Product Shoot One

Aim of the Shoot

For this first product shoot in the studio, I wanted to try a few ideas I sketched whilst on my dinner break.

The first ideas featured fruit juice drinks, including J2O.

First, it was discussing with Steve Davies the ideas that I had and what I was looking to produce, Steve gave me some suggestions and helped with the positioning of the lights. After carrying out a quick risk assessment for health and safety, we started the photography.

The Set Ups

After some test shots and tweaking the aperture (both the ISO and shutter speed were limited), I got the results that I was looking for.

Using the set up above, with two light boxes backlighting the product table, one light under lighting the product and a snoot to the left of the camera.

A studio overhead diagram is below:

The camera itself was mounted on a camera stand, which was far more flexible than the traditional tripod, and far more stable.

The first idea, which I called Quality First featured four bottles, with a J2O bottle, which I used as the target product.

The next idea for the juice drinks, used a little improvisation:

But, at the end of the day, if the photograph looks good

(and they cannot see how it was done) the end justifies the means.

 

Here is the end result, which I entitled 'Above the rest':

For this photograph I had to position and rotate the J2O bottle so that the label showed the brand as best I could, whilst keeping the two front bottles together, which not only produced the effect that I wanted, but also hid the rolls of tape used to raise the J2O bottle.  One trick I used during the setting up of this image was to use the focus frame, in the viewfinder, to line up the bottles.

The next idea I worked on still involved the fruit juice, but used a different approach.

This image I entitled 'Quality not Quantity' was used to promote the target product in an environment where it was clearly in the minority to the other products, but demonstrating that it is not the quantity but the quality that counts. 

Toiletries

The next product I looked at was some toiletries, that I had been given as a gift.

Toiletries and perfumes are a very popular product to be photographed, because of there appeal to people, sometimes being promoted by celebrities, often shown with backlighting illuminating the bottle and its contents.

A studio overhead diagram is below:

In this case the bottles are black and opaque, so back lighting would not work with these.  An added problem with these items is that the camera might expose for the black packaging and not the white labelling, so some post production work in Photoshop will be necessary.

Canon A720 IS

The next item was a compact camera.

Cameras are a very popular consumer item and here product photography is a vital advertising tool, often the cameras are shown in a dim lit or even dark environment.  I therefore thought that I would give it a try first shooting in a light environment, especially as the camera has a silver finish and compare this to a photograph taken in a dark environment.

I did not want to take too many photographs as I was unsure how these would turn out, and my priority was the fruit juice bottles and the toiletries.

A studio overhead diagram is below:

Below is one of the photographs that I took in the light setting:

The angle of the photograph captured both the front of the camera and the top.  This is a popular angle when photographing a camera as people like to see as much detail, particularly in a single image.

Choice of Equipment

 

For these photographs I used the DSLR with a 18 – 55 mm lens, as this would give me a range of focal lengths to play with.  The lens had a macro setting which would be essential for these photographs. I will also be using the battery grip enables me to take the portrait orientated photographs, whilst still having access to the important controls.

 

I also used the camera stand as this would reduce time adjusting the focusing and any metering changes.

I used the infra red trigger for the flash units which gave me more portability and prevented any tripping over type accidents.

 

Health and Safety

When working in a photographic studio you have to be careful of a number of things:

Environment

Fortunately, working in the college photographic studio which is kept clear of any obstructions, we had a clear and safe working environment, which is very important because, once the lights are out and we have only the modelling lights from the flash units to see by, any cables or props left lying around could cause an accident.

Electricity

Although the voltages for many lights may be lower, especially for portable lighting, you must always check that the cables are in good condition and have firm connections (to the equipment and to the mains power supply) and that nothing is overloading any sockets.

Any use of liquids, especially with some of my photographs, was controlled to prevent any liquid coming close to any electrical appliances.

Cables

The lighting is fitted to a series of tracks which are fixed to the ceiling, this reduces the number of cables that are near the ground, and any slack in the cables from these lights is taken up to prevent any tripping over accidents.

Heat

Because of the use of flash units, which generate a lot of heat, these were only handled before any photography started, using the light from the modelling light to ascertain the lighting. Also nothing inflammable was placed any where near any lighting equipment. It is important with so much lighting equipment that can be triggered wirelessly that any unused equipment is switched off, both for safety and causing unwanted lighting.

Flash Photography

Flash photography, in particular the use of strobe lighting can affect someone who has photosensitive epilepsy, where by an epileptic fit can be triggered by flashing lights.  This is why announcements are made prior to showing on television, for example an interview, where there is rapid flashes from photographers flash guns.  Although no one I know suffers from this, it is an important consideration to think about as some people are unaware that they are sensitive to light in this way until something happens. 

Chemicals

Because we are all using digital cameras, most of the chemicals involved with photography, in particular the processing and development of the finished photographs, have been removed.

Contact

Although this might seem an unusual heading, it is still a very important consideration.  Whilst working in the photographic studio at the Burton College, we are aware that the rest of the group is nearby and in the event of an accident there are people who could assist (some members of security staff at the college are trained first aiders), and if required call for an ambulance.  If we were working alone in a studio or with a single other person, it would be essential to ensure that in the event of an accident someone could raise the alarm and call for help.  In the event of an accident, especially a serious one, the casualty must not be left alone.

This is an important factor when working on location, especially where there is little or no mobile signal, which could prevent a distress call getting through.

 

Selecting Images

I had decided on some of the uses of many of the photographs that I had taken, so when selecting the images it was a case of looking for images that were well exposed, in focus and that I could use for the ideas that I had been looking at.

Below is a contact sheet of all the photographs that I took during this photo shoot.

  

Post Production

J2O

All the J2O images have had minor issues corrected using Adobe Photoshop, because although you set the lighting up for the product there are so many considerations to take into account, which in some cases would counteract each other.  For example I was happy with the lighting of the bottles and the liquids, but the labels on the J2O bottle were not as vibrant as I wanted, so it was a case of selecting the separate labels on the bottle, and copying them to separate layers:

I then adjusted the levels on the individual labels, on separate layers, so the labels were vibrant and clear, without altering the bottles or the other label.

Toiletries

The first part of the workflow was carrying out adjustments in the Camera Raw, tool for importing and carrying out some adjustments using the raw image from cameras using a raw image format.

Once any adjustments are performed an xmp file is saved with the raw image, which retains the settings used when making adjustments to the image.

Once the adjustments have been made the image is opened in Photoshop.

The first priority was cropping the image, there is little point working on the whole image when you are only intending to use a portion of the image.

The next priority was working on the lettering on the packaging (which was a very long job !!).

 

Then I copied the selections to a separate layer, because there was so much text to work on I used three separate layers, I then adjusted the levels on these layers so that the text was clear.

This is the result of a number of hours work - before and after: