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If you submit your shot for the review, you must supply it with the lighting setup images (or diagram in case you do not have shots of the setup)
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(0 votes) 12:40 pm
September 4, 2009
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Ok, here is our current assignment: creative shot of watch (wrist watch by default, but you can shoot any other type of watch). Moe about this assignment:
http://www.photigy.com/studio-photography-insights…..hangouts7/
Please post your results along with the shooting setups here.
10:45 pm
March 3, 2012
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Watch is gold with pink-gold face and band.
90mm macro at f8.0. 15 shots focus stacked.
Watch is on boom arm covered with black cinefoil.
Einstein strobe on left in 48in octobox style soft box. Small camera strobes with foil snoot to fill shadows and highlight watch. Tin foil on boom arm above watch to give some specular reflection (didn't actually do quite so much in that regard, but more effective in knocking down bad reflections on the face and band). White foam core to add highlight reflections to watch. Sheet of foil taped to soft box to block excessive reflection from watch face.
3:58 am
March 4, 2012
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Here is my submission for the weekly assignment ”Creative AD-style watch”. A single shot with a normal lens: 80mm, 1/6s, F8 and iso200. I made some cleaning of imperfections of the watch in Photoshop. I used continuous lights 115-150 W and diffusion screens. The white cardboards near the background were used mainly to block the light and keep the background as dark as possible. The reflections in the foreground were made with a black sheet of acrylic plastic.
2:37 pm
March 4, 2012
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Here is my shot for this weeks assignment “Creative Ad Style Watch”. A three light setup: an sb28 @ low power with DIY grid snoot each side of a translucent cone. A 430ex below subject @ low power to light the face. Camera eos 5D Mk11 with Canon 100mm f/2.8 lens. Speedlites triggered with skyports.
3:16 pm
March 4, 2012
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Submission for the weekly assignment, Single shot, 18W table light, poliplax white panels, Nikon D7000, Tamron 70-200. Some cleaning of imperfections of the watch in Photoshop. (1/3 – ISO100 – f/14)
3:24 pm
March 3, 2012
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Ad-style Watch : Cardinal Watch
For this shot , i used a home made cone shaped enclosure to have even lighting around the watch with one SB-600 speedlight . Inside this cone , is another small cone with reflective surface to prevent direct flash from spedlight !
Also was a black background under the table (on angle).
Two shots were used , one for the watch and one for background which i blew smoke in the cone .(added background for texture as it seemed a bit boring)
Not exactly what i intended but i'm pretty happy with the shot. I originally wanted to include a reflection but my kitchen table is too thick and gave me a double reflection . So i opted for a direct shot
Shot at : 1/50s , F/16 , ISO 200 single speedlight SB-600 at 1/8 power
4:27 pm
March 4, 2012
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My attempt… I'm really not a product shooter but gave it a try. More PS than I've ever put into any picture I've ever shot… another thing I'm not good at. LOL..
4:34 pm
March 4, 2012
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Here is my watch -AD.
Sorry but I don't have a picture of the setup. Will upload on the next assignment.
My biggest problem was because the glass of the watch wasn't flat but round, so I got a lot of reflections…
Hoping for a lot of constructive critisizem.
Regards,
Boris
6:03 pm
March 4, 2012
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So this is my contribution to this assignment.
I won't be able to join you live at the hangout. But I'm looking forward to the viedo.
Anyway, I'd like to get some feedback on my "try".
I missed to take photos of the making of… Hope to get it next time.
Basically for the watch only one softbox was used. And plenty of reflectors and difusors.
For the portrait two soft boxes.
Take care and enjoy the hangout.
9:09 pm
March 4, 2012
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Watch assignment
I decided I wanted to do a “see through” watch and try and show the front and back in the same image. Decided it would be easy with a mirror below and I’d nail it in one shot. I learned a lot about mirrors and closeup photos in the next couple of hours and none of it was good!
First off, when the object is close to a mirror, and you shot from an angle, both the front and back surfaces of the mirror give separate reflections making everything look like it has a ghost. I had decided to use a light box below the mirror to illuminate the back of the watch, and that worked well except for the ghosting. I moved to my favorite black plastic, and discovered it was then almost impossible to get enough light reflected from the plastic up to the back of the watch, and thus provide a good reflected image.
