I've known knife purveyor and maker Dave Ellis for a lot of years. He met me back when I was teaching guitar full time, became my student, and ultimately a good friend. Later down the road, Dave hired me for photography and website work, and even took me under his wing to learn knife making. He recently had me rework his website at Mastersmith.com and photograph one of his custom damascus blades for the banner. You could say that Dave…
I've been shooting product photography in San Diego since 2013, from my studio in Vista and on location across the county. Some of it is high-gloss campaign work, some of it is clean e-commerce catalogs shot a couple hundred SKUs at a time, and some of it is stranger than that. This is a selection, with a note on how each shot was made, because with product photography the lighting really is the product. The printer that went to space…
The Shot If you've ever attempted to photograph glass bottles, especially transparent ones, you probably know a few cuss words. Today we're covering commercial beverage photography camera settings, lighting setup, and styling - plus common mistakes to avoid. Camera Settings For most bottles, I am using a focal length of 100mm (on a 100mm macro lens). It tends to introduce less distortion and foreshortening of a bottle and we want things nice and straight and level. The longer focal length…
If you're new to product photography work, its a whole different game than portrait and lifestyle, with its own set of camera settings, lighting techniques, tools and methodology. Lets dive in and look at some of the fundamentals! Camera Settings PREFACE: Before getting to camera settings it is MUY IMPORTANTE to tell you that you should always shoot products from a tripod or camera stand. This way you can use whatever shutter speed you want and not worry about shake/blur.…
Overview I'm often asked for my "go to" food photography lighting setup. There is no single setup that's going to work for all food, but there are some general rules. Today we will focus on a cheeseburger lighting setup and talk a bit about why it works for a shot like the above. This is an in-restaurant shot done in a short time on a modest budget without a professional food stylist, the marketing team at Burger Lounge styled this…
Flex alert here, guys. I shot Drew Brees recently, alongside a video crew in San Diego. Drew was a laid back, accommodating dude with a generally great attitude towards the whole crew. It was a high level day on my fun-o-meter. Enough about me. Today we set out to answer the question: Can we shoot video and photo simultaneously on the same day? Should we do that? Convenience vs. Quality After all, the talent is there, lighting is there, maybe…
One of the first questions I ask a new potential client is "Do you have a shot list?" I'm happy to work with them either way but it helps me gauge how much they may have thought about the details and logistics of their shoot. Generally, when clients come to me with a list of shots, it means they've done some prep work, have a good idea of their brand identity (or brand identity they aspire to), and may already…
Something from the #protip category today. I had an opportunity to photograph some golf clubs (putters) for Ashdon Golf this morning and discovered the Manfrotto Putter Holder (aka Justin Clamp). It's intended to hold a small flash, maybe an umbrella and/or other items, but its rubber bushings work great for holding the shaft of a golf club. As you can see its pretty easy to get a consistent club angle like this as well. This setup allowed for astonishingly low cuss rates…
With social media outlets representing a big chunk of brands advertising these days, there's a need for nimble, quick lifestyle photography on mid sized budgets. My friends at Wonderful Machine have even coined a new genre for their listings called "brand narrative." Photographers in this category are known to produce a series of lifestyle images to tell the story of a brand rather than the one or two "hero" shots of a more traditional ad campaign. Capturing a large amount…
Product photography, and especially beverage photography involving glass, is a true melding of technical geekery and artistic decision making. Although the challenges of photographing glassware and liquid can be at times frustrating, the rewards are high. It's the feeling of building an image, as if building a piece of furniture. You look at examples, lay out a design, start to assemble the parts, and then you invariably will stray from that design in actual practice which produces something unique. I…