Lighting critique for product shot

jeff127

jeff127

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Hi All,

Hope this is an okay place to post this; I'm putting together a conceptual image and before taking it too far would like some advice on the lighting.

Below is the image as I have it so far, mostly straight out of the camera just with a small amount of curves work.

11920-1434538953-d508bae87a719f9bdbf179640c944ef2.jpg


Please disregard any dust etc, just after lighting critique at the moment. I'll be adjusting the background and doing something with the lens reflection. How far off a professional look is it? What would you change?

In case anyone is interested, this is the lighting set-up I've used, happy to adjust it!

11921-1434539114-71637d707ff8287dbb33d6e7faf3ff61.jpg


Many thanks for any advice.

Jeff.
 
I think you've done a pretty good job. Frankly I've seen some 'professional' shots that are nowhere near as good.
Shoot through umbrellas are just about the worst possible tool for this though, Their surface is far from flat, the lighting is uneven, the spokes show in the specular highlights and they spread the light everywhere - other than that they're OK :)
A much better option, and especially for the overhead light, would be a softbox. With something as small as this camera, a small-ish softbox (which you're effectively limited to with hotshoe flashguns) is adequate, but for larger subjects, or very shiny ones, you'll need a studio flash head for that.

Despite the fact that you're using shoot through umbrellas, the texture on the front and the visible side of the camera is pretty good - but those lights are far too high, resulting in a large, ugly shadow area underneath the pentaprism. Lowering one light will cure that one.

Lighting the front of the lens element involves creating a graduated specular reflection, that's well beyond the equipment you've used in this shot and although I used to do it when I had to shoot on film I wouldn't now go down that route myself in camera, it's simply too complicated and the way to do it is to create a separate photo of the front of the lens and simply add the graduated specular reflection in PP.

Tutorial on photographing a camera here, the subject I used has seen heavy pro use and is falling to bits, but the principles work with a shiny new one too:)
Tutorial on creating a graduated specular reflection here. Again, that particular lens has seen a bit of use...

You'll see a link to the Lencarta lighting blog in my signature, these tutorials, and many others, are on that blog.
 
I think it might benefit from a slightly higher angle, that way we can see more of the top screen and the lens, it may have been your intention but currently you can tell almost nothing about the lens.
 
Thank you both for taking the time to reply, I really appreciate the feedback. :)

Garry: Thanks for such a detailed post. Sounds like it might be time for me to invest in a couple of softboxes. Good point about the big shadow under the pentaprism, at the very least I'll work to sort that. Looks like it could be fun trying to create the graduated specular reflection.
Thanks for the two links, I'll have a read of your tutorials and a gander at the rest of the blog.

Simon: Potentially good suggestion of a higher angle, I'll give it a try. The lens won't be the interesting part of the final image so I'm not too concerned in that regard but thanks for pointing it out.

I'll update in due course with some updated photos.

Thanks again and any other feedback would be great!

Jeff.
 
Denyerec said:
If you're on a budget, as the subject is so small you can easily shoot your strobes through tracing paper / printer paper in lieu of a softbox to get yourself more attractive reflective specular highlights.
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On this particular subject, the ugly specular highlights created by a shoot through umbrella aren't a problem at all - they would be if the subect had an even surface.

The problem here is the uncontrolled light from those umbrellas. Your idea of diffusion material instead of a softbox could work, but it would need to be deeply recessed to ensure that the light didn't go where it wasn't wanted. Cinefoil is the obvious solution, all round the edges of the diffusion material and protruding say 4", but black cardboard would do instead.
 
I'd assumed he was referring to those on the body and the front element was covered in the earlier reply that the current gear was not best suited so post production was the simplest route.
 
simonbarker said:
I'd assumed he was referring to those on the body and the front element was covered in the earlier reply that the current gear was not best suited so post production was the simplest route.
Click to expand...
Post production is always the simplest route for creating graduated specular reflections on the front element of the camera lens.
There are various reasons for this, not least of which is that it requires a very large silk that physically gets in the way when photographing the rest of the product, and which inevitably spills unwanted light onto it.

I have to be honest - a lens is a lens is a lens and a single shot showing a gradulated specular reflection can be used on every shot of every lens, that's what I've always been tempted to do, and I can resist everything except temptation :)
 
I think the light on the left front is too far away. I would reduce the distance/power so that the highlights soften. And maybe bring it around to the front a bit to get it a little more even across the shutter button and logo areas.
I think the overhead/behind light could come closer as well, but I think the power needs to remain at a higher setting, the top is just a bit "dull."
And I think the light on the rt front is too high. You could put a scrim (cheap plastic shower curtain) double layer in front of this light/umbrella to help w/ the lens element lighting, and a large black card in front of the element to eliminate room reflections.
I *think* I would prefer the lighting on the right side to be slightly brighter than on the left side for the logo/badge areas... especially if you are going to wind up with a reverse gradient on the BG (lighter subject areas go in front of darker BG areas)

It looks like the setup is barely elevated off of the floor. I would get it up onto something more substantial to allow you more flexibility in positioning the lights. Additionally, if you can get the lights closer and at lower power settings it will help with all of the spill contamination you're getting from the umbrellas. But being that you are using shoot thru umbrellas in what looks to be very tight confines, there's only so much you're going to be able to do.
 
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