I decide I could maybe make all this work if I had what is called a front surfaced mirror. It produces only one clean reflection. That’s why they use them in kaleidoscopes. Too bad delivery was more than a week and frankly they are expensive little guys.
Here is the initial concept with double reflections in mirror … two yucks!
In the end I dug out my tried and true very-shinny object photo chamber and decided to take two images and combine them in photoshop. At least I wouldn’t have to work that long on the lighting, just spend a couple of hours in photoshop. Here is my quick lighting system for small shinny objects.
It’s a plastic sphere resting on a ring-type dog toy for stability. You slap a couple of lights on the opposite sides and everything gets even lighting. With the watch I had to add more diffusion to the outside lights to knock down a couple of pesky specular highlights, but it worked pretty well. I decided on one more light above to illuminate into some of the 3 dimension cut outs in the watch face.
I used a piece of white paper over the front hole with a smaller cut-out to reduce the dark areas reflected into the front of the watch. The watch sits on a piece of plastic that rests inside the sphere. The hollow sphere can be rotated to do fine centering in the camera because of the rubber ring it rests upon.
Right image shows watch resting on plastic with white paper reflector out of the way.
Below are the two photos before any photoshop work is begun.
In the front facing image you just see what remains of the reflection due to size reduction in the hole. The dark area just above the watch stem is the only spot reflected from the outside world. I used the clone tool and removed this in photoshop.
I used a layer for the front shot, and one for the back shot, then created a layer mask to to cut out below the front watch and slide the bottom in image in place.
I used a gradient layer on the bottom image to make it darker at the top and lighter at the bottom to make it look more natural.
Lots of dust spotting, a little color enhancement at the watch jewel bearings, and one more layer to bring up contrast in the front watch face (duplicated face) then used a multiply blend mode.
Finally I decide to use a filter on the reflection to make it look like the material it was sitting on is a textured surface. I used frosted glass filter.
Final result below …
1:40 am
March 4, 2012
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Oakley Judge II
I'll admit, this isn't the first time that I've photographed this watch. I have already been experimenting with watch photography in the past couple of weeks, but coming back to this watch was a good challenge for me.
As you can see, the Judge II is highly reflective. It just wanted to reflect everything off of its polished steel frame. It's a challenging subject for me, but it was worth it in the end. I had to start with a clean slate, basically, and carefully sculpt the reflections in a way that I liked.
My concept was to have the watch suspended over a reflective surface. Most watch shots you might see are facing up. But, I thought I'd try to achieve something different. In order to have the face of the watch reflected well on the surface below, I had to attempt something unconventional.
Setup:
The watch was suspended between three stands using fishing line (clear 6lb test in case you wondered).
I used a dark glass as the reflective surface and placed it on top of white velour material.
Behind the watch is a "seamless" white paper background.
The white foam-core boards on each side provide the white reflections while the black foam-core board provides a dark reflection on the lower part of the watch.
I put a large 72" diffuser above the entire watch so that my reflections on the top of the watch were mostly one big highlight.
The first time I tried shooting this watch at this angle, I didn't have the large diffuser there. The reflections were pretty out of control. Even with only two light sources, I was getting all sorts of confusing highlights.
My back light was provided by a Travelite 750R with a strip box. My front light was provided by a snooted Elinchrom 400. Both lights were shooting through the diffuser screen.
Finally, in order to remove the environment reflections, I had to drape black muslin cloth around the entire front area of the watch, completely covering my camera. This mostly did the trick.
Of course, I'd welcome any comments or critiques. Unfortunately, I won't be able to join everyone this Wed due to an out-of-town business trip. But I look forward to seeing the rest of the submissions as well as the video afterward.
Alex, I did have a question for you. I shot this and other watch shots using focus bracketing, and I used your technique of putting the images together in PS. Have you ever run into a situation where PS will grab small spots from an out of focus layer when you blend the aligned layers together? Or, have you ever blended the layers and somehow PS would get confused by a highlight and completely blow everything else out? I managed with this shot, but the technique doesn't work for me every time, especially when I'm shooting with reflective surfaces on a dark background. Any thoughts? If you can remember to answer this during the hangout, that'd be great.
