Behind the Scenes From My Recent Product Shoot
I took the shot you see above for a project I was working on, and I wanted to share it here and show a little behind the scenes stuff, because on this coming Monday’s episode of Photoshop User TV, I did a step-by-step tutorial on the post production I did after the shoot using Camera Raw and Photoshop CS4 (on Monday you can watch the episode online, right here).
The production shot below (taken by my assistant, Brad Moore), shows the simple three-light set-up used to light the sunglasses. Now, don’t let all the boom stands and stuff make you think this set-up is more complicated than it really is. I’ll break it down below the photo.
First, I wanted a black background behind the sunglasses, so Brad slid a black Westcott flag (made of black felt) over a boom stand arm, and that’s what you see behind the sunglasses (you can click on the photo to get a much larger view). Then Brad used three boom stands and fishing wire to hold up the sunglasses (as seen above).
I used three lights: (1) One Elinchrom Style RX 600 strobe with a softbox directly above the sunglasses aiming straight down, to put a highlight across on the top of the sunglasses (2) There’s another Style RX 600 strobe aiming up from below it, to add a highlight across the bottom of the sunglasses, and (3) the 3rd light is another Elinchrom strobe with softbox aiming right at the front of the sunglasses to light the glass part in the front of the sunglasses. The flashes were triggered using Skyport wireless triggers.
CAMERA SETTINGS: The photo was taken with a Nikon D3, at f/22 at 1/200 of a second. The ISO was set at 200. The lens was a Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VR lens, and I shot it racked all the way out at 200mm. I took the shot mounted on a Gitzo tripod with a Really Right stuff ballhead.
Here’s the before photo as it came out of the camera. As you can see, there are some challenges with the background, the fishing wire, and the front of the glasses, and that’s exactly what I cover on Monday’s show, so I hope you’ll tune in and check it out then.
These are my favorite posts. I love seeing the setup, camera settings and lighting arrangements for various types of shoots. I think the best part are the before/out of camera RAW examples you provide. It lets me know that it’s not “just me” when my original studio shot isn’t quite what the image needs to be and I have to take it over to PS. Looking forward to Monday’s post.
By the way, any particular reason to shoot at 200 ISO in studio when lighting can be controlled? Just curious if it’s a personal preference or more of a technical advantage. Cheers -M
Nikon cameras all have the best image quality at ISO 200. With a 5K camera and a product shot you want the best your camera can give you.
uh yeah can we like go into detail on Monday about the ISO setting at 200. I was under the understanding that the lower the ISO the better the picture. Also, will you please address as to why you went with the F/22. Is that your Len’s Sharpest Aperture (in reference to your book “The Digital Photography Book” Chapter 1 Page 14) .
Thanks….
First Scott,
I agree I love these types of post!!! You know I am crazy about advertising design and product shot comes under that with clients I guess; even though it’s not as fun as photographing a model. I really like the before and after of the shades learn a lot by looking at the difference between the before and after example gradient on the lens. Ah I love photography so much!!
So much can be done! Even something as simple as shades you painted so beautifully.
jayzee – I might be wrong but I think he used f22 because there was so much luminance involved. Think about the f stops like your eyes when your eyes are normal like you are looking at your screen it’s at f2.8 when we squint your eyes it’s like f22 less light comes in. You wont look directly at the sun with your eyes at f 2.8. Therefore the lower the f-stop the the more light into the lens (f2.8), the higher (f22) less light. the 1/200 of a second is a fast shutter speed. If Scott used 1/4 it’s slower more light and the shutter takes longer to photograph and it would have been blown out a big bright white and no shades
Hope I made that clear enough.
Scott mi amigo keep posting we are loving it.
(Had to use amigo! As I read I am in Miami..this is still America but NO ONE SPEAKS ENGLISH HERE!!!!!)
Dwayne D.C. Tucker II
Nassau, Bahamas
Scott,
Very nice photo. I work as a journalist and would need to shoot it without using Photoshop to take care of the wires and reflections. When we shoot food and products, it’s what you see is what you get.
Just for fun and the challenge, how about giving it a try without Photoshop. Just one time.
One small complaint: Why did you pick a photo of the band in the previous post where you were cut out?
Great work on the website. Have a nice weekend!
Robert
Hi Scott, looking forward to seeing the PSTV episode.
With the back wire, I would’ve tried using Blu Tack (or whatever the US equiv is) to bring the wire behind the glasses, like the front. Then again, it’s much of a muchness for post processing, and the wire may come loose.
To make the background blacker in camera you’d need to move it further from the lights to remove spill, and make use of the inverse square law. I’m sure Brad’ll hate me for that, sorry Brad!
Hey Sean – Nah, I’m not a hater
It took me a decent amount of time to set up the sunglasses just perfectly… Then I put the flag in as the background after the fact. I saw that it was getting a lot of spill, but it would’ve taken too much time to move all six or so of the stands we had set up (between the strings for the sunglasses and the lights), so we left it as it was. Couldn’t move the flag back any further because we were already at the back of the syc wall. Before coming here, I hadn’t really done any product shooting, so I’m learning as I go. But now I know! Thanks for the advice!
Brad,
Your approach mirrors that of many of us who face real world challenges — like limited space and equipment.
Yes, it’s better to get it right in the camera, but little things, like cleaning up the black background, can easily be fixed in post. I can clean up a low key or hi key background with Viveza in less than a minute. Even assuming there were room to do so, it would take a lot more time to reset the setup to avoid the light spill on the background.
