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Student Shoots, Part II

Lesson 25 from: Tabletop Product Photography

Don Giannatti

Student Shoots, Part II

Lesson 25 from: Tabletop Product Photography

Don Giannatti

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Lesson Info

25. Student Shoots, Part II

Lesson Info

Student Shoots, Part II

well that's pretty we're going with a top flight down on this which I think is probably the best decision for this one had a nice hot shot way yeah with spent this bechler expect the specter expect speculate really this white car really didn't do much I think we need to bring this speculum her from the from the light itself so it trails all the way down so in other words let's get this in just right up against the light just like that and same with yours get it right up against the light same distance and scooted now how close can we get not close all right try that yes we see this one's gonna be much pretty there we go all right so we've got a main speculative secondary or highlight speculate coming from the the film cards or light sources coming in here very pretty kind of dies back in here right but it's black you're shooting on black there's really nothing on your show if you're shooting on black it's going to reflect it so in the old days to shoot a shot like this would actually b...

e suspended on glass and then below the glass six or eight inches I would have white foam core so the the item would be sitting on the surface but it actually be reflecting that the foam core from down below it so what looked to us like a surface was actually just the surface of glass can't do that here today so what I would say to do is simply bring the cardinals close as you can laurie you got shot a which is all the black surface right around here bring the card right in bring the card right and bring the card right in and just adjusted in photo shop just get rid of the thing and photoshopped me she had to do that right after break we're gonna actually shoot a guitar tomorrow with the same technique I'm talking tow lorry about where we actually replace the image with different things different parts that we shot camera at all are you on the tripod no she moved it forward and she's changing her can you just got to take this all reaching from take two shots from back thanks must pull this out and get the first shot of the person that shot sat here all right take it out on you so the second shot there you your first shot look at that's pretty all the way through here all the way down through here your second shot you're going to go in photo shop you can take the mats magic lasso figgy whatever go right down here right along the edge right here on the on this shot is gonna open up the other shot in a new window hold the shift key down drag it and it's going to drag right over and place that it's it nice you may have you may have to play with the edges but probably for this shot since all the light was going up you probably want to have to do that we'll probably just dropped right in absolutely dead on okay so since this one wasn't that difficult to compose and everything I'm just going to shoot a couple of angles on it okay see what happens that'll be good okay wait on time good hope you know what we might do is assume has these guys are done with their shots the third shot over here right in this group brett let's set up the the dark slate over here with the pearls with the missing pearl we're going to actually replace the pearl always see what we got going on over here way keith all right going for kind of a modern effect here huh you shadows and everything that's kind of cool way to see it over there right yeah that's that happens on some cameras all right little bright little little bright how brunch bright guys who wants to guess look at that white I'm saying two stops even the even the ultra black clock is is kind of grayish wait okay so we got all that shadow on the black clock dyle yes and probably want to get more highlight on the left side of the clock case over here but now you're lighting everything from hot light light everything from a small source so you're small source is going to give you this kind of speculum on here right that's just fine but I know that's the style you like to shoot in um can we tilt this a little bit swing sort of even out that light is it possible to catch a little bit of more than that so I was kind of worried about that because the back dia was so black yes and it's grady aids back plus it's getting the shadow from the basket yes maybe and the other thing maybe we can move it closer closer to the basket yeah just a little bit not waiting put the basket shadow in the middle of it split it with one of the things I was hopefully going to go for here was a little bit of depth of field at it though so the basket was what stood out so I have to make things kind of katie want to clock out of focus yeah actually well then go what are you shooting what's your f stop I'm sitting at five three right we'll shoot it a two point eight that'll pretty much kill the old clock you have plenty of room on that lens to go down try out for that close with that and what's your focal ink well we're just shorten it up well if you shorten it up you gain more decks field well I have the lens will only go down to three point five when I met that short focal length okay so let's take a shot and see what it's like probably over exposed yeah a little bit a little bit that's nice okay sceptre white balance is off where we got that the warm light in there too okay so it's on its way to take that out take the warm out yeah let's bring this up with hair like this right so it's more of a in other words it's only we got all that space at the top let's fill it with the top of this thing um as he bars your exposure you're gonna have to uh adjust that exposure for probably opened up about a stop or stop in half shutter speed wiser if starr I sa y um