Thanks again. Good luck to all and happy shooting.
12:08 pm
March 4, 2012
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My entry for the Creative Ad Style Watch
I wanted to show that it doesn't matter if this Dakota Clip Watch got wet. It's a watch you would take outdoor camping or hiking.
Setup:
I used the process that Alex did for the water in still life series. ( http://www.photigy.com/water-in-still-life-and-adv…..isode-one/ )
I hung the watch in to a aquarium with a very small wire so you could hardly see it. But instead of poring in water I wanted to just make ripples so I just blew on the surface of the water to created the ripples. I used one 430exii Flash and a LED flash light to highlight the one side of the watch. I use a blue foam board behind the tank and a white one to the right of the camera.
I did need to Photoshop the final image to remove the small bubbles that collected on parts of the watch. I also boasted the color and shifted the blue to a darker shade.
See ya Wednesday !
3:38 pm
March 4, 2012
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My Submission: A Pocket Watch
Hi, here is my submission.
I wanted to create an AD-style shot of the pocketwatch by shooting it presented on a gentleman's hand. It turned out impossible to shoot the picture in one take because you can't adjust the lights for a moving subject.
So I shot two different sets and combined them later in Photoshop: The watch and the Hand with the watch (replaced by the other one).
It was quiete hard to find the same perspective but it worked.
The hand was lit with a Softbox from the right and a gridded strobe from the back (see lighting diagram). The backround is an antique cupboard.
The watch was lit by a diffusor from the right ith a gradient created by a stobe (right in the diagram) , a reflector from behind and above (~45°), another reflector from underneath the camera and a softbox from the left.
I hope you like it
Aaron
4:08 pm
March 4, 2012
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Too late to edit, I forgot to add the shooting specs:
1/250
F8
ISO 100
Polarizing filter
Canon 1Ds with 24-105 at 105mm
Strobes by Elinchrom
I am not able to join you live due to the time shift but I'm still looking forward for some nice, constructive Feedback
Aaron
4:33 pm
March 4, 2012
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I wanted to make a shot with paint splashes. But it failed miserably!!!
So I have taken a shot from my web-site, which I am still quite happy with. An image of a Luminox watch, with a black strap on a black background.
The watch was slightly angled up, (not laying flat). I had 2 soft-boxes one on each side,(see diagram). I combined 2 shots, 1st the watch shot with the soft-boxes, 2nd shot long exposure (no lights) to capture the e luminous part of the face. Then com-binding both shots in Photoshop, and then using Nik Software to bring out the contrast more.
8:40 pm
September 4, 2009
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This is mine.
I have one major issue with this shot, but can't justify re-doing it. Will you find the wrongness? He-he:-)
The BTS video and setup will be on a separate blog post.. I'll make a mini-tutorial for this.
9:43 pm
March 3, 2012
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Alex Koloskov said
This is mine.
I have one major issue with this shot, but can't justify re-doing it. Will you find the wrongness? He-he:-)
The BTS video and setup will be on a separate blog post.. I'll make a mini-tutorial for this.
Could it be that the watch is 180 degrees in opposite direction ?
9:48 pm
September 4, 2009
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Steve,
I think you've got it. It might not be 18o degree, but at least the "top" (where "NIXON" is ) should be higher than the opposite part. Almost like if we mirror it horizontally.
We had sooo many shots, but this one was the best, despite the wrongness.
10:02 pm
March 3, 2012
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Alex ,
Reason i said 180 degrees is in my opinion , it is more natural to read time from top to bottom . But this is only my preference .
11:32 pm
March 5, 2012
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Alex Koloskov said
Steve,
I think you've got it. It might not be 18o degree, but at least the "top" (where "NIXON" is ) should be higher than the opposite part. Almost like if we mirror it horizontally.
We had sooo many shots, but this one was the best, despite the wrongness.
I read your post and thought the same before continuing to read further. I felt that it looked good, but that if the watch was flipped 180 it would have been more natural to read it.
~Noah
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