[matthew]

Thanks Chris, those are great shots. I've never seen those markers before; they look like a blast. I can see them being the biggest drain on office productivity since Microsoft's Solitaire -- I want some.

Matthew some really great shots there, i think you did a great job considering the lights you had, the interior shots, the kitchen and the last shot could use a little more light. The living room is the best out of the three.

Thanks for the feedback. The lighting is vital -- it, and some rudimentary compositional skills, are my greatest advantages over the typical shots the agents take themselves. I agree that the LR shot is the best, and it's also the simplest setup. With the den shots, I'm trying to brighten a dark corner without creating too many shadows, but doing it using harsh lights in close quarters.

I need to do something to improve the lighting and the colour balance. (Those walls are supposed to be green, not yellow.) I'm trying to decide between an ExpoDisk plus reflector/diffuser, to better cope with and manipulate different coloured light sources, versus a monolight or two. Option 1 is cheaper; option 2 (the proper lights) would let me have more control, be more professional than my home depot clip lights, and might improve my shot-to-shot speed, but having enough space in the small interiors is an issue.

I'm considering using 1x 160ws monolight on a stand with an umbrella, a couple of good-sized reflectors, and keeping a couple of the clip lights for additional fill. (Eventually, I know I'd want to add a second light, probably a 360ws model for a little versatility.) I'm looking at another immediate $500+ -- a big investment for not much return, but if I can build a good portfolio, I can get more work.

I may be rambling, but if you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

[Pat]

My contribution,

[Banded Drake]

Ok here is my attempt. I have to say that this was a lot harder than i thought it was going to be. Paul set the bar High LOL .

I must admit that this is photoshopped , only because i didnt have the stuff that i wanted to have . I hope that yall enjoy . Any comments are welcome too .

Good job Pat . Gotta love that Ovaltine ......



.......... Shawn

[Wedding Shooter]

Hi Matt,

LOL - the colouring markers are fun. I have a Bowens kit and it is great (2 x 500 and 1 x 250). I think you might find the 160 light a little underpowered for what you are doing - just my feeling.

My friend shoots interiors for a big magazine over here and he sometimes needs a 1000 watt light for the job.

If you do buy the monolights you will have a good kit for doing all types of photography - well worth the investment.

Cheers,

Chris

[Pat]

I have to admit I cheated with Photoshop, I tried all the suggestions from Paul, my reference book and the best I could get was a very pale blue background, so I changed it to white

[Paul.R.Lindqvist]

Shawn: looks good, a few hot spots, i would tone down the refelction jus a little bit. Other then that it looks great!

Pat:Nice job, its not that photoshop shouldnt be used, its the end results that counts. My stand point is more that do everything you can with the equipment you have, and then turn to PS.

Matthew: For big interior shots, they use generator packs, they produce from 1000 to 3000+ WS. But to get started i would get a few compacts in the range from 100 to 600 ws. I would try to use sofboxes and large modifiers, this so i dont have the hotspots umbrella creates, the more even the light, less shadows you get . Also by just bouncing of the strobes of large reflectors will soften the light quite a bit. Since you dont have a lot of light i would take advantage of the natural light (from windows) also a meter is required to measure the ambient light and to match your strobes with it.

Im no expert when it comes to interior shots by any means, but i know people who does this for a living, and the setup work is very important and they dont leave nothing out, they think of everything and alot of light is used. Depending on the size they either use large lightbanks and generators, or alot of small light to paint it exactly how they want it.

You definitively have they eye for it, and with a little invesment you should get a long way. Start with 2 strobes and a light meter, a few light modifiers and try to scrap around for larger/small reflectors.

Hope that made sense lol.

/Paul L.

[Paul.R.Lindqvist]

todays try.


/Paul L.

[Paul.R.Lindqvist]

Another shot. Zacks toy car. A little bit torn as can be seen.



/Paul L.

[Banded Drake]

Like i said this assignment was harder than i thought it was going to be . I think it would be a lot better to have a light box , than to shoot with just lights ( like me ) .

Thanks for the kind words Paul . I think i will play more this weekend if i can . But i think i will try to get/make a light box first and see where i can go from there .


.......... SHawn

[Pat]

I really like this kind of photography, have seen lightboxes advertised for AUS$60 60cms high with 3 different backgrounds red, blue & black.

[Paul.R.Lindqvist]

Shawn: Yes a lightbox will make it easier to get a soft even light, however it does limit you, to use accent light and to make more advanced setups. The 2 last shot i posted is my first shots using a lighttent. (I got a 80x80x80 cm) For highly reflective surface it does work quite well.And the biggest advantage is blown highlight in the reflective areas. But its not ideal for every setup, especially the ones where you want a litte more control (imo). What kind of light modifiers do use you on your lights ? or do you use hotlights ?

Pat:There is a alot of boxes on ebay,the cheapest may not be the best regarding quality. But for just testing out and for personal usage im sure they are more then enough.

Will try to show some image with/without lighttent later this week.

here are two more test shots using the new lighttent. have to forgive the sloppy compositionen. it was late and i was dead tired, but i wanted to try out my new lighttent. :-)








/Paul L.

[Banded Drake]

Paul ,

I have 2 medium softboxes . Both lights are strobes , but i find my model lights to be on the " weak " side. I wish they were just a little bit brighter.
The lights arent all that great but it was all i could afford at the time and am wanting to get some better ones in the near future . ( just dont tell my wife ) .


........ Shawn

[Paul.R.Lindqvist]

Shawn: Are the modelling bulbs fixed ? if not maybe you can change them ?

dont worry it will be our secret....