um uh there you go I lose all the shadow in the back but I think when it was sitting a little more straight where a little better off you have to look in and tell him you're moving just rotated clockwise and get your focus you want to focus on the the clock more than focusing on the basket yeah the basket's going to be in front we could we could move back the clock all right we're coming up as we're finishing up keith's shot here we're going to we're coming up on a uh shot that we're gonna do of a pearl necklace that is missing a pearl s o we're going to shoot it just before we go to break come back from break and we're gonna put the pearl in and photo shop and talk a little business a little wrap up for the day okay and then tomorrow morning we're gonna start with some spiky shoes and uh probably be using the tilt shift linz tomorrow on the spiky shoes and then we're going to move into the guitar where we going to shoot the guitar and multiple shots with one single light and then put them all together in photo shop so you can see how if you only have one light you khun do multiple light shots if the subject doesn't move so I know who's really excited about those red spiky shoes this one and I know who's really excited about that guitar that guy over there jon cornyn so we should we shoot the red spiky shoes tomorrow yes please all right so do you want to take a couple questions are absolutely okay great question from kev p is would you ever bend a card to follow a subject's contours you don't have I have done that worth something that was shaped like a fish bowl we actually took a card and wrapped it up this way absolutely so that be the reflecting their reflected card in the glass bowl was the same brightness all the way up the glass bowl if we've send it out this way farther away from the bullet is starts to grady it down so I just bent the ends up absolutely used white linoleum in the studio for phil cards as well for the same reason that it will bend not like bending it to the shape of a violin problem no I haven't done that but you have done round bowls sure cool example um keith perry is wondering when shooting larger objects like a motorcycle or a car uh do the same techniques work but require exceptionally larger cards or reflectors yes short answer absolutely yes we're shooting cars you're shooting big white reflectors or if you've ever seen a car shoot on you can go to youtube youtube and seeing car shoots you'll see giant soft boxes giant box lights I mean we're talking three times the size of the cars hanging from the roof and inside those things are dozens of heads to make him go off you'll also notice that the room is a is a cove so they could just light the cove and the car will then just simply reflect that lit cold all the way up it's lot of work and you know overlapping lights and things got you know hot spots will still show is hot spots you gotta really even it out but that's essentially what you do absolutely if you want to shoot cars during the day there's a time a day when you shoot cars is just before the sun comes up what happens when the sun comes up we got a red ball in the sky right just before the sun comes up thiss the horizon is light and the ground is just a little less light there's about a two minute gap between no son and son that you can have and you can shoot cars and I've known I've known car shooters who go out and set it up and you wait for that one moment you have the same thing just a cz the sun hits and clears the the edge as soon as the orange goes away right you've got almost uh almost a pure skye it's not very bright but the ocean in the sand and the sky almost pretty much the same color that lasts for about two three minutes um bang bang bang you've waited all day and then you know that three minutes you know that's when the battery dies before the wind comes up okay questions and yeah a question from it's skin um and we've talked a lot about this but how can the object reflect black there is no black light to reflect its remember that's who uh it's skin okay remember that when the shiny object is reflecting the white board it will also reflect my hand a painting whatever you put by that shiny object it will reflect it so we'll reflect a blackboard justus well when we shot the little amplifier over here the site of that amplifier is is a wood venir surface that's got some like lacquer on right john like or plastic eso it's shiny you know so when we put the black card there it actually reflected that black card there was no light to the side of that amplifier to block with the black card was there you know those of you watching the video in the reruns you'll notice there's no light to the back of that of that amplifier that was lighting up that amplifier it was tilted towards us away from the back light so it was just this ambient light out here that it was reflecting we put the black card and it started to reflect the black card the shiny surface will reflect anything it'll reflect tulsa if your vitals of course if you're here it won't reflect also that was that's that's just a silly concept way theo mike hakka from honolulu you have a very large white foam core card would it be determined to use it or should it be cut into smaller sizes for tabletop photography and that's a good question america that was going sorry the wife should be the white phone card to be in relation to the subject um yeah it needs to be a little bit bigger than the subject most of time bigger but yes you're absolutely right four by eight my four by eight sheets of phone corps not use doing table top product maybe cars for sure parts of cars for sure but this stuff no it's all cut down to smaller pieces four by four is probably pushing the size of that I would normally use what are we using were just using the ones from from target I think they're like I think it's more like is that like more like eighteen and yeah eighteen eighteen by thirty eighteen by thirty to