Product Studio Work

I chose to stick with the theme of music and carry it on to the product shots, I chose to photograph some plectrums by Dunlop. I wanted to use a mirror and a torch light in addition to the normal set up, to give it some difference.

Here are some of the photos:

(ISO - 200) f5.6 1/5

 For this one, it was my first try with the mirror, but I felt that the reflection distracts from the product itself, it was also too far out.

(ISO - 200) f5.6  0.8 Sec

 I went for a more generic close up using no mirror, this worked well, but as it looks almost quite like a snap shop I feel I would have to edit this a bit if I were to use it.

(ISO - 200) f5.6  0.8 Sec

This is one of my favourites, I love the lighting, I love the way the blur of my hand looks like fire and my bracelet dangling gives it that sparkle in there! It's a shame that the product name isn't clear on this though. 

(ISO - 200) f5.6  0.8 Sec

I feel that the glow of the light works better here, you can see the product name which is very important, however the framing is slightly off and I feel that cropping it would ruin the effect of the light; it would cut off the circular shapes.

(ISO - 200) f5.6  0.8 Sec

 The light effect here looks wispy and it looks almost like gas! I really like this effect, I didn't really imagine what I would exactly do with the torch light, but this is certainly effective!

(ISO - 200) f5.6  1.6 Sec

 I like this one because it's got a perfect distance to read the brand name and there is an interesting dramatic light, it's almost like stage lighting in a way and the material could even represent the lining inside a guitar case.

(ISO - 200) f5.6  1.6 Sec

This represents the same as above but the artificial lighting brings out a big difference, it's more of a graphical look to the photo and could have text overlayed onto it.

I have not edited any of these images as I feel that they look fine as they are :)

Studio Lighting with Objects/Products

From Monday 3rd October:

In the afternoon, we experimented with un-modified lighting for products. We had to bring in an object and another that was translucent.

I felt that this experiment went wrong because my object was so small and I didn't realise until after I'd finished my set of images that I should have worked at a smaller scale in terms of distance between the equipment in comparison to the general set up that it was in. Not only that, but the image info got deleted before I managed to write them down, so I cannot record them on here, however I am aware at what I did here!

So in this one, it was my initial image which I found to be over exposed, so I closed the aperture to let less light through the lens.

This was the result after changing my settings, looking at the correct exposure here.

You cannot hardly tell the difference, but this image was done with a diffuser to dull down the light.

I wanted to add more shadows, so I put a piece of black card next to my figurine in attempt for the light to be drawn into it and not bounced off, but this didn't make any difference, I think it was because the card wasn't close enough to the object.

The final and favourite image, taking the black card away, making a cone out of black paper and putting it over the pan light as a home-made snoot created this spot light effect. Again I would suggest next time could be done to a smaller scale.

I feel that I have experimented well here, but I could have done better with more effects and a better product to work with, however I do get the general idea. Somehow I missed out on using white card to lighten the shadows, but I know the effect, I will demonstrate all these techniques again, perhaps with a household light.


So my second object in which was translucent actually lit up itself via led lighting!

This was too dark, so I firstly opened up the aperture a bit.

The light changes colour, so that is not part of the lighting change by the way! This one has more light in, but still not at a sufficient level to see that it's a butterfly. I widened the aperture and also slowed down the shutter speed, I kept doing it until I could see the whole butterfly.

Which ended up like this! 


So for this, I feel like the object is still too small, but I would like to try working with artificial lighting in more cases with both still lights in view or the experimental painting work.