Shooting shiny stuff in the studio

[Don Kondra]

Greetings,

I had the pleasure of shooting a metal sculpture by Michael Hosaluk this past weekend.

The objects are each ~ 4" long, cast bronze with a chemical patina. In effect, highly polished metal surfaces.

I started with a fairly standard product set up. Two B1600's with 2' x 3' softboxes, one light high camera left and the other parallel to the objects low. Black seamless paper backdrop. Not much attention to composition at this point, just a light test...

Not too surprised by the results

Switched to bouncing off the 10' ceiling, lights at 1 and 5 o'clock. I used a small block of wood and window caulking to position the back object.

This was the image I envisioned but didn't think it appropriate for a product shot.

So I made myself a circular cardboard/tin foil reflector for the front.

And added a little more directed light, 200 w/s strobe and 7" reflector roughly bounced off the ceiling onto the foil reflector..

Same shot with a circular polarizer.

The next afternoon before tearing down the set I noticed it was a nice sunny day with no direct light on the set. Turned off the shop lights and placed pieces of cardboard to the left and back of the objects, roughly the placement of my windows.

Turns out this is the shot the artist chose to use :mrgreen:

A small crop, cleaned up the dust and removed the blue cast on the bottom left. I chose to leave the reflections on the objects as is...

I'm having second thoughts on adjusting the lighting to emphasize the bronze nature of the objects..

Cheers, Don

 

[Forkie]

Nice. I would've chosen the same one. But I can't be the only one who thinks this looks a little bit like a poo.

 

[Bend The Light]

Nice. I would've chosen the same one. But I can't be the only one who thinks this looks a little bit like a poo.

No, you're not.

Looks well lit, though.

 

[Don Kondra]

Continuing on,

For reference I decided to shoot this sculpture on different backgrounds and change the lighting set ups.

First up is a slab of slate, I placed one strobe/softbox over the objects just out of frame.

Set up shot.

Next I placed a piece of smoked glass on white foamcore.

Set up shot.

And finally clear glass on white foamcore.

Set up shot. The 2' x 3' softbox in the back is there simply to block any reflections.

Cheers, Don

 

[PaulBennett]

I loved the 3rd picture. Don't tell the artist but I found it more interesting than the others.

 

[Don Kondra]

Do you mean the shot on white foamcore ?

I eventually decided the smoked glass shot held the most interest for me

Cheers, Don

 

[Derrel]

Absolutely FASCINATING Don, to see the way the light plays off of those curvilinear sculptures!!! I just spent like five minutes looking at the various lighting effects, trying to decide which of the several I felt showed the shapes off the best, and it was virtually impossible for me to pick a winner...each different setup had something going for it. A very interesting set of pictures indeed. Oddly, I felt pretty happy with the mental image of the shapes that I got from the very first shot--the one with just two lights and no fill!

 

[Timoris]

This goes a long way into helping me take better product shots for friends and myself. Thank you.

 

[Don Kondra]

Absolutely FASCINATING Don, to see the way the light plays off of those curvilinear sculptures!!! I just spent like five minutes looking at the various lighting effects, trying to decide which of the several I felt showed the shapes off the best, and it was virtually impossible for me to pick a winner...each different setup had something going for it. A very interesting set of pictures indeed. Oddly, I felt pretty happy with the mental image of the shapes that I got from the very first shot--the one with just two lights and no fill!

Thank you Derrel,

Their shape definitely highlights any change in position of the lights

You may remember that shadows are my nemesis and I'm actually a bit surprised that I like the darkest, moodiest shot the best.

As it happens, the gallery didn't receive my email containing the daylight shot so I was able to send them the smoked glass shot

This goes a long way into helping me take better product shots for friends and myself. Thank you.

Glad you found it helpful. If you are anything like me I need to "see" the results...

Cheers, Don