cold, but guys still had a tough time wearing them. Modeling light was off for the most of the flashes, helping to minimize a heat in a studio. Several thousand watt-seconds of strobe flash every second or two did not help to stay models cool either:-)
At the and of the day we’ve got over 1100 images for a proofs gallery, I was tired and happy: I love this feeling after tough, but well done job.
Ok, now the studio lighting setup:
I was using excessive amount of strobes, this is what I always like to do: more lights gives me better control over the whole scene.
For example, I prefer to have a shoot-through light instead of only reflector, when possible: it works like a reflector on low power, but easily can go beyond that, when needed.
Working on our latest assignment, a catalog shoot for Refrigiwear, I decided to show how proper lighting can make a big difference by using one of the boots from the catalog as an example.
The object I’ve selected is a simple to photograph. Really simple.
Why?
Because it has well visible texture, and does not have highly reflective or transparent surfaces. Nothing similar to this, right?
However, having an easy to shoot object does not mean you should not worry about the lighting. It is so easy to do a crappy image just because it looks “nice” as is, with one light source, for example. Believe me, I am not against simple lighting schema, but more lights gives me more control over the look of the subject, just need to narrow them down.
Here I am going to show you how each additional light source will change the look of the boot and explain why I need it.
Let’s start from this well textured boot and only one light in front-top of it (White Lightning BD in my case), see the lighting setup:
Do you know what surgical forcep is? According to Wikipedia: “Forceps are used when fingers are too large to grasp small objects or when many objects need to be held at one time while the hands are used to perform a task.” In case if the object is a tiny piece of human body needed for biopsy, something very internal, surgeons pin a hole in human’s body and use 1.5 mm in diameter micro jaws to bite a piece of the liver, for example…
macro photography in your hand
Scary enough? Do not worry, I won’t go further:-)
I was lucky to feel these things in my hands, not inside of me. One of our good long-term customers, medical supplier EndoChoice sells such devices and my duty is to produce outstanding images of these little gremlins.
Last week I had this nice assignment: on-location shoot for Vieler International LP (www.vieler.com). The company was established in 1913, now 3rd generation 100% family-owned business, specializing in architectural hardware out of stainless steel and aluminum: high quality door and window hardware, shop fitting systems and much more. When I’ve checked the company website (after a brief conversation with the Andre Vieler, the owner of the business), I was surprised by the beauty and style of the products they manufacture. The current product look:
The challenge was to match the company colors and style of the images withing quoted 3 hours of work in the warehouse, having the shooting date in 4 days from the first contact with the customer. After I’ve received a company’s brochure, I started to look for a right-color background paper: best color match was absolutely necessary for the project. I was lucky to found right color (that was ultramarine) 107” paper roll for a background in Showcase Atlanta.
Packed with half of the studio ( full list of equipment), I drove just inside the warehouse through a loading dock (saved us about 10 minutes). Aluminum frame with the glass inside was mounted on a wooden board about 6 feet wide, painted black. After a little consideration I’ve decided to use a big chunk of the background paper to cover the board, so we disassembled the frame, covered board with the paper and screwed frame back to it. Andre Vieler, the owner, was helping us, working like an undercover boss
I was done with setup withing 30 minutes: 2 large softboxes on front and side ( main and fill light), small narrow box on behind, two 20 degree spot honeycomb for a background and laptop connected to a camera, ready for a remote capture. Four strobes was connected to a remote controller, camera was mounted on a Manfrotto 055XPROB tripod and 405 geared head.
I do not use (never did) a flash meter (why?), but this time I measured light once at the middle of a frame: f13. That was only the time I needed a meter, the rest exposure evaluation was done on a laptop’s screen.
Also, Andre and 2 other guys were looking at setup preparation and now was looking at laptop’s screen, ready to see the first image, so I wanted to impress them: even the first test image came exactly as I wanted. As usual, I’ve got correct ratio between all light sources without using this “necessary if you a pro” tool :
Industrial photographer Atlanta, GA for Vieler International by Alex Kolsokov
I continue to use my tilt-shift adapter for DSLR, and now I explore the limits of the system. Below is the watch, at a very narrow angle, shoot by using Rodenstock Rodagon APO 80mm F4 lens at aperture setto F16.
Watch photography using tilt-shift DSLR
The lighting schema is simple: two narrow soft boxes on top, each highlighted top and the bottom part of the watch. There should not be direct reflection form a watch’s glass, as it immediately become dull and low contrast. Continue reading »
Recently we’ve finished shooting a line of hand made pens for PenzByDesign.com and I would like to share the lighting setup and few tips on how we did this project.
So, the pen: Relatively simple object to photograph, right? I’ve used narrow softbox on top to make that line-like reflection on a pen. However, one light source placed on top did not highlight a shines of a pen’s acrylic or wood trim. This is why I’ve added two spot lights on each side of the pen.
Example of small reflective object photography in a studio
July 25th, 2010 | 
