Reply To: Into the Big Middle

[Trainwreck]

Thank you I hate Fautography.

If this shot made you thirsty then it must be working!

For this shot I would have chosen one of two surfaces. I like either black plexiglass, or I also use a piece of picture frame glass that I paint (in this case) black on one side (the bottom).

Plexiglass-

Pros- Provides beautiful reflections. No “ghosting” (double reflections). This is very important.

Cons- Rather expensive, scratches easily, collects dust if your set is up for very long.

Glass-

Pros- Cheap. You can paint one side any color. If you need to change color its easy to scrape off the paint with a razor blade scraper and go with another color. Not as easily scratched. Easy to clean. Did I mention cheap?

Cons- Ghosting at some shooting angles. This is unacceptable. Easily broken. Hand easily hacked off when it does!

As I recall for this shot I chose painted glass. The background is a black fleece blanket on a BG stand probably around 7-8 feet away and out of the lighting zones. Cheap and absorbs light pretty well. However, I typically shoot in the studio at max sync speed. In my case 1/200th. This kills all ambient light and I don’t have to stumble around in the dark breaking glass and hacking off limbs! I can leave the lights on with no effect on the shot. So if there is enough room out of the lighting zones behind the scene the BG will go to black anyway regardless.

I have a square of smooth black tile that I really don’t like. I have been unable to find a solid black piece to date. Most I have seen have specks which looks like dust specks in a photo. A piece of textured slate, however, makes a good textured surface to shoot on and doesn’t come off as a bad (dirty) shot.

Good product photography (and I’m not saying this is) takes an insane amount of post production work, a goodly amount of which is just cleaning the product/surface/everything else. And that’s after making sure everything is thoroughly cleaned on-set before pulling the trigger. If you don’t believe that try putting an old gold ring with a gemstone in front of your macro lens and see what you come up with!

So if you feel like it IHF what product(s) are you wanting to shoot and what kind of problems are you experiencing? We might be able to kick around a few ideas if you’ve a mind to.