The glamourous world of lutherie (BW)

[JoeM]

archipirata wrote:
I'm using what was there in the studio when I came. 4 Alien bees (320 WS) monolights. A couple of soft boxes and umbrellas, and an assortment of grids, bounces, reflectors, etc. I do wish they had some strobes with some more power, or a power pack system. I am usually shooting stopped down to at least f22 to squeeze out as much DOF as possible and the strobes are often maxed out. The shadows are both preserved natural or photoshopped, depending on a lot of factors like what it will be used for, do I need to cut out a path so it can be used in other composites, etc.

For the on white shots, it's usually flood lighting, trying to get rid of most shadows and even light overall. One consideration is that many of the shots have to work for both web and print and the catalog is printed on newsprint paper so high contrast is really important but sometimes the images are used for magazine ads or posters. Occasionally I do a bit more dramatic lighting using a tightly gridded strobe with some fill lights at about a 3:1 or 4:1 ratio. For the small shiny objects, I use a lot of white foam core and seamless to cover all the reflections and insert strips of black cardstock and strategically work them around to give black highlights where I want them.

Thanks for the info. Btw, I've been thinking of getting these tabletop seamless to cut down on the amount of photoshopping that I do to the product images:

http://www.amazon.com/MyStudio-Professio...B001546KP4