How to do auto style product shots for surfboards?

Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II

03/24/2009 08:00:36 PM · #1

I need your ideas for lighting kiteboards, surfboards, and standup paddleboards in a warehouse. My friend would like to show off the luster of these boards the way automobile photographers show the luster of the painted finish of the cars in a studio.

These boards range in size from 4 to 12 feet long. They are extremely colorful and glossy and have a bit of body contouring. He would like to show off the gloss with the reflections of the footstraps in the finish as well as some catch lights from the lighting.

We don't have any proper studio lighting equipment so we attempted to hang some white paper in the corner of the warehouse and light the "set" with halogen work lights and use my '5 in 1' reflector as well as some foam sheets and long rolls of white paper as reflectors and diffusers.

We failed miserably! I lighted the boards fairly well for details and I did alright showing off the gloss by adjust the lighting and camera settings to get some reflection of the footstraps. But the catch lights stumped us. We also had difficulty controlling the reflection of the background but that can be solved by using a one piece, seamless backdrop.

He is willing to get some 2 by 4's and contruct a light tent of sorts if necessary, but neither of us are prepared to invest in the proper lighting just yet. More halogen lights are within the budget.

I am asking for your ideas in pulling this off in the near future in a budget minded, 'Do-it-yourself' manner that will enable us to get the job done in the style of the studio auto photographers.

Maybe something like this look

Thanks for any input and help.

rob_smith

Nikon D300

03/24/2009 08:46:55 PM · #2

Just lots of prep and lots of light, if you're ever up in Ontario I'll have a stab at it if you like...

: )

03/24/2009 09:50:18 PM · #3

That's definitely over budget at this time. Thanks for the offer though.

Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II

03/24/2009 10:17:10 PM · #4

Okay, maybe this thread is useless without pics....

.....so, this is what I have so far:

I think it looks decent, especially for using halogen lights and white rolls of paper. But, this was one of only a few that came out alright and it doesn't have the catchlight type reflections that my friend asked for.

Help please.

rob_smith

Nikon D300

03/24/2009 10:30:53 PM · #5

It's simple but effective.

Have you tried using a long exposure and moving the lights around to get the reflections you want?

03/24/2009 10:36:33 PM · #6

Painting with light, yes. I've thought about doing that, especially for the details on the fins on the underside.

But it's the catchlights and/or the highlights brought about by the lighting on cars that I'd like to capture in these shots. Painting with light won't yield those results.

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Canon

03/25/2009 06:11:38 AM · #7

Bump for this shift...

I could really use some help here. If I need to reword the OP to make it more clear please let me know.

pamelasue

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

03/25/2009 08:20:44 AM · #8

my disclaimer is that I'm NOT a lighting expert ... but I would think that if you were building a huge light tent that you'd never get the catch lights you're looking for ... a light tent is supposed to diffuse the light in a nice even pattern with no hot spots .... if you're looking for catch lights then you'll need some light source to directly reflect in the boards ...

Prof_Fate

03/25/2009 09:38:38 AM · #9

you need a large softbox - longer than your subject and it it needs to be suspended above the object. you can then turn/rotate it and the object (if possible..you can't rotate cars) to get the reflection you want.

Reflection is an angle thing from light to subject to lens. 90 degrees from light to camera with the subject at the 'corner' of the angle - hence the need to move the light (or camera) to get the 90 degrees and the move the subject to get the reflection needed.

A long softbox will give you the long, white, continuous reflection like on the car.

What you need is a 'half pipe' in white or perhaps silver to shoot the lights up into and it becomes the 'umbrella' that reflects the light back. You can build this from all sorts of things - make two curved ends out of say plywood - these will be mounted to the ceiling with rope or chain. - shaped liked a D . Connect them with 3 2x4's 12 feet long (or longer) so that the D ends sit flat edge to the floor, 2 board on the floor and one at the top of the D. Get some thin corroplast sign material - comes in 4x8 sheets for $20. Cover the assembly so you have a 'half pipe'.
Roll it over and your lights inside pointing UP at the white coroplast. If you can cover the opening with opaque paper that would be best but it's not cheap stuff.

Hang it with 4 ropes from the corners on pulleys and you can adjust it, raise/tilt it in any direction.

Nikon AF Nikkor 85mm f/1.4D IF

03/25/2009 10:20:48 AM · #10

Thanks

Prof_Fate for your detailed reply. I was thinking that this is what we needed to do and I called Ken this morning to tell him so. This is confirmation and it will get us started on a specific design to work with.

What kind of lights would you suggest to put inside the D shaped soft box and how many and at what spacing? I would imagine that it would have to be a lot of lights so that the light produced is even along the length of the 11 to 12 foot boards.

Prof_Fate

03/25/2009 10:53:22 AM · #11

they put one strobe in a 4x6 foot softbox so two strobes (300+ ws units) should work best...hot lights might work but I'd put 3 or 4. Beware of heat buildup in the closed box though!

Point of bouncing light off inside of box is to diffuse it - but it will also decrease the amount of light as measured at the subject and hot lights are weak to begin with - but then the subject's not moving and you can use a tripod and custom WB so it might work.

since a picture is worth a thousand words I'll try and save you some reading LOL

pawdrix

Nikon D700

03/25/2009 11:05:33 AM · #12

I don't think you need a long or large softbox. Any sofbox will work or a simple sheet of diffusing paper on your light source. Just place the light further away to get broader cover. White reflectors or bounce card/boards will do the trick to spread the light and cut down on shadows. I also bet it can easily be done with one light.

Message edited by author 2009-03-25 11:26:24.

Strikeslip

Canon EOS-5D

Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS

03/25/2009 11:28:10 AM · #13

Instead of building that, how about just using a long flourescent tube, taking a longer exposure, and adjusting WB for it? A balast (i think that's what the thing that flourescent lights go in are called) and a tube or two are super cheap.

The tube might give a more appealing reflection?

03/25/2009 11:39:39 AM · #14

Thanks, Steve, for the reply here and for the PM.

Slippy, I like your idea and I did use an exposure of 1 sec to get the resulting image that I posted here. I shot RAW (as always) and adjusted the WB for the halogen lighting.

Some of the boards are Stand Up Paddleboards and are 12 feet long and we might like to get the narrow catchlights along the entire length. Depending on how the initial catchlight reflection turns out, we might need more than one fluorescent bulb, although Steve believes that long or large softboxes are not necessary. Trial and error will tell.