Category Archives: Composite Photography

Gemstone Photography and Composite

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Gemstone Composite Photography

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

Tucson Gemstone Photography
Turquoise Gemstone PhotographyGemstone Photography Tucson

Product Photography on White with Multiple Angles

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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

Product Photography in Tucson Arizona

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Product Photography, Outdoor Umbrella

This product photography session was shot outside the manufacturing plant using the brilliant sunlight to work as our soft box. Blocking the light and positioning the full umbrella shot took a great amount of time during which the sun was shifting, but well worth the time. In post we extracted the product for a pure white background product shot. We used Canon’s 24-70mm lens for the top image. The second image (below) was shot with  Canon’s 70-200mm lens for a beautiful capture of the tighter shot. We used two 5′ x 5′ Matthews Silks 1.6 stops. One was used to block the sun and one placed behind the product.  This is an out of the camera image with no photo editing.

Phone Charging Station Product Photography

Commercial Composite Photography in Anaheim

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Composite Tour Bus
Often getting your product into the ideal setting isn’t realistic.  This tour bus company travels not only throughout Western states, but across the country.  Scheduling photo ops presents a lot of obstacles.  Opting for composite photo editing allowed time to photograph the bus to match the chosen stock images.  Adding reflections to the windows and hubcaps keeps it real. We created several composites. We also create composite portraits.

Tour Bus on the Road
This was the staging area.
Commercial Tour Bus

Service Truck on White

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Service Truck on White

What to do with your service truck photo?  You spent a great deal of thought and cost in creating your moving billboard – the photo turned out great, next?  A slick, clean extraction of your service vehicle is a great advertising tool.  You can create beautiful ads by lay text over the image, or drop it into any kind of background.  It all begins with getting a properly lit photo.  The “magic” lies in the planning.  The extraction yields an image easily manipulated in many creative ways. Read more about website photography.

Pearl Jewelry Photography

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Pearl Jewelry Photography

Typically the proper way to shoot a product set up like this is to have 2 separate shots and composite these in Photoshop.  It’s impossible to properly exposure for the box and not blow out the white pearls. For this shoot we didn’t have time to remove the pearls as this was rush job.  We elevated the camera to a high angle using a macro lens, used an overhead diffused light source with a silk scrim. We used another light source in front – to highlight the front of the box and the top inside of the box.  Once we properly exposed the light we stack focused with about 20 shots from top to bottom.  We would like the box interior whiter, but couldn’t do it in the time we had, so this shot was usable.  Generally these types of jewelry shots require an enormous amount of time get the right lighting with the proper exposure.

Pearl Ring on White

We had enough time to properly execute this shot, which requires two separate set ups.  The first setup was to light and properly expose the ring.  We only used an overhead light source with a silk scrim for this, stack focusing with about 10 shots using a 2.8 macro lens.  For the second setup we removed the ring using three light sources for the outside and inside of the box.  We stack focused with about 10 images.  In Photoshop we put the two shots together achieving the whiter box interior.

Portrait Photography Composite

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Composite Portrait Photography

This portrait was shot on a grey background on location. The simple staging of a coffee table gave nice foreground texture.  The light source was a Paul Buff 22 inch beauty dish with a grid.  This bounce flash light modifier is beautifully flattering to faces.

The photographer’s library of backgrounds is a collection of textured surfaces such as tin siding, stucco walls, weather beaten exterior house walls, stone surfaces, etc.  These he shoots specifically for this purpose of blending and layering to build up an artistic backdrop for a studio portrait.  The manipulating of these backgrounds takes place in Photoshop to his creative eye. This background was a composite of 2 backgrounds over the grey studio backdrop.

Read more on our website about backgrounds for portraits.

Commercial Photographer

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Commercial photographers have more creativity than you think.  It’s about manipulating the elements.  This is an exciting dramatic photo using only one light.

commercial photography

Arri Fresnel 650 with a 300 watt bulb
Using a plastic diffusion sheet background called translum made by Savage paper.
Lens EF70-200mm f/2.8L USM
ISO Speed 125
White Balance Mode Color Temperature(9900K)
Av( Aperture Value ) 16.0
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 0.3

Business owners need original photos for their marketing.  So many clients have been exasperated feeling they have nothing worth photographing, particularly when their business is service oriented or their tools are not flashy and exciting.  As a commercial photographer it’s my challenge to find interesting composition in the ordinary.  This turns an ordinary table top photo into a dazzling advertisement image.

Alternative to Stock Photography

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Now that Google is looking less favorably on stock photography you’ll be looking at options for original photos for your website. If your business produces products you’ll find this an easier solution. But when you provide services it can be more challenging to find ways to compose photos to represent your services.

alternative to stock photography

composite photography

photography for services