Product photography: Musical instruments - Want gear and general advice!

[arangbokong]

As the title hints, I'm probably gonna be given a product photography assignment to shoot products from as small as a crown of a flute (coin sized) and as large as a tuba. Everything is not finalised yet because I haven't been able to meet up with the client. He has seen my photos though and he has seen how I've been shooting them with my impromptu backdrop and stuff and decided to ask about my services. The 'studio' has to go to the location because the instruments are difficult to transport.

Firstly, how should I charge? I'm not looking to rip him off because the client was an old member of my school's concert band, but I also don't want to under charge. It's for his retail shop, so it'll probably be for print and online. I'm thinking a decent hourly rate + rights per image (minimum of x number), but what do you guys think?

Secondly, gear. I've got enough gear with me or will be able to borrow enough (3 hotshoe flashes, 4 if I were to get another ebay radio trigger)

Modifiers: I'll go with a simple 60cm x 60cm softbox. It'll do the trick for anything around the size of a saxophone. What about a tuba? I have a snoot to do tight spots of color on the backgrounds if I want to.

What about backgrounds? I'd like to replicate something similar to this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sgw/2755422500/

as well as one with a white background.

For the above black BG shot, I should get an acrylic board of some sort. My friend says I should get a transparent acrylic board and get black paper below, swap it out with white paper if and when I want. What do you guys think? Are there such acrylic boards? I can get standard color (white, black etc) boards as well. Which are better? Then what about getting the background totally dark? I'll be working indoors, so do you think I need to get a black paper background?

For the white bg shot with or without reflections in the bottom, I'd think I'd probably need to get a backdrop setup. Something like THIS with SAVAGE white paper? What is the higher quality setup from Manfrotto or Lastolite?

Lastly, any tips? I'm gonna have an assistant with me if I can afford it. I will also rent a 100mm macro if I need to.

 

[tirediron]

That's a lot of questions....

-I'd charge straight time for this at whatever your regular hourly rate is.

-Four speedlights is more than adequate, but you will need LOTS of diffusion. The example you've linked to has considerable room for improvement; it appears as if the lights are too strong and too far away and with insufficient diffusion. Lighting items like this is tricky and generally requires a lot of flags, scrims and gobos. I could see it easily taking an hour to get the lighting setup for something like a tuba sorted. The one thing you NEED is the lighting bible.

-One softox ain't going to cut it. I'd want one for each speedlight. Lastolite's Ezyboxs are outstanding and very nice to work with. I'd go for a range from 12" to 30".

-For backgrounds I'd go with a roll of Savage Thunder Grey seamless paper. Dead simple to turn it either black or white as you choose.

-In the example shot the horn looks like it's sitting on a piece of plexiglass to provide the reflection; is that the acrylic board to which you refer?

-Two light stands with a centre pole between them, or any of a dozen backdrop stands will be fine.

-I wouldn't bother with the macro lens unless you need it for specific detail shots. Most of this would be better shot with a mid-range zoom, 24-70 or similar.

 

[webrotate360]

My two cents..

- Definitely charge considerable extra for the on-site shoot as this is usually a lot of inconvenience that everybody can agree on.

- I would go with black and white Savage rolls for the backgrounds but some post work is needed anyway to make it totally white or black, especially with the reflective subjects like these.

- Agreed with tirediron that 100mm is not a good choice as you need some flexibility working with small and large items at the same time so would need medium zoom lens.

- Never tried it but I really liked how black granite tiles worked for this guy. Painted acrylic sheet for black reflections would work too.