Capturing That 'Bling' Effect

[Stitch-Up]

Hi guys

We produce sequin patterns that can be heat pressed to garments. We'd like to capture the 'Bling' effect to place the picture on our website and this is where we hit problems and would like some ideas

This weekend I placed one of the shirts we'd 'blinged up' in the sunshine to demonstrate the sparkle. This is the best picture I got



The picture was taken on my 5D with a star filter fitted. The effect is spot on, BUT, the shirt was white!! As you can clearly see the white shirt has become grey!

So, as we can't rely on brilliantly sunny days in Wales how should I set-up to capture the bling effect while keeping the colour of the shirt correct?

 

[Garry Edwards]

The underexposed background is due to the fact that you've used the builtin light meter, which has been fooled by the white of the background. Take an incident light meter reading to avoid this, or simply take a light meter reading with the camera, switch to manual and give about 1.5 stops more exposure.

However, as this is effectively a product shot that's needed to sell your products, it's worth doing the job properly, which means using studio flash indoors. A large softbox is needed above and close, pointing forwards a bit.
Then 2 more studio flash heads, 1 each side, fitted with standard reflectors and tight (10 degree) honeycombs, as far away as space allows and at an acute angle, skimming the surface (which must of course be flast). This will produce the effect you need.

 

[HoppyUK]

Edit: crossed post with Garry.

Small light source, such as direct sun or a naked flash gun, and a star filter will do the trick.

White shirt is grey as that's how exposure system calibration works with predominantly light-toned subjects, just add + exposure compensation. But you'll get the best result using a dark shirt, that will show up the bling better and also help minimise the flare issues you're also getting with white.

 

[Garry Edwards]

I agree that a darker (or coloured) background would be a good idea.

But this type of shot needs a combination of low overall contrast (hence the overhead softbox) and high local contrast - the heads skimming the surface, fitted with honeycombs to control the light spread and to make the light smaller.
Hoping for the best with sunshine is a bit optimistic, and although hotshoe flashguns would work up to a point, the job would be much easier with the setup I suggested

 

[Steve T]

Not an expert, but would this work? Light the shirt as best you possibly can ignoring the sparkles you want from the sequins. Then, pierce the fabric in the centre of some of the sequins to create a variety of hole sizes in their centres. Then, place a speedlight behind the teeshirt so as to produce a more natural starburst effect. I did this with one of my more wierd border tile shots and got this effect which I really liked. Maybe it could work in this situation, Garry or Hoppy will be able to advise but I think it's allways a good idea to try this sort of stuff to see if it works with your product and setting ideas. The tile is standing some 18" off a black bacground and the speedlight was placed exactly at the spot where the starburst thing is seen. Obviously your actual shirt material would be the actual black background in my tile shot. If you wanted more starbursts then move the speedlight back further and push the power up to suit. This was the only way I could get a clean image of the artwork in the border tile yet get some movement and depth on the shot, which is only for a website by the way. Interesting problem and a very satisfying one when you have solved it, I hope you show your final setup on this thread, I would like to see how this pans out.

Good thread and good luck.

Steve.
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[Stitch-Up]

Thanks for the replies, all very helpful.

I do plan on purchasing some lighting equipment so I can more easily produce good pictures showing the sparkles. Most other pattern creators use a computer generated simulation that looks dull and flat.

Thanks again and I'll try the ideas of using some exposure compensation to see what I get.

Cheers

John

 

[Garry Edwards]

Thanks for the replies, all very helpful.

I do plan on purchasing some lighting equipment so I can more easily produce good pictures showing the sparkles. Most other pattern creators use a computer generated simulation that looks dull and flat.

Thanks again and I'll try the ideas of using some exposure compensation to see what I get.

Cheers

John

Yes, try that, it will help to some extent. Also, if using a star filter, use the smallest practicable lens aperture, say f/16.
But, at the end of the day, the only way to do this properly is as I suggested in my first reply.
Actually there are two ways, but they are both used, it isn't really a case of using one or the other.
The second method is to also take a shot of a suitable model wearing it, with the right bumps in the right places, and to include that shot on your selling page too. It's important because it helps to sell the item but isn't enoug in itself because about 80% of the bling won't show at all with a female model, a muscular male model will show more, but by no means all of the bling .

If you want to know what you need in terms of equipment, just ask - I have some health problems right now and so am sitting at home using a laptop, which I hate, so I don't really want to faff around copying and pasting links unnecessarily.