Working with reflective objects: cosmetic brush set photographed.

By Alex Koloskov posted on

October 21st, 2010 |

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About a month ago I’ve shared our photo shoot for Anisa International, explaining how we are working with highly reflective (chrome or nickel) products: Shooting cosmetic brushes: simple tips to help dealing with chrome finish. As usual, I’ve posted the article on a few photographic forums and got a pretty useful feedback, which usually (but not always:-) helps me to improve my shooting technique.

This time we got to shoot a similar set, all metal polished handles with a little bit darker color then previous set. I had several changes to the lighting setup to make sure we’ll get more distinctive metal look of the nickel brush handles:

The lighting setup:

studio lighting setup product photography Atlanta

Two light sources were used, WL X1600 from the left (1) through the diffuser, one on top ( 2 AB800) through another diffuser ( both fromWestcott Illuminator Reflector Kit 6-in-1 – 52″ ). On the right I had a small piece of thick foam board as a reflector (3). As you see, I’ve got our main light (number1) really close to a diffuser: this produces a bright vertical line on each brush. The strobe on top was to fill the scene with the light, killing shadows. The full list of equipment is on the end of the article, as usual.

Same as previous time, we did 2 separate shot: one for a vertical brushes and one for a horizontal brush’s handle and combined them during a post production. The end result is below:

product photography Atlanta anisa metal brush set by photigy

Separate shots were needed for the two reasons:

First, to get rid from the reflection of horizontal handle on the brushes and second, to get all pieces in a focus: even at F25 DOF not enough to get desired level of sharpness on both – company name on the brush handle and on the hair of the brush.
Also we have used a black screen (not shown on the setup), placed right in front of the horizontal handle: this is where that long horizontal black line came from. The top light was lowered as well, this reduced spills on the far background of the shooting table: this is how upper gray line on the brush handle appeared.
During a post-production we have also fixed reflections on each vertical brush brush, making it longer to cover the whole brush height.

BTW, working on a focus stacking tutorial, it will be my guest post on one of very good photography tutorial blogs:-) I’ll announce it here as soon as we got all ready (subscribe to our RSS feed to stay updated). Also, please do not forget: this Sunday we are going to have a masterclass “watch photography“, you still have time to sign in; it is free.

Camera gear:

Lighting, light modifiers and accessories: