Techno X Watches

Not all that long ago David Hobby blogged about doing pro-bono work as a way to practice skills on subjects you might not otherwise get access to, and to help out your local community. I had the chance to shoot some menu items for a new restaurant across the street from me, and all I took in exchange was eating the food they wanted pictures of.

And that turned into this shoot, for Techno X Watches (site not fully up and running yet). Gorgeous diamond encrusted watches, and lots of them. If i hadn't done the shoot at the restaurant, he never would have found me, and a free job has turned into an ongoing opportunity.

Business practices aside, heres the full spread and how I did it after the jump.

I think I may have mentioned that I usually forget to take a setup picture when I do something cool. This time was unfortunately not an exception. A pair of sawhorses were supporting a sheet of glass that I had intended to use to make reflections, but ended up causing double images to appear, a big no-no.

A sheet of metal from my basement with a black paint job on one side saved the day. While it was dirty and scratched to hell, photoshop cleaned it up very nicely. Two white foamcores on either side provided some fill light from the small softbox directly above the watches. The light was being supported by a background stand, convenient, but just one way to do it. I would have preferred to be using my boom arm that was being borrowed.

The sawhorses and metal sheet were removed for the shot above, it was just the softbox and two cards on the sides. The position of the watches was the most important factor in composing this shot. We needed to show as much of the face as possible, on three watches facing different directions. And angling them wrong would cause the entire face to blow out because of the reflection.

This shot was done on the black reflective surface, with the cards and softbox remaining the same. Getting the right angle of the camera was the only hard part, while trying to make a compelling reflection that did more than just fall off.

In fact, the photography itself wasn't the hard part. The lighting setup remained somewhat static, usually only changing to fit in the swords vertically, or to bring in a second light for a little fill occasionally. The hard part, again, was the editing. For all the product photography I've done, theres been a certain amount of dust to deal with. And despite our best efforts, these guys were coated in it, even immediately after being wiped with a clean jewelry cloth.

Editing at 300% means you're covering an annoyingly tiny area, and each speck of dust has to be individually removed. Next time, I'm bringing canned air. The other challenge was a slight blue color cast on the inside of the faces, from the light going through the crystal and reflecting around off the interior of the watch. A brush set to saturation and on black removes all the color, but on diamonds and silver, you can't even tell. It makes the diamonds pop and look crisp and colorless like they should.

All of these pictures are (hopefully) going to be used in some promotional material for Techno X, so here's hoping that this is a tutorial for my first international campaign.

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AMP Workshops

After a bit of a gap where I had to concentrate on school and getting the next Strobist meetup going, it's time to get another AMP Workshop going. The last workshop was really great, with four of us instructing over 20 people on location and studio lighting, products, wedding, and general portrait photography. The next workshop will also feature a photoshop segment where we'll show different techniques for editing your shots from the day.

We really wanted to make this class exceptional, and to be a great value as well. Offering the day long class for $100 per participant is going to include a whole bunch of stuff that wasn't available at our first workshop, or even at the Strobist meetups. We're also limiting the size to 15 people so we can really get hands on with everyone and make sure we cover anything you ask for. More details after the jump.

While some workshops out there are really just expensive lectures, we wanted to make the whole experience as interactive as possible. Right from the start, everyone is using high grade equipment, so nothing besides a camera is necessary to bring. Making sure everyone is comfortable using their camera is covered during the workshop setup, so even if you're a complete beginner, we can help you get right on track and shooting along with everyone else.

The intermediate and semi-pro level shooters will be more interested in the freedom we give our participants in how and what they want to shoot. We always bring in a large selection of models and rotate them frequently, so everyone will have unique shots instead of the same one over and over. We encourage dynamic interaction and want to make sure everyone gets a chance to try something they wanted to personally develop.

The locations change nearly every time to give new backgrounds and creative influences to each workshop. Some will be held in studios, various buildings, homes, and others outside in local parks and city streets to ensure new material for everyone. The classes change as well, depending on the guest instructors and available materials for each workshop. Our main classes for the next workshop are portraiture, product, location, and wedding photography.

