Product Shoot Two

Aim of the shoot

This time I was working with Jim in the studio. Jim was also working on a product shoot, very similar principle to me, so Steve suggested that we worked together, also I might learn a few things from Jim.

I was looking at shooting some 'wine', for which I have a few ideas, the 'wine' being poured into a glass, and perhaps an empty wine glass.

The first thing to do was look at the lighting that was required. Jim had worked out what he was looking for and Steve Davies helped set up the lighting accordingly.

The Set Up

After Jim had taken some of his photographs, I had the opportunity to take some using a bottle of rose wine (well, ok, summer fruits cordial - but it looked good ! and did not mean bringing alcohol onto the college premises !).

The set up involved using the product table again and one soft box on the left, lighting from behind the product table, with barn doors to control the lighting, and a light from under the table.

Below is the lighting diagram:

The flash was triggered by a wireless trigger.

After a few test shots I got the lighting just right. The exposure was set up for the liquid, not the labels on the bottle which would have resulted in the liquid being highly over exposed:

After I was happy with the image of the bottle, for which I have one or two ideas, one based on some of Chris Collins work.

Next I wanted to try something that I saw in a magazine, Digital Photo, which looked good. For this I would need a wine glass, which I had brought from home, and two people. I discussed this idea with Steve who advised that although the lighting was different, it would be something interesting to try.

Pippa joined me, Steve and Jim in the studio to give us a hand, sorry but pun intended !

I lined up to camera, Steve advised whilst Jim poured some of the ‘wine’ into a wine glass held by Pippa:

Although the lighting was different to that used in the magazine, we were all happy with the result. One thing that was nicer about my photograph, as opposed to the photograph in the magazine was the bubbles in the wine glass as the ‘wine’ was poured.

Choice of Equipment

To save time during the shoot it was decided that I should use Jim's Canon EOS 5D Mark II DSLR which was fitted with a 24 - 105 mm lens. This gave me the opportunity to use a more pro spec camera. This lens offered a wider aperture setting than my lenses and could isolate one item from a group by careful use of the depth of field. Although the camera uses compact flash, Jim downloaded these onto my memory stick at the college, although the CR2 (Canon RAW) files were very large, I was able to deal with them thanks to the UFRAW application.

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.

Steve, who changed any fittings, prior to the start of the shoot, was careful not to catch any lighting tubes, which are very fragile whilst changing the fittings.

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. I think the most dangerous fluid in the studio that day would have been the ‘wine’ which although not dangerous, would have caused some disappointment if tasted.

Selecting the images

I was very how this shoot turned out, and I think Jim was very happy with his product shoot.

This photo shoot gave me a number of images to work with, some of which I have already got ideas for their use.  The important issues when selecting images from this shoot were that these images were good exposure and accurate focusing.

The contact sheets for the images taken during this shoot are below:

 

Post Production 

With the photograph of the wine bottle, shown below, I just needed to create an adjustment layer for the label, as the exposure was set for the liquid, so that the label was clear.

I also had to clone out a small reflection of one of the studio lights.

With the pouring of the wine into a wine glass, held by Pippa, I used masking and lightened Pippa’s hand which was too dark.

One good thing was that nobody tried to sample the ‘wine’ !

Thanks again to Steve, Jim and Pippa for their help.