something like that they're not all that big you can get him at a target if you got a dollar store in here you can get it for a buck um and you can just uh those that size will work for pretty much anything you can stick on a table there may be an off occasion where you need to create something bigger but anything put on table yeah no screams that we make we'll make the screams can also use them as as um um reflectors twenty by twenty eight so we were we were missed it by that much but my question from daniel in brazil what is the trick for shooting on black service and keeping it black not gray we're talking about exposure imagine um shooting what black surface I'm not sure I'd be the questions way black because the light was shooting down on top of it so anything you can do about that or just dark you know make it darker and photo shop after you completed uhm you can put flags in in position the flags will blow anything you do to block the light from hitting the black surface remember you're creating a reflection in the blacks surface not blocking the light we have a subject that this big and our light sources up here and we put a card right here her subject is still getting plenty of light but the shiny black surface maybe reflecting the bottom side of this card right so you khun block it off that way and as a matter of fact in one of the shots uh that that's in the workbook and I think it's that I show the clamp shot so I have a client that clamp shot in anyone of the way that you used the clamps yeah yeah I do that in the end and any shell today thursday I don't yeah he's showed it thursday okay if thursday if that means the uh pdf sir up for download it's a shot of three clams that is you'll see it's really dark around the clamps that is flags flown in to cause that shiny surface to reflect the bottom of the flag so the shiny surface is broken up but if you're talking about shooting something black on black you can't see it is if you don't put a highlight on it I mean you have to ask you what you're seeing in your head a black thing on a black thing that's black is black there's nothing in there you know close your eyes that's what it looks like without the highlight there is nothing there keeping the surface black sometimes you elevate it sometimes you use a little wire to get something above the black circus so that you don't have the angle of incidence equaling the angle of reflection back to you cool and I guess the follow up that was from the version who asked the question daniel brazil said I've tried to make a silver sound recorder in a black background but it's quite difficult to keep the black service while shooting from up down or forty five degrees so absolutely shooting like a like a like a silver microphone yeah you khun do it daniel but I would ask you at this point with photo shop and what we could do with it it would almost be why I mean I'm all for getting in camera I really am but at some point you want to go wow that's a lot of work to get away from five minutes of photo shop on that particular thing I would do two shots daniel one of the of the surface the black background you want then light up your microphone or your object and then just basically clone it right over to the other surface by holding the shift key down dragging it over and then blending it in on the edge is very easy to do it fast way have about ten minutes before break do you want to go to the next shoot or yes I'm going to actually shoot this right over here did we get our shot over here with case law related more light but you know I think we're kind of pushing our kind of limit I'm getting so okay I have it in my head I'm going to go to office mix and buy that can hold shooting that works yes I love it we're we're good we're good we're gonna take this take this shot right here there's a very simple photograph we're gonna using the tilt shift lens we have met emmanuel focus what we get for an exposure john work and this happens quite a bit all right okay well we can see that that doesn't work at all does it have a nice big old blotchy um soft box on the top of those pearls when I look at this picture that's not what I see there I don't see that at all do you that's not what those pearls look like they look like pearls with highlights on him these look like black marbles with highlights on him why I got a lot of ambient back here to fix but we do need our white cards that's uh great but we're gonna bring got thiss gonna bring this card in way up front like this to fill these thinking thes we need to build some ambien into this shot is what we need to do of course it's gonna lean out like that we got one cardinals who were doing with that card bring another one and over here see if this car's got enough pizazz to bring those those pearls up yeah better write better right in here we get the cards in and then we'll signal to say with the exposure does but yes probably probably come up about a half stop um that background looks a little bit darker than this background does my eye that's great hold on brett before you do that yeah I know but I need to get this need to get these guys in like this they're not gonna work unless they're right up against the uh sit right there and let's do a second test so we got much better pearl started look like pearls right except in the front what in heck is that is that on the pearl because I don't see it and well I see it on that one right there here is okay must be nice to have really good eyes that would be so cool glasses maybe uh we're just going to get our last little piece of white card yeah let's just bring this guy right up in here to last test now here's the challenge do you see where the missing perlis it's over one side isn't it we're shooting this and as we shoot these pearls this way right at the pearl as we go away from the pearl we start to see that this highlight here and this highlight here sitting in different parts of the pearl we're looking