/Paul L.

[matthew]

Chris, Paul, thanks for the suggestions and information. After considerable agonizing, I bought one AlienBees B800 monolight (360ws), which will arrive in a couple of days. I've also picked up a 32" silver/white reflector and a lightweight stand for it, which I used today while photographing a large house. (The shots came out very nicely, and I'll have some here later.) I can't wait to try it with a decent strobe, and I'm also seriously looking at some wireless triggers for the 3 (three!) hotshoe flashes that I already own. Wireless, battery-powered, and able to be tucked into small areas for hidden fill... I'm drooling at the thought of it.

new business: it isn't strictly a product shot, but late Saturday night I really needed a photo for a baby announcement. (Davina McCall had a son!) I set this up quickly on my couch, using what I've learned in this thread and elsewhere about lighting for studio/product work. The light was an on-camera flash, bounced from a white wall on the left-hand side, with a reflector to provide fill light on the right. How quickly did I set it up, you ask? Well, the reflector was the back of my laptop's LCD. Thank you, Apple, for making white computers!

[matthew]

I have to say, this thread rocks. Thanks to everyone for the great participation, and all the shots you're sharing. Since this is a potential direction for me to take, I've been reading every word -- many, many times.

Here's my architectural photos from today. The setup was different from the first series I posted. The two biggest differences are that I used a tripod, allowing multi-second exposures where appropriate, and I bought and read Eric Roth's book "Interior Photography". If this is your thing, it's great. I also bought, and am working my way through, "The Lighting Cookbook". (Amphoto books -- where would I be without them?) These two resources have given me the base to go beyond the typical RE shots, which was what I was trying to mimic in my first shoot.

Oh, and I almost forgot -- that little condo sold for its full asking price in about a week. Just for fun, here's a link to the listing with my photos, and this is a link to a listing in the same building taken by another agent.

Sorry, but I didn't take the time to resize them... I also had some homework to do for my "introduction to digital photography" class tomorrow. As before, any comments or critiques are appreciated.


Master bedroom:




Living room:




Kitchen:




Sitting room:





There was a lot less post-production done on these; typically a slight shadow/highlights adjustment and maybe a faux warming filter. The living room shot needed a slight rotation, but the others haven't even been cropped. My favourite is the living room shot -- the window at the far end of the room is artificially lit.

The 1.5h at the location gave me 16 photos of 13 distinct compositions, and took just over an hour to process.

[Toad]

Nice condo and feature shots, M!. These photos would sell it for sure...

[championboxer]

hi paul...

can i ask..

(a) to shoot such product shots, at what F-stop do you use? And the focal length usually you use?

(b) i see you have several different coloured backgrounds? Are they photoshopped? Or are they literally real coloured backgrounds?

thanks!
i love your photos on the food...
you are good with capturing natural light... Light always seem to be on your side

[Paul.R.Lindqvist]

Matthew:

Your condo shots are great!!, and congrats on the newly ordered bee.

One minor thing though,i would retouch a couple of hot spots.

Thanx for sharing your work.



Championboxer:

Well the f-stop depends, but i usually go around F/8-11, depends on the size of the subject the distance to it. I usually find my self shooting to wide open, thus not getting the whole subject in focus.

Yes the backgrounds are all real, only photoshop work on them is usally to remove dirt, or to remove the edge of the glass sheet.

Thanx. well i try to think as much about the light as i do regarding all the other technical mambo jambo.


/Paul L.

[matthew]

Thanks, Paul, Toad -- the house listing is (finally) on-line. If you want to see what half a million dollars will buy in Toronto, here's the property's MLS listing. I'm thinking that it looks decent.

For my budding portfolio, I might clone out the hot spot on the fridge in the sitting-room photo, but I'm not sure how much I can ethically change for the listing. Next time it shouldn't be an issue, as I will be watching out for it. I'm also preparing to retire my hot lights, as I now have my Bee, umbrella, and an eye to fire my main camera flash remotely. It's not quite a generator bank, but the learning curve is steep enough as it is. I'm getting plenty of photos of my apartment so that my next shoot will be better and faster.

[matthew]

A couple of recent shots that I needed for a class that's almost exclusively dealing with studio lighting and product photography.

One is to photograph a glass object:




The other is to photograph a specular metal object. Since I look at a lot of good photographs of watches, that's what I chose:





Any comments or critiques would be appreciated.

[shuttertalk]

Nice matthew... the glass is great. With the watch it's very well done, but I don't really care for the background or the fabric thing the watch is resting on...

[Irma]

I like both pictures. I think you did it great.

[matthew]

Thanks very much, Jules & Irma. I can't even estimate how many shots it took to get these two. I would take dozens as I dailed in the lighting and composition, set the white balance, and then format the card to wipe the junk images off of it before taking another dozen (or two) "finished" pictures. I need to start taking shots of my setup so that I can remember how I did these.

I agree about the holder in the watch photo. It was supposed to be a shot of the watch in the original box, but I couldn't get the front of the box or the logo in the background aligned properly and had to crop it. Finding something to support the product in a jewellery shot continues to confound me.

If you want to see how the pros do it, here's my competition: http://www.omega.ch/index.php?id=288&det...no_cache=1
I have a long way to go.

[wulinka]

oooh, I'm impressed everyone...!

Paul, really all nice, I recognize some of the older ones. I love how you achieve a really while backdrop without it being looking too harsh lit.

uli

[matthew]

A couple from today -- a class assignment.





A composite -- for class -- that I still need to work on:



And one that I shot just for fun: