This was part of an ongoing project with Woo Creative for one of their clients, Saddles Direct. The brief from Lisa was pretty straightford. “Make it look good, with plenty of detail.”
Well, to be honest, the saddle had lots of detail available, including some really nice graining in the leather, along with immaculate stitch work. So, I had to ensure the image would show all of that, and also keep it isolated from anything in the background so the viewer’s eye didn’t wander.
I placed the saddle on a padded boom arm, allowing me to adjust the height and angle of the saddle to suit. The height was pretty much at shoulder height, making it much easier to set the lighting and camera etc.
All the light was basically going to be very rigidly controlled to ensure it went exactly where it was intended, and not cause extra lighting to anything else in the background. The main light is a Lencarta Elite Pro 600Ws firing at 1/8th through a 70cm gridded Beauty dish on a high lightstand just to the left of the camera. This is providing the overall light, and provides the general highlight on the padded area to the left.
Frame left is another Elite Pro 600, firing at 1/8th through a 40cm gridded beauty dish. This is creating the highlight you can see along the edge of the padded area, and also the front of the saddle.
A little further back from the second head, there is a third Elite Pro 300 firing at 1/4th through another 40cm gridded beauty dish. This has been placed just beyond the saddle and angled downward onto the top, providing the general lighting of the seat, and also the highlight.
The fourth light is a Lencarta Atom 360 is frame right, firing at 1/4th through a gridded beauty dish, and skimming along the front panel (You can make out the created shadow falling on the padded area). This specifically creates the highlight along the edge of the panel on the right hand side, aswell as highlighting the texture of leather.
A fifth lightsource is placed above the fourth, and a little further back to highlight the back of the saddle. It’s another Atom 360 firing at ¼ though another gridded beauty dish.
Nikon D4 1/200th sec ISO200 24-70mm @55mm f5.6
I provide training via Focal Point.