away from the pearls right dead center here and as we look away this way we're starting to get perspective we're not looking at the edge of the pearls of the same way that we're looking at the center of the pearls so that pearl is a little bit off center there I can easily grab one of these move it over and then tweak it a little bit but I find it's even better to be very deliberate about what we're doing very deliberate by making sure that when we shoot this what the heck size pearls missing they're one of the big words one of these okay you see what that pearl is right there all right we're gonna bring us in here I'm liking that exposure that's not a bad looking little shot their wonder if we could uh dark enough the back just a little bit on and that's gonna be a little bit smaller board a bit smaller board way have one over here matthew black just a smaller board wait all right this thing here take this and we're gonna place it right about like that breast you got it right on down to slip it right there back it up just a little bit too dark keep going keep going keep going taking on forward it better okay uh all right almost don't take that shot and I'm gonna look for that pearl is here and we're gonna twist this this necklace until that pearl is in that position okay so I'm going to move it right over there pretty good all right so what we're going to do then is when we come back from break we're going to she lifted out of photoshopping place it over and fix this necklace okay so were fairly close to break we have any other questions yeah actually I have a question from danny brazil again um what do you think about the feature of three hundred sixty degree tabletop photography um right now it's a novelty I don't know what five years from now it could be you know like where the camera sits and spends around the object um have any of you seen amazon what's the amazon shopping thing for women uh fashion thing you know when you go up to that that site I can think of is to damn the amazon shopping network for women when you go into the site and you click on the cute little outfit to get a picture of the girl right the girl then does this and she turns around she shows you the back and she comes back in the position and freeze you kind of go wow that's pretty cool somebody's getting some making some good serious daily this comes out like every other day with dozens of pictures of the models doing it so yeah I could certainly see that I can see it being used for things like tech especially to show the product and then to spend the camera around or would it be better to shoot the product and spend the product if you move the camera you change your light if you spend the product the light stays where it isthe so I could certainly see some type of three sixty degree out there sure it's not you know I'm coming from this from kind of a print century view but if you're talking about digital and just the whole world's in your fingertips yeah emotion is big ask another question or we just going to break perhaps okay just great because I was actually going to talk about motion that was my leading question into that huh which was that I wanted teo tell folks about a couple of classes coming up next week is vanessa joy and rob adams photo video fusion workshop and I know don you and I were talking about the other day how you are hoping teo are moving into including motion into some of the work that you're doing so I was hoping maybe you could come back and be you know my co host or be in our studio audience I'll come back hee I'll sit between you two guys alright we'll be like the color man I don't know he's hitting three for four bob in any case folks if that is something that you are scared of uh this is the perfect class for you uh vanessa joy is going teo show us how you don't need complex editing tools to use the tools that you already have in your camera that might have the dslr so that's gonna be a great class starts next friday saturday sunday go to the course page and sign up for that one so we're going to take a fifteen minute break wanted to read a couple more quotes uh don of what folks are saying tammy bogue strand has said I've loved every minute of this it's like seeing some of what it's like to be in dons head and wrote all says she has no rodal says thanks so much information I'm on brain overload and rains again says fantastic I've learned so much in the last few minutes with the students taking photos and don assisting them with tips this makes learning so much more simple and you know and relevant to all those folks out there so thanks for your comments and that's something that when you when you you do buy a course whether this course or any course that you go back to it and you're going to pick up something this time you watch it in something next time you watch it but when you're setting up you got your vase or your piece of sculpture that they were shoot that lori was shooting and you're doing it right along with that and that's what's cool about the downloads you could get the videos and put him on your ipad or whatever you want to do and just be right there running back and see it again say it again it's how a lot of us learned to you to do web design you know some guy I'd be standing here talking about code and about halfway through the paragraph you kind of go what because if you stop and say what you just you're dead you're donna you got to go back to the front you run it back and do it again until you can get it that's what that's what's really cool about this type of learning it's it's just if you think about it it's like learning to play any musical instrument or piano when you are sitting there with your teacher who is telling you you know taking you through chunk by chunk and so you can now have your teacher with you when you're doing that right your teachers only with you thirty minutes a week the rest of the week it's up to you that's true it's really up to you

