While reflective products take a lot of time to set-up the result is worth it. These very small hand tools have a beautiful brushed and reflective finish. Multiple soft boxes with controllable Aperture lights combined with light modifiers to bounce and direct the light retained the beauty of the finish minus the hotspots. Canon’s EF100mm f/2.8 Macro IS USM lens captures the detail and allows aperture to control the bokeh in the foreground and background.
This catalog of watch bands was shot on a white background using light modifiers, soft boxes and shot with Canon’s EF100mm Macro IS USM Lens. The above layout is created from multiple shots. Below is one layout the client requested to group like products.
Individual shots of watch bands.
A simple layout styling.
This industrial photography project took two onsite sessions, and large acrylic products were also shot onsite using a white background, multiple soft boxes and light modifiers and shot with the Canon 24-70mm lens. The small precision hand tools were shot inhouse on white. The bokeh “hero shots” for the small tools were shot inhouse using a Canon EF100mm Macro IS USM Lens.
Reflective surfaces like acrylic and stainless steel require a lot of prep and set-up. Products must be thoroughly clean of fingers, dust and dirt.
The brushed stainless-steel finish had a beautiful warmth.
One cabinet’s interior (below) is stainless steel. The angle was the focal point for the customer, controlling the light made this shot beautiful.
The Hero Shots (ie bokeh) time for set-up is with both lighting due to the reflective surfaces and arranging the products for balance and visually attraction.
Once again, the brushed stainless steel required additional lighting. Due to the number of tools creating the depth of the bokeh needed extra time.
These micro tools are less than 3 inches each.
Food product photography is fascinating. Take a pile of grains, seeds or powder and find the best arrangement of the pile. How to sprinkle just the right amount of spread, where to stop the bulk of product and control powder spillage is critical. Stacking the chunky ingredients begins with balancing the chunks, then rearranging to create the visual look of the interesting sides and of course the crumbs. It takes a fair amount of time to get some test shots for the client to choose from. There is a beauty in ingredients!
Equipment Used:
Canon 5d Mark III
Canon Macro Lens EF100mm f/2.8
Multiple Softboxes
Multiple Gradients
paper funnels, small brushes
The annual Gemstone Show was back with its regular month schedule for February 2022!
Our client wanted a layout with raw turquoise stones, the caliper and a polished stone, but with some sort of staging. We suggested using a stock background as a great affordable choice to create a wow factor for website photography. The original stock image provided the texture and grit; and photo editing layered on eye catching dimension. We shot a catalog of turquoise gemstones, but the lighting for the unprocessed turquoise and caliper required lighting adjustment and filtering.
Equipment Used:
Canon 5d Mark III
Canon Macro Lens EF100mm f/2.8
Multiple Softboxes
Multiple Gradients
This was a fun product shoot. All the tiny and large attachments of this car detailing set needed to highlight how the tools and attachments are used. A show and tell project!
It’s helpful to have a gorgeous car’s paint job for the background. Any product staging or styling demands planning and set-up is always lengthy. There is no such thing as “an easy shoot”. The results are worth it. Once the car was in place all dust had to be removed, and monitored as we moved equipment around. Tarps we hung on the walls to help minimize reflective lighting interfering with our lighting.
Angling the softbox for the right bounce is the fun part!
These were all shot with 1 softbox, using a Canon 24-70mm lens.
Some products are just gorgeous due to their exterior surface. This diamond pattern is lovely! The reflective nature is the tough part about photographing this product. Our client is launching a new product line with two sizes of this unit. They also wanted to show the quality of craftsmanship, details and a product styled use image.
Product styling always sounds simple: Grab some items and stack them inside. The last thing you want for your product is distraction from the unit. In this case we discussed colors of soda, lid options, choice of cans, what to put on the top rack, position of the labels and making sure everything was “balanced” to the eye–and keep these items from moving/rolling. Attention to detail pays off in a well laid out composition and the product “shines”. In this case–it always shines!
Reflective products (glass, metal, jewelry, high gloss acrylic products) offer challenges. Once the lighting is in place-then you begin to block out reflections you don’t want – inclusive of the photographer in the product. Controlling the light to not blow out the high reflection, yet show off that very shiny surface we all love. The diamond metal pattern here controlled some of the typical hot spots. We were also able to make use of massive overhead natural lighting and several white reflectors to obtain an even product surface look. Working all of the elements together takes a lot of time. We spend more time setting up a shot, than shooting, typically. Shooting multiple angles meant repositioning everything (continuous lighting, white reflectors, c-stands, every clothes pin and re-taping) with each change of angle, and the second unit.
When you’re selling online any product photography should include an all-the-parts shot, manuals included. Let prospective clients know what’s in the box. We’ve also been asked to edit the photos adding the dimensions for clients. Make it easy for people to buy your product!
Continuous Lighting
Natural Lighting
White Reflectors
Canon 24-70mm 2.8 Lens
Canon 100mm 2.8 Macro Lens