January 5th: Lighting test: Candy-dropping moose
5th January 2008
This was one of several shots I took experimenting with an umbrella, backdrops, reflectors, the base, and even a gel over a flash for the background, and compared it to the results from the standard way to shoot this with a light tent. There is plenty of info about how I set things up and changed them in the descriptions on the pictures on Flickr and in the setup shots: #1, #2, #3, and #4.
Product shots like this are a fantastic technical exercise and I want to learn a lot more about using strobe lighting. I have avoided it in the past and told myself it was because flash makes things look fake and I wanted authentic natural light. But the truth is that I just didn’t know how to do it and didn’t have all the right equipment. David Hobby (the Strobist) has opened the curtain on the high-priests and shown that studio-style lighting is not out of the reach of most people.
Shooting and processing notes
Shot with a Canon 550EX shooting into a silver umbrella set up to camera right. Bounced a Vivitar 285HV off a piece of white foamcore pointed at the background (to get an even light distribution, though I should have bumped up the power on the flash). The candy-dropping moose (he says, "Uhh, uhh. Oops. Oh dear," as he drops a piece of candy from under his tail) is sitting on a piece of black granite tile I bought at Home Depot. The background is white fleece fabric that I got on sale at Joann’s Fabrics.
Didn’t do much in Lightroom or Photoshop besides setting the white balance and some minor levels adjustment.
Photo a Day 2008 Links
Photo a Day 2008
Photo a Day 2008: January
Flickr: Collection: Photo a Day 2008
Flickr: January 2008 Photoset
Flickr: January 2008 Extras Photoset