Class Materials

bonus material with enrollment

Basics of Subject Centric Light.pdf
Simple Tabletop Tools.pdf
Introduction to Tabletop Photography.pdf
Product vs Still Life.pdf
Introduction to Tabletop Lighting.pdf
The Challenge of Shiny Objects.pdf
A Sensible Approach to Gear.pdf
The Business Side.pdf
ProductPhotographyWorkbook.pdf

Ratings and Reviews

mc
 

THere are some courses in CL i think of as not covering a to z but covering -z to z. THis is one of those courses. The value proposition is over the top. The instricutor: Don Giannatti is so experienced he's a relaxed in his knowledge and practiced in cutting to the chase to provide answers to really good questions about set ups for product photos (vs. art/ still-life). The topics: complete workflow from first principles in order to understand what we're trying to achieve with table top work, Don Giannatti makes it clear that we're using light deliberately to give shape to an object. Example insight: using a white card (or black) reflector is not the same as using a silver/gold reflector. The latter create a new light source; the former shape the light that's there. Can imagine the arguments but the demo brings the points home. Or how about NOT using umbrellas for product shots. Or for "drop and pop" product shots, how to do that without umbrellas and tents "that's 50 dollars a shot right there" says Giannatti. Example tool demo: one of the joys of this course is that such an expert does most of the class using readily makable tools like scrims from shower curtains and baking paper. The specialist tools like a modifier on a flash is well within the range of an aspiring commerial table top photographer. And Meaningful Demos LIGHTING/composition what are some of the most challenging and compelling things to shoot when building a portfolio/photographic experience? Can you shoot shiny stuff - like bottles and jewlery. PHOTOSHOP making photoshop unpretencious and accessible, Giannatti presents examples of how to fix bits of a shot, as well as - and this one is worth the price of admission - how to put together a composite of a guitar product shot if you only have one limited sized light to light the whole thing. We also see where highlights can be added - and how. Some basic knowledge of Photoshop layering, masking and brushes would be good to have, but one can work back from seeing it applied into those basic skills. BUSINESS We start with light giving shape to objects as a demonstrable principle, move into how to use light structurally for bringing out something fantastic about that product - that as Giannatti points out - puts bread on someone's table, so respect. From these demos we go from light and camera to post to produce the finished image. Now what? or how have a product that needs shooting? That's the business of product photography. In these excellent sections on Business, Giannatti details the heuristics of hard graft to get gigs: where to look for contacts, frequency of approach, engaging with social media (you don't have to, he says, but effectively, it's gonna cost ya). "Doing just these few things you're already way ahead of your competition." I can believe it: they are many of them tedious, but can also well believe they are what pay off. COURSE BONUSES JUST FOR SIGNING UP - for those who subscribed to a live broadcast, all the slides were provided in advance (you can see this offer on class materials) Now that's classy. What other CL courses have done that: given something to participants who just show an interest to sign up? (It's that gift thing kevin kubota talks about in his workshop on photography business - makes one want to work with that person: pay them for the value they create, eh?) TRUST/VALUE Instructor Personality Throughout each part what's delightful is just the EXPERIENCE of this instructor. He's put together a thoughtful course from light to lighting to parts to gear to post to business. There's immediate trust: plainly this man has made a living from what he's talking about, and has addressed almost any immaginable scenario. There's a great demo towards the end of the course of working with students to take shots. The value to folks watching is to see how he helps us all think about how to problem solve (the mantra for the course) to find the shot - to use light card after lightcard to wrap the light to bring out the countours of the material. Even when he says "that's just not working" - there's not a sense of the people shooting having failed - but an opportunity to think about what's been learned - to keep working the problem. There's a whole lot of HOW in that interaction that is highly valuable. Thanks to the participants in the workshop to be so willing too to do that work. This is the kind of course you leave feeling like ok, i can do this - or at least i have the tools and some knowhow now about them to start to work these problems, to start to create value in these kinds of shots. I am already just from being here a better photographer now. Related CL Course: This course feels like a terrific complement to Andrew Scrivani's Food Photography. And no wonder: both take place in small areas and use light in similar ways. A contrast is that in editorial food photography - scrivani's domain - there's a focus on skills to work with what's there; in table top/product, one can enhane - knowing how to do that effectively/believably is where the skills - learning to see that - come in for this kind of work in partiular . If tabletop/product photography is a space you wish to explore, or you just want to be able to practice working with light in the small, and see how to bring you will be delighted with this -z to z deep dive introduction.

a Creativelive Student
 

By chance I stumbled accross Don Giannattis’s Website and his creativeLIVE selection of videos. I was impressed by the material presented and decided to purchase the course for adopting some of his methods and concepts of light control in table top photography. The course covers a wide field, from building your own lighting tools to guidelines for getting in the product photography business. Emphasis is put on understanding light control related to the specifics of the object, discussing the how and why of the creative process. Insistence and patience were demonstrated to be prerequisites for achieving the desired quality of the pictures. I liked to follow the course, because Don Giannattis’s makes an excellent instructor. He has a clear concept, a wonderful sense of humor, and he is very flexible when listening and responding to questions of participants. I really liked this course and recommend it to all beginners in table top photography. William

a Creativelive Student
 

What an amazing workshop. Don holds nothing back, taking us from start to finish in a manner that will allow anyone doing this workshop (and I mean DOING) to go out and do product photography. What's more, Don is not pushing a bunch of expensive gear as the key to making good photos - he makes it accessible to those starting out with a low budget. I could feel Don's good-will toward beginning photographers in the way he conducted this workshop and that is deeply appreciated. It makes him a good teacher. I bought this course and his Lighting Essentials workshop and consider myself lucky to have the opportunity to learn from him.

Student Work

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