C&C on a couple shots

[FattyMcJ]

Hey folks,

Been a while since I've shot any sort of products, but I've learned a lot about lighting since then. Now I'm stuck with a quandary of sorts. Black leather.

Here's the shots:

&

And a few supplement/detail shots:

My main question is, how do you deal with the semi-reflective nature of black leather (so as not to over expose) while still preserving the detail in the shadows of the wrinkles/tooling designs ?

To me, they're underexposed, but when "properly" exposed, I lose the deep black tones and the leather becomes gray-ish. Are my results acceptable?

Oh, and for reference: SB-800 in 43" reflective umbrella 3' above, SB-800 in 24" softbox CL about a foot away for fill.

 

[kasperjd4]

The lighting is pretty flat.

Don't light straight on, light from the far side or even a little behind. Let the light wrap around the subject to give you highlights & shadows. Product lighting takes a long time to get right unless you have a lot of experience & know exactly what you are doing. Keep trying different lighting set-ups. Keep up the good work!

 

[lawrencebrussel]

It looks so perfect . loved these pictures.