Lessons
Lesson Info
Class Introduction
Our goal in this class is to kind of overcome various lighting issues that you'll see when you're lighting a variety of subjects. From, say a pumpkin to a wine bottle, to a reflective toaster. I wanted to combine a bunch of stuff and when CreativeLive called and said, "Hey we're going to do a product class, you know you're a food photographer, let's show people a lot of different techniques in one class." And I decided, hey, that's a good opportunity, something I haven't done in awhile, which is really kind of construct a really fun conceptual advertising style shot that we'll kind of dissect piece by piece. I think when you guys leave here, I want you to at least having an understanding of when you're in a food shoot or a product shoot, it's not just going to be food. It's not just going to be ... There's going to be linens involved, there's going to be the moire effect and you know and there's going to be reflections and there's going to be a lot of troubleshooting you're going to ha...
ve to do on set. What I want to give you are the tools to overcome that with everything from the gear that I have here, but I'm also going to describe how to do it with like natural light and with flags and with less expensive tools at your disposal. So we built this yesterday, we came in and we just kind of wanted to create you know a very safe environment so we're not collapsing things on people and so what we did is we basically had a rolling camera stand so under here you'll see we had a you know camera stand that hadn't been used in awhile so we're like that's the perfect support because the last thing you want to do is just put a pole in there and hope it doesn't fall on everybody. We've stuck that, I've drilled a hole through some MDF board. And then I had to drill a hole through everything so I had to ruin a tablecloth for this show. So we had a place mat and then I basically just had a power drill all day yesterday, and I was just drilling fruit and I had to drill through the toaster. I had to drill the wine bottle I had to pop the back off here and kind of rig it with a cable that's usually used for securing cameras so they don't fling everywhere. I'm not a professional rigger by any means but there's certain things that you have be aware of when you're a photographer so when you're building a set it's safe for people working around it. Especially food stylists.
Ratings and Reviews
JennMercille
I really enjoyed learning about the details and complexities that go into the orchestration of food and product photography. The shoot that Steve Hansen puts on in demonstration of this was really elaborate and complicated. I never realized how much of the creative aspects of the images I see in magazines are created in camera, rather than in post-processing. I am a portrait photographer, so I was surprised at how much I learned that can transfer to creative portrait shoots as well. After watching this course, I have noticed details in lighting technique and product photography that I never saw before, and that has helped me elevate my work very amateur still life skills to a professional level. I now do product photography on the side for a refreshing change of subject matter, and have been able to photograph my own print products for a pre-sale catalog for my IPS sessions. This course is super useful across niches. I definitely recommend it to all photographers!
Karen
A lot of information to take in, really enjoyed the class. Loved how the layers were built on and the placement of all the items. Would love to see the final picture ofter touch ups :)
Penelope Diamanti
Enjoyed and learned altho I'm far from being able to afford this equipment, but love his work and I found him an engaging teacher.
Student Work
Related Classes
Lighting