So if you really want to get into a workshop that will give you the best experience in lighting and photography, the AMP Workshop will not disappoint. Everyone from beginner to semi-pros will learn something new, and take away an amazing experience. Participants are limited to 15 per workshop, so be sure to sign up before all the slots are taken.

Sign up using the form below, or at alexminkin.com

Date

July August

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Meetup numero tres

Like the last quickie iPhone post says, we're up and running towards our next meetup on June 20th. Its being held at the Russell Industrial Center, which caters to the Detroit creative community, and it's one hell of a location. Tons of cool stuff is going to be at this meetup, you won't want to miss it. More after the jump.

Previous meetups have featured classic cars, motorcycles, ninjas and a over a dozen models for our photographers to work with. But this meetup is going to be even bigger and better, and some of the talent we're booking is out of this world. Not only are the models even better with some of our favorites coming back, but we're getting tons of non-traditional models to come as well. Suffices to say that its going to get a little hot in there.

We're not putting any limits on the number of people allowed to sign up like in the past, we're going all out to make this the best Strobist meetup ever. Its a long standing goal of mine to get our group featured on the front page of the real Strobist site, and this might just do the trick. We are still asking people to shout out and let us know who to expect, especially when planning food and how many regular models we'll need to keep everyone busy.

Details of the meetup like the time (10am to 8pm) and location (1600 Clay rd., Detroit) are available on the flickr page along with the sign up thread, which also covered a few FAQ's. More bits of info will get posted here and on flickr as we move closer to the date of the meetup. Keep checking back, and don't forget to sign up.

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June 20th meetup

Quick post from the back seat of the car via iPhone. The next strobist meetup is being held in the Russell industrial center, June 20th 10am to 8pm. Signup is at the flickr page, and this one is going to be huge. More details to follow.




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Assisting Paul

Not too long ago, I was fortunate enough to get my first real assisting job with a real, widely known photographer. Paul Mobley is a New York based portrait photographer, best known for his recent book American Farmer as well as his commercial work for the automotive and entertainment industries, among others. Paul was great to work for, and forgiving if nothing else when I made a mistake (like not getting the paper roll secured well enough).

Helping Paul gave me a lot of insight into how different people work as photographers. Usually I'm the one leading, or sharing with other skilled photographers. Paul was the first real pro commercial shooter that makes his living at photography that I got to see in action. It made me much more conscious of how I'll work in the future.
Paul was shooting material for his portfolio at the Michigan Basset Hound Rescue's event, where the main attraction was the dozens of floppy eared, belly dragging, sad eyed dogs. And their owners. While there was a fair amount of equipment there, it really came down to a lighting setup that I've used since my early days of strobist. Simple, easy to control, good looking light. Most call it 3 point, but we had 4 lights on this one to make life easier in post.

My job comprised mostly of keeping the paper backdrop intact (at which I somewhat failed, but we did keep enough to have the necessary background), helping lift the 60-85lbs dogs, hold them in awkward positions, hand out business cards, and help solve nagging little details like how to keep my monolights dry in a drizzle just wet enough to fry them.

In some of his shots, I'm actually right behind the subject, holding a dog in place. In a few others, I'm on the side waiting to be edited out later. For all the work we did on the backdrop, it ended up seeming like Paul was going to take care of it all in post anyways. A white foamcore behind any hair would probably have worked nearly as well in a pinch.

For my first real assisting job, it seemed very prosaic with very few wrinkles. It was fun, I learned a lot and finally remembered to ask some questions I had about his book, but towards the end when everything was worked out, all I had to do was run and ask people if we could borrow their dog.

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Gucci Commercial

Without the pressure of clients, art directors, talent directors, and assorted hanger-ons, it can be easy to make images that are more than ad-worthy. It's even easier when you don't think about making it to be an ad, but that's not the case for this one, at least.

Tara brought a few tear sheet ideas to our last shoot, and among them were a few higher end brands. The ones that are more likely to send DMCA takedown notices. I'll just tell them I'm a student, It's kinda true. More after the jump.

Gucci ads tend to run a little dark, which runs right in line with my style. Combined with a location that lesser photographers would die for, everything 'clicked' just right for this. And it was surprisingly easy to set up for. Try to take a guess.

