Yes, a product shot on white. I think this type of shot is possibly the bane of any photographer’s life. There’s no allowance for creativity, and clients ask for it because they see it on their competitors website. And of course, there’s the fact that a number of the large e-commerce sites demand white backgrounds. We could do so much more for the product, if only we were given the opportunity. Which reminds me, I’ve had such an opportunity just lately, and will follow up with a blog showing a comparison “on white” and a more creative setup.
Anyway, back to the dog bed.
The bed was placed on a a white vinyl background, with the intention of cutting out the image in post. My back light was an Elinchrom BRX500Ri firing at 3.5 through a honeycombed 40×53 inch (102x135cm) softbox on a boom arm, placed above the backdrop from behind. It was angled towards the product and provided all the lighting for the backdrop.
Frame right is an ELB400 firing through a 40cm gridded beauty dish at an output of 4.0.
Frame left is a second ELB400 firing through a 90×90 folding softbox at an output of 3.5.
It’s a very simple setup, but creates enough soft shadows to give a real feeling of shape and depth to the product.
The image was cut out, and the drop shadow was created manually, following the original shadow as a guide.
Olympus E-M1 mkII 1/250th sec ISO200 12-40mm f2.8 @ f13
The straight out of camera image is below.
I provide training courses via Focal Point.