This is very timely for me Scott as I’m doing some shots now of tungston rings and it’ll be great to see how you deal with the backround and wire issues properly.
Cheers Kevin
Very cool post. I would like to learn more about how you do product shots and then about editing them in PS. So, I am already looking forward to Monday’s episode and hopefully more of this kind of stuff in the future.
Nice work Scott, especially on the finished shot. Its always interesting to see the before and after, can’t wait to watch your technique on finishing the shot.
Sweeeeeeet !!!!!
I will be sure to have the popcorn ready for Monday : ) !!!!!
Any particular reason you used strobes instead of the Westcott lights you were so keen on last year? You rarely mention those now. Wouldn’t they have been much easier to use in a situation like this (and maybe wouldn’t have blown through the glasses at the front)?
Anthony
Hi Anthony:
Actually, I would have preferred to use the Spiderlites, and I usually choose them first for product shots, but I needed three lights, and I only have two Spiderlites.
Hope that helps.
-Scott
Hello Mr Kelby quick question, I can not get the video on the sunglasses to load is there a way to add these things to kelby trainging which I am already paying for?
Other question ’s Im about to convert a garage to a studo any tips or advise and can you do a blog on the difference between your strobes and the spider lites? getting ready to pay out for some lights and want to make a good choice
Thanks
Aaron
Very nice to see this ‘behind the scenes’. The end result is great.
I can’t wait to watch the post shoot editing.
Always dig the behind the scenes setups!
Soctt, it would be even more interesting to use one light and reflectors to get the exact same results vs. 3 lights.
It is important for those shooting products to see that light can be manipulated and reflected.
Reflectors and light stands are much cheaper than monolights, plus you don’t need additional wireless remotes and stuff.
On the background, it looks like it could have been moved back so that less light would have hit it, or use flags to keep the light off of it.
Oh, since you are showing just the right side of the eyeglasses, you could have moved the lightbox toward camera a bit more and feathered the light so that that undesired reflection of the setup gear would have been removed.
I have shot glasses before and there are essentially two ways to go about a clean reflection…1) either move the light to prevent any glare, or 2) control the glare, but make it even and smooth (which is what you did Scott).
Unfortunately, the fishing string was probably unavoidable; however, in the days of film it would be interesting to see how one would handle this. I frankly sometimes think that we are not as innovative as we would be if PS wasn’t an option; but then we probably would be at the whim of “shoot and pray” since the invention of LCDs on the back of cameras for instant “check and reshooting” goes hand in hand with PS.
I hope you perhaps will cover some single light discussions on the PS TV show. Dean Collins was the king of the one light wonders of his photography and manipulating light.
Hi Pat:
We actually set it up using reflectors at first, but after messing around with it for a few minutes, I wasn’t getting the highlight as bright as I wanted it, so I switched to the multi-light set-up you see here.
If I only had one light, I still could have pulled it off, but to get the look I was looking for would have taken me more time in Photoshop.
Hope that helps.
-Scott
Right on time as always! I’m shooting some silver jewelry on a black background over the weekend for the first time. I am anxious to see how you deal with the fishing line on Monday’s show. Thanks for your great website and inspiration….George
Love the setup info. I wish more people would do that.
Why is the setup shot PhotoShopped in the upper right hand corner?
Hi Barak:
There were some extra booms that weren’t actually used in the shoot, so I quickly removed them (a hack job at best, but it’s just a set-up shot, right?). I thought they might make an already crowded shot look more confusing, so I just cloned them out.
Hope that helps.
-Scott
To make things easier you might want to try some of the newer fishing lines (Powerpro). There are some great extremely thin black braided line that is much narrower and non reflective than the mono filament. There are several colors to choose from and can be dyed.
Thanks for the well thought out webpage and tips.
Scott, is the book writing industry that bad, so you need to shoot products and weddings?
Love the setup, I’m just learning to do studio work, so I soak up everything i can (and I use Elinchrom – even if they are Swiss, not Swedish
). It’s a great way to mix things up between translating your books and shoot weddings.
Oh, and any reason why you removed the red in the glasses? I loved it, it added to the image, I think. Even the hint of red on the nose bridge (or whatever it’s called) that is hinted in the glasses.
I love this stuff! Can you do a product with a white background next please?
Debbi
Gorgeous shot Scott. Good setup work Brad. I’m curious, what brand lightstands are you using there?
Nick,
I’m sure Brad or Scott will confirm or deny, but they look like Matthews C Stands
Scott,
After seeing the original, I had to try it for myself, with the challenge of doing as much as possible (specifically, the lens reflection) in camera. Here’s what I came up with:
http://tylergriffinphotography.com/blog/scott-kelby-eat-your-heart-out/
Yeah, I had to sensationalize the title
Getting it right in camera is often much better and can save time too. Particularly, if you had to do a lot of sunglasses, then a nice gradient in glasses as set up, is better than adding one to each in PS.
If you want to see a master of photographer shiny things like cars, check out Jim Haefner’s site. But with all those angles, you still need PS.
http://www.haefnerphoto.com/
Scott – Now this is someone you should get to do a guest blog, he’s very talented and always willing to give pointers as to his magic tricks.
Lovely!
Such a great product shot.
Great use of the highlights, and the final image is very..graphical.
i clicked on the link to see the steps taken to turn the camera shot into the final image but the photoshop TV episode link did not have the story in it – can someone pls let me know the correct link pls
thx
jeremy
1st time here and already finding it interesting. Love to see how things are done. Thanks for the tips. Looks nice. I’ll have to come back and look around when I have more time.
brian