After the overwhelming response to my earlier post on tabletop photography (despite the lack of comments, I know all you shy guys are literally haunting my blog 24 x 7…one doesn’t get a ranking of 8,78,949 on Technorati for nothing!), I thought I would give it one more go.

Unfortunately, it seems I’ve a very poor idea of what SHOULD and SHOULDN’T be put on a table. Take, for example, just the other day, when I was almost sure that I’d this ‘masterpiece’ shot of my shoes on the dining table, lit from inside the shoe. Alas, my wife completely overlooked the creative breakthrough, and started shouting about how some stupid fruit-bowl lying beside the shoe would have to be thrown. We artists lead a tough life, I tell you.

Anyway, I finally did figure out a good subject to shoot. There was this unopened bottle of Jack Daniels lying somewhere in the kitchen. I thought a nice moody image could be made around it. Surprisingly, even my wife seemed relieved as I placed the bottle of Jack Daniels in front of the camera, and let go of my first choice for a subject (a bottle of Domestos).

The image in my mind was perfectly laid out. The bottle would be placed in front of a dark seamless background, and lit with two light sources on either side of the camera. The one on the right would be the main light, while the other would act as a sort of fill-light, giving some definition to the bottle. Also, the background would be lit on another plane altogether using a third light source. This would be a key element in the image, as the light would be gelled and hence would lend the image it’s mood. Awesome. Just a few problems:

1. Seamless what?

2. Third Light-source: ‘Another stupid flash? You promised me the 2nd one would be the last! Why don’t you just use a candle or something?’

3. Errr…Gels?

So, as you can see, despite my mental agility, I was kind of restricted in terms of resources. But give up? No! Let me give it a try anyway.

Here’s what I did:

I got myself a sheet of black chart paper from a stationery store, and stuck the top edges to the wall (to my wife’s horror) with a double-sided tape, while the bottom half lay on the dining table. I had the main light and background light figured out as well. One Vivitar 285HV shot through an umbrella would light the subject from the right. The background would be lit by another Vivitar 285HV from the left, through a DIY snoot made out of a box of Kellogg’s Chocos (hehehe…when I bought it, my wife actually thought I was going to eat that crap). In the absence of any gels, I decided to put a blue water bottle in front of the flash to color the background. I do not HAVE a third flash, so I placed a white piece of card board to the left of the subject to reflect back a bit of the main light back onto the subject. Above, you see the entire setup (it’s actually the setup for a follow-up shot – hence, the white background).

This is the final result. I’m kind of kicked about this image. I love the highlights on the bottle’s right-edge from the main light. The left edges are also pretty visible, thanks to the reflector. But the winner is the background. The soft, uneven light through the water bottle came out much better than I’d hoped.

Of course, I could have held the camera a little steadier. But give me a break. The bottle was full when I started…

Looking back, it could have played out better had I mounted the background light on a separate stand – would have given me much more control over the light, and enabled me to play around with the pattern on the background (Honey, along with the third flash, do you think I can buy a light stand as well). Of course, I could have asked someone to hold the flash, but no one was around

Still, I really do like the result. More than anything else, what thrills me is when I can replicate, to a fair degree of accuracy, whatever idea of an image I have in mind.

The following is another shot of a perfume bottle with more or less the same setup except for the background paper. Would have been an almost perfect day, had I not dropped the darned bottle (and with it, my chances for a third flash and lighting stand any time soon).

See ya! And no, you do not have to leave a comment. I only login every 15 minutes to check…

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Comments ( 9 )

Well done… Creative…

S added these pithy words on Aug 21 08 at 12:23 pm

This is good, it’s inspired me to try something like this again. It has been awhile since I did something like this (with bad results), but now my interest is piqued. Thanks for the show-how.

Bryan added these pithy words on Aug 21 08 at 1:11 pm

I think you will be interested in these.

http://www.lightrightreflector.com

Gary Bartholomew

gary Bartholomew added these pithy words on Aug 21 08 at 8:24 pm

creative!! i like it. i always do like this when the equipment not ready or not available, so use anything than can produce the superb photo for client.

tokek.com added these pithy words on Aug 22 08 at 1:04 am

This was a useful and well-written intro, and a nice story besides!

JuHa added these pithy words on Aug 22 08 at 6:00 am

Hey Rishi what a great read, man. I think the first picture explains the scenario really well and now its all clear to me as to how I can pull this off myself thanks, brother. Oh btw, the result is a real stunner

Siddhant added these pithy words on Aug 23 08 at 4:16 am

helpful and a delight to read!

amar added these pithy words on Oct 06 08 at 2:24 am

I love your writing style, and this post had me laughing all the way through.

I need to get back in my studio working on projects like this, thanks for the inspiration!

Gary added these pithy words on Oct 08 08 at 8:52 pm

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