Product shot for CC please

imonk

Hi all,

Borrowed a friend's light tent to try out my sb600 and new Vivitar 285hv with the gadget infin triggers (my new strobist setup!!). I wanted a nice shot as I'm selling an old mp3 watch I've had lying around for ages and this is what I came up with.

In the first shot you can see it's a bit too dark at the top of the watch. I wanted it to show the 'mp3' stamped into the metal on there so I held a piece of kitchen foil just above the watch which bounced enough light onto that area. There's a slight blue colour which was the colour of the 'floor' of the light tent. I used a black jumped to prop the watch against which gave me the black.

D200 with Sigma 150, sb600 and viv 285. Shot in manual at 1/250, to knock out the ambient house lights, with the viv lowest power setting and the sb600 about 1/32 for this one I think. Both flashes shot through the white sides of the tent to diffuse the light.



then with the foil


Then finally I tried lying some foil underneath the watch (shiny side down) and tried a few lighting angles with the SB600 (The vivitar ran out of batteries by this point lol). I added the warm colour in NX



Would be grateful for any CC as this is the first time I've tried anything like this.

Cheers
Ian

Lord Vetinari

Like the first 2 shots but suspect they would be better on a lighter background. Think they would also be better if the watch was at angle and the camera was at an angle.
Brian V.

Skippy

imonk wrote:

Hi all,

Borrowed a friend's light tent to try out my sb600 and new Vivitar 285hv with the gadget infin triggers (my new strobist setup!!). I wanted a nice shot as I'm selling an old mp3 watch I've had lying around for ages and this is what I came up with.

In the first shot you can see it's a bit too dark at the top of the watch. I wanted it to show the 'mp3' stamped into the metal on there so I held a piece of kitchen foil just above the watch which bounced enough light onto that area. There's a slight blue colour which was the colour of the 'floor' of the light tent. I used a black jumped to prop the watch against which gave me the black.

D200 with Sigma 150, sb600 and viv 285. Shot in manual at 1/250, to knock out the ambient house lights, with the viv lowest power setting and the sb600 about 1/32 for this one I think. Both flashes shot through the white sides of the tent to diffuse the light.

then with the foil

Then finally I tried lying some foil underneath the watch (shiny side down) and tried a few lighting angles with the SB600 (The vivitar ran out of batteries by this point lol). I added the warm colour in NX

Would be grateful for any CC as this is the first time I've tried anything like this.

Cheers
Ian

The watch doesn't look clean Ian, and I agree with Brians comment to you.
I like the second shot ... Skippy
.

imonk

Thanks
Thanks for the feedback guys. I did give the watch a wee clean but it's been in it's box for so long that it really should have a proper polish up. That damned 150 is too sharp for it's own good, it picks up such detail that I can't even see when I look closely!

I had a bit of trouble setting the watch since I didn't have one of those hoop things that new watches come on, but next time I'll try a few different angles Also, it's a good idea to try it on white, that's next on the list

Thanks alot guys!
Ian

mercphoto

With a light tent I would have expected better lighting on the watch, but your shutter speed of 1/250 makes me think the bulk of your light was from the flash and you probably hand-held the camera. Correct? Most the light seems to be falling on the front of the watch.

If so, I'd recommend two lights outside the tent on both sides. 60W bulbs would be enough. A tri-pod. Aperture priority at f/16 or so. Shutter speed will probably be pretty low, but I think you'll get much more even lighting this way.

The black background was a good idea. It matches the watch face and is a nice tie-in. And black is good against that stainless steel watch band as well. I wouldn't change the background color at all. But, all that black in the frame might throw off the camera's metering.