Orange Magazine product shots
I was published in the new edition of Orange Magazine for the first time. These are product shots of items made in Montgomery.
My Chuck Taylors
Decided it was time to try shooting something that had an edgy retro feel to it. Easiest thing on the list…my sneakers.
Info: Shot with 2 sb25s. Both through umbrellas above the subject on both left and right. Poster board used as base and background. Used a high pass filter in Photoshop to give the photo an edgy feel.
Time: Studio practice
Over the weekend I decided it was time to practice in the studio again. This time I took a small wall clock and a long exposure to get the sweep of the second hand moving over the face.
Pet portraits
This weekend I had a client want a photo shoot for his pet chihuahua. This was the best behaved dog I have ever met. We have a great time and ended up with some wonderful photos of Ravi (the dog) and his owner.
Floating eggs
This is my try at Deyan Stefanov’s photo on DIY Photography a few weeks back. I was so impressed I wanted to see if I could replicate (so I take no creative credit on this one).
I used 2 sb25s. Main light was above in a shoot through umbrella at 1/16th power. The other was at 1/16th power and aimed at a white foam board background. A reflector was used to fill in some of the shadow on the egg (not quite enough though).
Toothpicks were used to hold the eggs in place and were later photoshoped out (and yes I do realize some will say this cheating since I cloned out the tooth picks..oh well.)
See the setup shot here.
Another Go! magazine cover
This time around the Go! editor (Tim Malcolm) and designer had a vision for a story about 109 things do to this summer. It was my job to get their vision into an image. I used my homemade light box. I think I was able to get pretty close to what they both had envisioned….I hope.
More product shots for SDC Woodworking
Spent some time today using a DIY lightbox (thank you Strobist) for pen product shots. These were for SDC Woodworking. These pens were amazing by the way. He hands turns them on a lathe and assembles them. Nice work.
The hardest part about these shots was the fact we used a black surface. This caused a big headache with dust spots. I finally gave up on dusting and used a photoshop filter to remove them…the final results worked out well.
Cookie product shoot
This weekend I was able to use my new homemade light box for cookie photos. I think the end result came out pretty good. These photos will be used on the upcoming website for Sandy’s Cookies as product shots.
The best part of this shoot was the fact I was able to build a macro studio (light box) for about $2. I used a cardboard box, tissue paper and white poster board. Put it all together and you get some great photos for a tiny price.
Newspaper
Cover photo for a Times Herald-Record Go! magazine cover story. Related story. This shoot was a lot of fun. Here is the cover image and some other variations of the shot.
Used 2 sb25s. One was inside a makeshift softbox behind the setup. A black piece of foam board was used as the background. Glass was used as the base on top of a black piece of paper. The strobe inside the softbox was used to light the edges of the bottle. Second flash camera right was flagged to block the light from falling on the bottle and used to light up the pasta that was dropped by me out of frame top. The camera was prefocused on a tripod using a 50mm 1.8.
Wood blocks on ebay
Tonight we shot a number of high quality wood blocks. SDC Woodworking, from Goshen, contacted us recently to shoot their handmade pens, wood blocks and pen blanks. After some experimentation with the lighting on our tabletop studio, I think we came up with a classy, unique look for the wood items (to be sold on ebay).
Check out their ebay store here
Red wine product shot – Week 4/52
This week I was preparing for a product shoot (more to come this week on that). In order to get the setup right and the lighting just right, I needed to do some testing. I ended up shooting some red wine (although the red doesn’t pop enough in this shot).
Tech info: 2 sb25 flashes. One in homemade softbox behind the glass (cannot see in shot) at 1/2 power. A back piece of foam core was used as the background with the softbox surrounding the foam core. The second flash was at 1/4 power with a grid spot to create spotlight effect behind the glass. A glass plate and black fabric under the glass plate was used to create the reflection. I poured the and pressed the shutter release at the same time.
Mia the dog (Week 3/52)
This week I decided to take a few studio shots of my newish dog Mia. She’s a sweet dog but gets into trouble constantly. I think I captured her personality pretty well here.
Week 2/52 – Strawberries and Cream
Shot with 2 sb-25s. One high camera left snooted at 1/8 power to light the strawberry. One flash bare back to camera right pointed downward to feather the light on the blue background. Lights were trigged with cactus triggers. See the setup shot here.