A single softbox high left was all that was needed. It was in a fairly small space, no more than 5 or 6 feet wide, and that chair Tara is sitting on is tiny. Having her sit all the way on the edge involved her moving all of 3 inches forward. A little sneer and a necklace grab is all that was needed to say 'you can't afford to buy your girlfriend this dress'. I don't think the dress was Gucci.

The editing was also fairly standard. I don't give away my whole process because it's more fun for you to learn your own way, but also because at this point it's so hodgepodge that it hardly makes sense to me anymore. Suffice to say my favorite overlay modes are soft or hard light and overlay, and I frequently use high pass for two different reason.

In fact, this picture was so straight forward, it's entirely possible it took longer to find and shop the logo than it did to snap off the 10 frames I picked this one out of. Cutting it and stretching it out in photoshop, then adding a gradient was all that required.

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Valentino Commercial

Sometimes, the photography isn't the hard part. Finding a full bottle in an apartment shared by a college grad and a student can be a challenge sometimes. When all your booze bottles are half empty, it probably means its time to start shooting something else, or go grocery shopping.

Even this bottle of perfume is only 3/4 full, I rather like how it came out. The way the liquid is diffracting the light is just too cool. It wouldn't fly as a real commercial ad, solely because of that, but it was a bit more challenging than the Corona or Bombay bottles, because of its lack of color and size. More after the jump.

That bottle is tiny tiny tiny, and not only is it one giant highlight, but you can see straight through it, unlike the Bombay bottle. The Corona bottle was also completely clear, but was full of beer, whereas the perfume bottle was half full. I think you can actually see the sides of the table I was working on in the bottom corners of the bottle.

This one was also shot a little differently than the bottles, because of its size, and me getting sick of cleaning my sensor over and over again. But thats for another post. I actually positioned the first sofbox directly behind the bottle, thats now the background. The second softbox was then put in front and above of the bottle. I probably could have shot it with just the one sofbox behind, but then the front of the neck would have been dark, and I've been trying to shoot lighter colored objects.

Also, a technique used but not visible in the end result of the Corona shot that was used and evident in this shot is the reflection of the bottle in the foamcore. Foamcore is not particularly reflective, you can get a shadow, but not much distinguishable detail. I duplicate and inverse the entire object, erase a little bit of the bottom, and then line up the edges until it looks like it was shot on a highly mirrored surface. It may not work forever, but its fairly easy for straight on product shots.

One reason I've been sticking with simple product shots this week is due to space. My apartment isn't all that big, I do share it, and there's only one work surface. Of course, all my products do fit easily on this table, the problem is my lens of choice for products. A 180mm lens is not exactly practical, despite the stunningly sharp results. I'm backing off a full 6 or 7 feet to fit a bottle of beer inside the frame. Throw a 1.4 extender on it, ditch the autofocus, and I could stitch together a several hundred megapixel image with that thing. We're talking Times Square size posters.

One of the main complaints of any home studio is lack of space, but to be honest, I don't think I'll ever be happy with the space I have until I can fit a car inside my infinity wall and have to use walkie talkies to talk across the room.


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Bombay Sapphire Commercial

In yesterday's post, I mentioned the Bombay Sapphire Gin product shot that I had been working on at the same time as the Corona bottle. As you can see, its a 'dynamic' product shot (ooh, its moving) and is one I'm rather proud of.

You can see the multiple curve layers at work, on the label, the bottle, the glass, even on the background at work here. The glass was a little tricky, some color creeped in from somewhere, but luckily when shooting clear liquids and glass, the 'screen' layer mode will basically retain the image while making it translucent for all intents and purposes in photoshop. The 'gin' being poured in is actually technically in black and white, and the whole pour and glass are separate from the bottle and on completely different layers. More tips and tricks after the jump.

A lot of the same techniques used in the Corona bottle came in to play here. The setup (and lack of a picture of it) was two softboxes, angled downards from the front and back of the bottle get nice, even lighting and make the highlights on the bottle. this was originally shot horizontally, but I switched it to vertical to maintain a little differentiation from the shot I for all intents and purposes did rip off in order to practice this, and also because a client would likely want their viewer to not have to tilt their head to find out what the product was. Not that anyone could mistake this beautiful blue bottle for something else.

