INTRODUCTION:
For this project you will choose a product (clothing, hard goods, people, high tech or other) and establish a concept that will showcase the product in a situation where it might be used. Create 1 image of the product in location (can be with or without talent). This can be positive advertising, or it can take the form of an editorial, documentary or possibly even a fine art angle. You must augment your lighting and employ your chosen location as a primary scene element. You are required to do a simple estimate, compile research, scouting and provide examples and reasoning for the examples you have chosen. Please follow submission parameters as listed below.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
- Scout, evaluate and choose an effective location that enhances your desired narrative and visual outcome.
- Augment and add additional lighting to produce a professional aesthetic that shows your skill and ability according to your highest capabilities.
- Accurately evaluate and effect necessary changes in color from multiple sources for effect, mood and cohesion.
- Expand your knowledge of image retouching, color and density correction or optimum quality of output.
- Understand the process of pre-conceptualizing an image.
- Further understanding of and experience with the digital workflow.
- Properly perform and understand metering operations.
- Experience with location lighting situations
- Experience with effective location scouting.
- Experience producing an advertising quality image.
- Experience with effective visual communication to a diverse viewing audience (advertising photography).
MATERIALS NEEDED
- An assistant
- DSLR camera body with a mild telephoto lens (Check-out)
- CF or SD memory card
- Card reader
- Hand held exposure meter (Check-out)
- Gray card for color balance (Check-out)
- Tripod (Check-out)
- Cable Release (optional – recommended)
- Lighting, reflectors and grip equipment (check-out)
- 13×19 Exhibition Fiber Paper
- Presentation backer and matte board
Final Image:
Equipment Used
- Canon 5D mkIII
- Tamron SP85 f/1.8
- 2x Godox AD300 Pro
- Key w/ Barn Door
- Fill w/ 36”x36”
- Godox XproC Trigger
- Various location stands and a tripod
- Sekonic L478 Lightmeter
- One Assistant
- 2nd assistant for Belay Climber
Pre Production:
Research Images:
In Studio Product Lighting Study:
Day of Shoot:
- Time of Day: 6:00am-7:30am
- Conditions: Overcast giving way to low sunlight.
- Cool and dry
Final Image Lighting Diagram:
Critique and Analysis:
My initial thought for a product in situation shoot was do cross country style trail running shoes. I looked into how I might secure a runner for this type of shoot and it felt like maybe a little too risky to try and reach out to the various running groups in town. Would it be possible to get someone to agree to it in time to hit the deadline. Some of my research veered off into rock climbing and bouldering.
Knowing that coworker of mine is into climbing I asked if he was willing to help with the assignment (model release available upon request); and he agreed, so I pivoted away from the trail running concept to concentrate on climbing.
While waiting until the day of the shoot, I decided to flesh out some ideas in my home studio. The lighting study was done in order to establish a baseline for where I should setup my lights. I purposely placed the stand in shoes close to background to model the real world situation of the subject being on or near the rock face. Drawing on lessons learned in Studio Still Lifes. These sketches were done with 7” reflectors and grid spots; placing the lights close to the subject. I felt as though the shadows were a bit harsh using such hard point light sources. I knew that when I got on location, I’d want closer and more diffuse lighting in order to soften those shadows while keeping the lights in a position similar to the top study. This was chosen in order to preserve detail in the shoes.
Research imagery revealed some challenges. There seems to be heavy use of wide angle shots. Perhaps we can attribute this to the GoPro affect. I was willing to experiment with this concept, even going so far as to use a 24mm Tilt Shift lens to correct for the wide angle distortion.
One hurdle of the of the initial location scout was whether I would be able to setup location lighting stands on uneven surfaces in such a way that they would not fall down the side of the rock face. With narrow pathways and no flat ground, this proved to be too risky. I didn’t feel comfortable asking my assistant to hold lights in what felt like was an unsafe scenario; so we pivoted to a location that was within reach of flat ground. I wanted it to appear as though the climber was high up and a wider angle lens may have unraveled that illusion; so I decided tighter shots with narrower angle lenses would be appropriate. Also note that I’m not an experience climber so that also presented a challenge. I might be able to get more dynamic wide angle shots if I invested in learning to climb.
Lenses used to achieve a tighter shot included an 85mm and a 50mm compact macro flash. The 85mm compresses the depth of field a little bit whereas the 50mm creates an image that is closer to what the human eye sees. The additional focus range allowed me to get close to the subject and since the surface quality is non reflective, I did not have to worry about catching my reflection in the subject.
Canon EF 50mm Compact Macro
Location Photography is all about augmenting existing lighting conditions to achieve the looks that you want. For the final main image; we were contending with early morning overcast. If we were to shoot, properly metered we would to achieved flat, lackluster results. Seen in the ambient only image, evaluatively metered in camera we are getting RGB numbers below our dynamic range and printable detail in the darker areas of the photograph, such as the pants and the arches and outsoles of the shoes.
Ambient Only
The antidote to this is to use off camera strobes. In this instance, drawing from my studies, I used a key light to mimic the non-existent sun (shooting into shade) as well as a fill light to bring texture and detail to the product. A higher ISO was also used in order to have the headroom to select a flash power that works with a smaller aperture to help preserve depth of field.
Ultimate settings were ISO640 with a shutter speed of 1/100th of a second @ f/10. Using this has allowed us to bring detail into the product within our desired 7 stop dynamic range. A barndoor was used on the keylight in order to sculpt the light, preserve a strong figure to ground component (dark figure on light background) and prevent overdoing lighting on the entire background. A softbox on the fill light, placed close to the subject, helps to mitigate harsh shadows on the rock face. The larger the light source the softer the light. The fill light was metered to f/8 in an attempt to achieve a 2:1 ratio. I think this noticeable on the ankle of the model.
The Macro shot was more of an afterthought. As the sun was coming out I used just a single key light with barn door and the sun served as the fill.
Post production was preformed to increase contrast (Camera Raw Filter, Clarity and Dehaze) and texture as well as spot heal some of the scrapes and scratches on the shoes. Curves adjustment layers with layer masks to were used to tone down the exposure on the rock face a little.
If I were to reshoot this, I work a little more with the barndoors to create more of a scrape on the logos of the and perhaps have more of a painterly affect; darkening the areas above and below the product. Shoes that were in better shape would have been a nice element to work with as well. Imagery that I’ve seen do depict the shoes as being somewhat used or slightly dirty and while the ultimate subject wasn’t completely trashed, it is verging on closer to well used than closer to brand new. Maybe I could have gotten a pair of these from REI and then returned them after the shoot. I imagine if I were to photograph for La Sportiva directly as a Work Made for Hire assignment, they would have sent me the shoes to photograph. All and all this was a fun assignment to work on. I was able to use strobes and build on existing knowledge to augment challenging ambient lighting conditions.