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How To Shoot Motorcycles Using Only One Speedlight

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I did a shoot recently with a big BMW using only one speed light and I wanted to share how I made it happen. The idea is, of course to learn something new, but also to show that having little gear should not stop you from pushing yourself. Sadly I cannot use the bike photo, but I reproduced the process using a trusted unique Kymco Like, it’s not a BMW but it will do. My original plan was to use a full blown studio setup: monoblocks, softboxes and umbrellas as diffusers for the shot. But as I was setting up I thought of a crazy idea: Light is light, so why don’t I just add the light from multiple exposures and shoot it with one small speedlight. So here is a step by step tutorial and video on how we did it.

 

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$99 Light Blaster™ Goes Against the $3,552 Broncolor Optical Spot For Jewels Photography

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Alex Koloskov Of Photigy.com shared a comparison between two optical projectors, the $99-speedlight powered Light Blaster and the $3,550 Broncolor Optical spot beast. Well, it was not exactly a fair fight as  the Broncolor exited the contest with a bang (pun intended) at 2:20.

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5 Different Setups To Nail A 2 Lights Product Shot

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There are a lot of things you can do with just 2 lights, actually, you can do some kicking products shots. Here are a few quick and easy product photography setups that you can add to your toolkit. (+ the occasional use of a DIY modifier)

For the whole shoot I was using a Nikon D7000 and a 18-55 kit lens. (kit lenses are awesome!)  I was using a mix of speedlights and studio strobes for the lighting. I also had a dust blower used for sensors to get dust off my subjects.

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Breaking Down A Cake Photography Session

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Last month I did a tutorial on how to build a wooden table for product photography, and I had a client recently which needed photos of their cakes and cupcakes which was the perfect opportunity to use my own DIY wooden table and share the results.


But first I had to make 2 new wood planks. I only had one white wood plank done, but for this shoot I needed two more colors, so I made a sky blue top and a black one. To see how to build the tops, click here.[Read More…]

A Detailed Breakdown Of Shooting A Gokou Ruri 1/8 by Griffon Enterprises Figurine

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This is the first photo I’ve taken to try out the “tinfoil / aluminum foil background” method. Basically, you take a bunch of tinfoil, screw it up into a ball, then carefully unfold it to create a crinkled background. Hang it a good distance behind your subject, then point a flash at it. The crinkles in the foil will create a series of bright reflective points, which when thrown out of focus create a stunning sparkly background.[Read More…]

The Trick On Getting Gradient Reflection On Reflective Surfaces (Cellphones, Laptops Etc.)

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Getting gradual reflection on a shiny surface is not trivial. It is not hard, but you have to know how it is done (which you will once you’ve read this post :). This is one of my favorite techniques when shooting products with a granite tile, and it gets that gradient reflection on a reflective surface every time.

I got a couple of messages on Flickr a while back asking me how to get a gradient effect on an iphone shot I did before. So here is a step by step lighting tutorial on how to achieve this kind of lighting and where you can use it.

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Using Cheap Wallpaper As Backgrounds For Professional Looking Product Shots

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The backgrounds we use for our shots make a big difference in the final photo. I have covered quite a few options before, all are pretty accessible and today I want to share another quick and budget minded technique – using wall paper or colored paper for your background. (See these if you need some backdrop inspiration: illustration board, white background & gel & DIY wooden table).

I first saw this being done on flickr and wanted to give it a try. Here are a few ideas on using different paper backgrounds plus few tricks on lighting.[Read More…]

DIY Project: Wood Table For Product Photography

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Last month I’ve been really fascinated with food photography and product shots with wood table or wood texture in the background. Ever since I’ve been planning to try and make my own. Eventually I stopped  procrastinating and just started doing it. This is my first prototype and it works pretty well, tough I am not promising to improve on future version.

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Lighting Technique: Flagging and Feathering

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One question I always encounter when teaching my workshops is how to control the spill of light, and the bounce of light. While this is always a good question, it mostly applies in on site/in doors shoots. Here are some simple lighting techniques that everyone should know. Those techniques may be trivial to some and new to others. Either way, they are very helpful in controlling light. The below examples also show that sometimes the easiest fix to our problems may be just simple and in plain sight and simple.[Read More…]

How To Build A Basic 4 Light Setup

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While I was doing my 365 Project, I wanted to challenge myself with using 4 or more lights and using different colors for a shoot. I came up with a perfect lighting setup to for this experiment. I did want to do the colored background in camera, and not just changing the colors in photoshop, so I opted for using gels.

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