But once it was rotated, the asymmetry of the bottle was revealed. cloning over the entire left side while maintaining the label gives it a much stronger and professional impact than if it were noticeably different one side to the other. There are a few highlights in the bottle than I may put back to their original form, but I rather like it. Hyper symmetry is no good either.

One thing I did know going into this shot, and that I decided against incorporating for several reasons, is that alcohol pours and appears different than water. Most people won't notice the difference, but alcohol pours much smoother and appears more viscous than water. In real product shots, the real product, or something made to mimic the real product is the final touch to ensure the image is perfect.

And again, a 10 minute ( or even less, just moving the foamcore to the ground, moving the lights and adjusting the tripod to use a different lens) setup, 10 minutes of shooting (took so long to go refill the bottle and empty the glass after 3 frames), it was just about an hour in photoshop. All was going according to plan until that 90 degree CCW switch, which revealed the bottle to be ugly on the (now) right side. the duplication of the left occurred after, as well as some futzing with the glass and the masking getting lost somewhere.

But, by 5 am, I did have another colorful product shot that I'm only slightly less proud of for the fact that it was not originally my idea. Credit goes to Rob Dowsley and his array of very nice product shots that makes me get off my ass and work on my own.


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Corona Commercial

One of my bad photography habits is that I rarely post real setup shots. I can tell you how I took any number of my pictures, but for nearly all of them, I have no documentation. Normally this wouldn't even be an issue, but with photography the way it is nowadays, I like to share how I do my work, since thats how I learned to do it in the first place.

For example, this delicious looking shot of a bottle of Corona has no setup picture, but I can tell you it was taken with one frame, two softboxes on their sides, one on each side of the bottle. You need a large light source to make those nice lines in the bottle, because anything, and I mean anything remotely in view of that bottle will be reflected right back to you. More after the jump.

Bottles seem to be a popular litmus test for commercial photographers. The entire surface can become one giant specular highlight, and if not done right, you can tell. But once you figure it out, theres nothing easier. Until it comes to the post work.

That bottle took 10 minutes to setup for and shoot, and about an hour by itself in photoshop. And before you say that doesn't sound too bad, realize that where most people spend 3 or 4 hours in photoshop, I bang out my first copy in half an hour. I may go back later and fix what I don't like, but thats just how I work. Over an hour on any one photo? It goes to the trash at that point.

Most of the post work on products is spent cleaning up the actual product. First, removing dust from my dust-magnet of a sensor. Then actual dust on the product. Then any seams from shooting on two pieces of foamcore instead of one curved piece like a normal person, and then it gets really fun.

Theres about 4 curves layers in this Corona shot. I did another one with Bombay Sapphire Gin with twice as many. Two for the bottle, one for the label, another one or two for the glass, and a few for the background. Could I do it without using that many curves? To be honest, I don't know. By the time I have it looking the way I want it, condensing those layers would ruin it.

Then there's making everything symmetrical. For bottles, this is very important to me. Copy half the bottle back on to the other half, sometimes just a portion, like the neck in this one, or the entire bottle like I did for the Bombay after I rotated the entire picture. What looks good one way may not with just a simple rotation.

The Corona also required special attention for the foam in the neck of the bottle. 'Real' Corona ads feature a healthy amount of foam, and my bottle lacked it from sitting out for a while. Shaking the bottle would have put my prints all over it, as well as be hard to control. Having just a little bit was all i needed to clone-stamp and heal brush 3/4 of the foam visible in the picture. It's not quite as much as you would normally see, but it was much better than the original.

The lime took a quick touchup to remove some fibers, and some additional color put in. I sampled color off the rind, painted over the insides and put the layer to overlay to give it a little boost in color, backing it off in opacity. This of course gives me the option to come back and adjust it at any point.

After each individual part is fine-tuned, I promptly ruin it all by throwing one more curve layer on top to even everything out. the color background is added in with a 250px feathered oval selection, and a mix of straight fill and gradient. The color is sampled right from the center of the beer, so everything matches quite nicely.

Shooting products isn't nearly as glamorous as shooting models, but when its 4 AM and your girlfriend is sleeping, you don't really want to start moving furniture and inviting people over.


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