Having Some Fun For a Product Shot

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Having Some Fun

For A Product Shot

      I received the Hubley Cast Iron Steam shovel, and immediately know that I'd like to present it in a more  "fancy" shot.  This small toy dates back to the 1930's-1940's.

     Normally,  a photographer might do research, write down some ideas, and work from there. Instead, I had a "rough idea" what I was going to do.  I gad the sand under my front steps (for winter use on ice on the walkway). I didn't realize that it was wet, but that worked out better than the dry sand I had  in another bag.

   Initially, I placed the toy in the sand, but that didn't work out so well. I then came up with the idea of making a small path upwards to where I would place the item. And that's what happened for today's instalment.

My normal table that I use for shooting.

From the side it's shaped in an "S", and is called a "sweep-table".

WIth lighting you're able to to have light block off in the back, 

thus creating the illusion of infinite depth.

The foundation

Make sure that you buy a bag of sand that's closed!

You don;t want to bring in any insects to your house!

Large black plastic bags to keep the sand from messing the area.

The Hubley Steam Shovel presented as an image for E-Bay.

MyMy My Initial Set-up-sorry for the out-of-focus.

This is a rather boring (uninteresting) image.

I decided to make a  spiral "road"

For the lighting, I used my regular 2 spot lights, but didn't like the effect.

The lighting wasn't dramatic enough, and  was too flat (lacking depth of 3-D)

My Maglite and its' head with the small hose.

I decided to go with my Maglite small flashlight,with it's small head for lighting up tiny areas.
I accidentally pointed the light at the camera, and that gave me an idea.
The white streaks could be used to create "smoke".

 The "smoke" place purposely over the chimney of the steam shovel.

The camera angle was too high, which reduced the height of the small hill, and flattened the image.

A lower camera angle 

The Final Image 

Some very rough Photoshop to make the sand pile larger. 

A cropped version of the previous image.

The image is very "crude" or rough.

This is just to give you an idea of what you can do.

It's the idea that counts, so  always write down your thoughts wherever you go, 

and then save them for when you want  to be creative.

You'll be surprised at how easy shots like this are if you know what to do.

And knowing is not that hard either!

Thanks for dropping by, 

and have a nice morning, afternoon, or evening,

wherever you may be.