interesting product shot

This assignment was for James this week...

Here are the specs from the blog for it..
"..For your assignment you will research specific lighting and special effects techniques on the web and apply your findings to a common household item. This item could be a shoe, a basketball, a bowl of cereal. Anything that we could all recognize and would easily find around the house will work. Next, do the research. Look at all of the options from the perspective of achieving a result you have not seen before by trying a technique you have never tried before.

This could include light painting, home made light modifiers (lots of web sites show how), cross processing film, or using selective diffusion during exposure. Either way, the idea is to create an image that has much more going on visually than simply showing the subject well. Basically we are trying to compensate for the subject by making the image exciting in other ways.."

I tried to shoot this assignment last week and I didn't have any brilliant ideas and I wasn't happy with what I shot - It was cheesey. I tried to shoot a toaster "killing" toast.. I used a teeth shaped cookie in the background with a red gel on it, had the burnt toast in the white toaster and had the cord from the toast with a knife in its prongs "stabbing" the toast.. It was a decent idea but it just came out looking lame, cheesy and unprofessional.

So I went back in the to the studio monday afternoon and brought a few things with me... and I really favored my vintage black patent leather shoes.. and I wanted to use them. I tried a bunch of different things with them and toward the end of the shoot I had the idea to put one of my shoes in side the pink fishnets I had brought with me. played around with, and stretched things out..

this is what I came out with.

shot with a Nikon D100. 24-85mm lens. in the studio on plexiglass with bronocolor lights.. softbox and a bare head on the background. exposure was at 1/125s @ f/27, ISO:200, focal length was at 35mm.

It isn't one of my BEST shots I've done so far, but I like it okay. Its good for the time I had to do it and the slight lack of inspiration I had with this assignment (for some unknown reason.) I thought the panty hose just look really cool stretched out over the shoe and OUT past the shoe against the bright background.. I just wish I had had a soild idea for this assignment instead of fooling around with items til I figured out or got something I liked and really thought mostly fit the assignment..

This could be an ad for the pantyhose or the shoes... or both.

Let me know what you think =]

Self promo #4 (process 1)

these shots I did in the studio the other night..
they are for my selfpromo #4 assignment, its kind of an illustration/conceptual shot..
I rented these rotary dial phones from this great local antique store..

If you know me, you know I LOVE everything vintage and love shooting antique and vintage anything/everything. So this was fun, the idea actually came to me while walking thru the store looking for something to shoot.

These are unedited, I haven't done any photoshopping on these really.
the background wasn't as white as I wanted when I looked at them in bridge, but they were on the little LCD screen.. I don't know why, I think because bridge corrects them.. So when I take off all the auto exposure checks, it fixes most of the background effect that was happening in bridge - it was kind of a vingetting effect.. Ill end up fixing the autoexposure & editing them slighting post.

here are the process shots.. to show I lit it and my set up.



here are some of the actual shots..



all of these were shot with a d100, 24-85mm also a 17mm lens. I used broncolor primo pack, a soft box to light the phones and two heads with reflectors to light the back ground.
my original IDEA was the first shot with the 3 phones.. I like symmetry, asymmetry and lines and design and stuff like that.. the second shot is one of my favorites because they are two of my favorite colors, its close up, and the design is nice - also I like the light(I kind of wish the highlights in the phone were a bit softer or not so hot) .. its kind of cute! my phones are cuddling! heh.

so anyhow.. I really liked what came out of that shoot.
exposures: 3 phones - 1/100s @ f/8.
bottom shot - 1/100s @ f/9.
I shot them on white Plexiglas.. it didn't become as white as I like it to.
Oh well.
I might try it again sometime with just white background paper..to see how different the results are.. perhaps less shadow and I wouldn't have that reflection.
because I shot in the cove, the background is really white so I figure I would just use the white sweep and light it up..

I am pretty happy with the results, I might do a little more editing on these and I have to pick my final shots of all the ones I shot ( I might go with my original idea or do something kind of different..we'll just have to see) - the assignment is due MONDAY! so perhaps I'll post my final choice then..

enjoy =]