We had to do another photo shoot today and we really pulled out all the stops with the new gear we have around. As you can see, this is a very typical product shot on a white background for use on a web page or in a magazine. In the past, we have shown some techniques with hot lights, so today we are going to use some flash units.
In the recent review of the Cactus V2 wireless flash trigger we had some pretty nice product shots we used. We always take our own product shots, while manufacturer shots are usually very nice, they often can be retouched to make products look better than they really are. With the product shots for our articles, the only retouching may be to remove some stray dust. Whenever we use a different technique, we will try to post a dissection of the shoot to show you how it was done.
David Berman is a British news photographer and has posted a narrated slideshow showing some recent assignments with the final photos and then diagrams detailed the lighting setups he used. This is great information to learn how really dramatic photos can be taken. What is nice is that he doesn’t rely on a truckload of equipment, often its just one or two lights with umbrellas (brollys), reflectors, or gells.
Watch the flash slideshow
David Berman’s website
Via: Strobist
Earlier we discussed a light setup for a basic headshot shoot. Today we go outdoors and unplugged. Natural light can be your friend or your enemy depending on how you approach it. The biggest mistake people make is thinking that the sun is a giant soft light in the sky. While the Sun is over 92 million miles away, if you hold your thumb up to the sun at high noon, it appears to only be the size of your thumbnail making it a VERY small spotlight which causes very harsh shadows. An overcast day changes this by creating a gigantic softbox, thus, the best outdoor shooting is on cloudy, overcast days. There is also the “magic hour” right at sunrise and sunset that provides excellent light and color. Read the rest of this entry »
Setting up a basic portrait needn’t be that difficult. With a few key placements of some lights and reflectors, some great results can be obtained. For this basic setup, we used the Lowel Omni light to hit the back of the head and the hair, the Dynaphos light with a shoot-thru umbrella for the key light, and reflector to ease up the shadows, and a flash for some simple fill.
Let’s dissect the entire setup and see how it was done.
As I have said before, I am a huge fan of saving money where ever and whenever you can…..if it makes sense. Let’s talk about lighting and why doing this on the cheap is so hard. Lightbulbs suck. There, I said it, plain and simple. I have tried probably 20 different lightbulbs this past year, bright white, daylight, you name it, if it claimed to be some form of daylight bulb, I have tried it. The end result of over $100 in light bulb purchases this year? Cheap daylight bulbs all over the house, and the purchase of decent studio lights. Why didn’t these lights work?
I basically started off my photography journey doing product shots for some hobby websites I had. I was competing against big print magazines so I always strived to come up with product shots that were as good or better than what the big guys were doing. The big difference was I didn’t have nearly the budget (and still don’t) that a print magazine has for a studio, so I learned to improvise. As I work on different projects I will share some tips on how to improve on a basic product photo to get much better results.
Sure a nice set of Alien Bee’s may be in your Amazon wish-list waiting for you to win the lottery in order to afford them. If you are just getting started, you don’t need to spend that kind of money on some basic lighting.
If you aren’t an avid eBay’er, this isn’t a bad time to get started, but you can find all of the components you need at your local stores. Read the rest of this entry »
