This type of shots is not what I usually do, but when my friends asked if I can do their seniors promo shoot (never heard of such type before:-) my answer was: yes!
I always glad to host any of my good friends in the studio: I can always test new gear or learn some new technique while working with them. This time I eventually got an opportunity to test my DIY battery power pack (aka Vagabond II I’ve assembled recently) in real life situation, as we planed to do several informal shot outside of the studio.
After we were done with formal (most boring for me, not much formality left in my brain part of the shot in a studio, I took 3 Paul. C Buff monolights outside, on our backyard. It was close enough to use an extension cord to power them up, but the idea was to test my DYI Vagabond.
Two WL X1600 units and one AB400 were used. The power settings was close to a maximum: I was shooting at 1/250 sec F8, ISO100. At such exposure ambient light did not play any significant role in that shade under the trees.
The lighting setup for the outside shoot :
on location lighting setup DIY vagabond II alienbees pack
I was using various softboxes for most of our product photography, but about a half a year ago I discovered a perfect use of translucent diffuser panels in product photography. I am talking about usually small product with glossy reflective surface with inevitable reflection form the lights on it.
The main difference between softbox and diffuser panel is how the light is spread on the “working” surface: good softbox is suppose to produce even flat light on its front screen while diffuser may have very different pattern, depending on how we highlight it. What does it mean for me when I shoot some glossy, especially dark glossy object? The reflection from that light.
Reflection will be very different: softbox always gives sharp-edged square while diffuser panel can produce very uneven, gradient filling. Gradient is the key: it can be round, square or linear, whatever I need to show on the object.
Below is the example images I’ve got while shooting line of cosmetic brushes for Anisa International. Managed by Anisa Tewlar, company makes high-quality cosmetic brushes and accessories, I am really glad to work with them.
Top-down shot of the black glossy brush, done with two softboxes on each side of the brush:
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:
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.
As promised, I prepared lighting setup and a video from our last workshop (more about this here). I am not going to post simple setup we started from, it should be self explainable, if you look at the photo. Below is what we have done by the end of workshop, after playing with ratios and different light modifiers. Setup like you see below can be considered “basic” for a standard fashion-like style portraits.
Our first workshop just happened last Sunday! Hurray!
Atlanta photographer workshop class
Many thanks to all participants, I am sure it was very enjoyable and interesting for all of us:-)
Workshop lasted for 4 hours, during this time we have covered a basic’s of studio gear,shooting techniques, had a master class and an actual photoshoot session for each participant.
At the end we had nice party time:-)
I had an opportunity ( many thanks to John Williams from Hotwire Digital) to play with this beast, Hasselblad H3D -31 few month ago, eventually got time to write this short review.
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 »
When one of our client’s ask me to shoot several bracelets, it looked like an easy task, at first. But when we started to talk about technical requirements, the photo session become more challenging than I was thinking…
First, he wants a spot-like gradient background, from deep purple to a complete black.
Second, bracelets must be shoot in frontal position, not a simple from-top shoot. Saying that they also mentioned that full bracelet must have as maximum details as possible.
So, how to get the first task done? Hang bracelet on a tiny fishing lines and project a a spot on a dark background? Master background digitally, after the shoot? I am not a big fun of such massive digital post processing, especially when I shoot for a catalog, hundred of pieces. Same dislike of a complicated to repeat setups because of product’s quantity.
What I did is this: 2 light sources ( Paul. C Buff monolights) , one mirror and one white paper background on rails. Plus, unfortunately, one photoshop task for a post production, you’ll see later what I mean.
The setup, was simple: Jewelry was placed on a mirror positioned so it was reflecting a white paper backdrop when looked from a camera’s angle. However, backdrop was black, as no other light source was pointed on a backdrop. Narrow rectangular softbox was placed directly on top of the jewelry, so no lights was escaping on a backdrop behind.
Now only spot (honeycomb attachment was used) needs to be pointed to appropriate place on a backdrop to create a nice gradient.
The same but in drawing:
Everyone knows how tricky may be a shooting reflective object, especially if the object is spherical shaped or cylinder, like a kettle. Recently we had a photo session for a new Walmart kitchenware, and I want to share some tips and trick I was using to get it done.
August 22nd, 2010 | 
part of the shot in a studio, I took 3 Paul. C Buff monolights outside, on our backyard. It was close enough to use an extension cord to power them up, but the idea was to test my DYI Vagabond.
