I would think photographing these might be similar to the product photography I have done, which is copier-printers.
    
I bought a 9 foot wide roll of background paper at a large camera shop in Dallas. (About $50) If the machines you are photographing are larger than mine, you may have a problem finding something wide enough. Even at 9 feet wide, some of the larger machines were tough to keep in front of the background. I hung it on the wall by running a tiedown strap through it and attached some hooks into the wall.
My main light was my on-camera flash, pointed up to a suspended ceiling and just a tad froward, so the light was diffused by the ceiling and illuminated the copier. I also had two optically triggered flashes with umbrellas at about 7:30 and 4:30, and one on the floor, behind the copier to blast the background with light. My strobes were cheap bargain bin Vivitar 2800's with Peanut optical triggers that cost under $20 each. I also had a couple of reflectors on either side, to help bounce some of the light onto the sides of the product.
I think the main problem you may encounter with only one flash is not being able to brighten up the background enough. Make sure you crank the power up and you will have to have a fairly low ceiling to bounce light from.
The full product shots were a matter of just blasting the item with a lot of light. I have not learned the subtleties of lighting yet, so for the closer detail shots, I would just move my off-camera flash around and experiment a lot in order to get some attractive lighting.
Message edited by author 2010-12-21 12:08:45.
|
