Fantasy Product Photography
During a product photography shoot at the beginning of this last spring I was looking for exciting ways to create additional visual interest in some of the the shots. I wanted to create a fantasy vibe along the lines of King Arthur, Eragon, or Lord of the Rings. With the limitation of not being able to take the item with me out into the world I sought to create some beautiful images using a hand crafted sword.
I had already taken a set of detail shots of the sword for the client on a dark grey background, but these failed to capture the sword in it’s entirety. While a necessary part of the process that goes in to creating a cohesive set of images of a product, these images don’t tell a story or give any context for the subject. For all of these images I created an enclosure with a reflector on one side and a strobe firing through diffusion on the other. This simple lighting setup allowed me to get consistent even light across the sword’s reflective surfaces while still having enough contrast to highlight the detail and texture.
In order to show more of the sword I took a series of images with the sword suspended in mid-air, then photoshopped out the clamps holding the item as well as the background, leaving me with images on a transparent background. These photos I composited together with a grey background and in some cases other images to create final images that highlighted different aspects of the product.
With all of my studio shooting done I went off into the woods to try to capture images that I could composite my transparent images into. I looked at a variety of locations and took images in many of them, choosing places with interesting foreground/background elements, and for some of the images including additional light with a portable strobe. This first composite was far from successful in my opinion, as the lighting on the blade is clearly directional while it should only be lit by ambient in order to properly fit in the scene.
This second set of images worked out significantly better, the combination of the sunlight streaming in from the left and the added light from a strobe on the stump makes for a convincing composite image. If you look at the trees in the background the highlight/shadow sides are a very close match for the equivalent luminance of the sword, which is a big part of what sells the image. I provided two versions to the client, the first just plain with the blade, and the second with a placeholder logo I created to illustrate how the nature of the composite image allows for very an interesting three-dimensionality when text or logos are added.
The final image, and what is probably my favorite of the shoot, is the sword suspended in a beam of light. It fits the fantasy look that I was striving for even better than I could have hoped, and I was able to make what I feel is a very convincing looking fake shaft of light. Looking back on this image there are only a couple of things I wish I had done differently: The first being that the rock is slightly off center, making the whole image off balance, and I would hate to crop the image and lose resolution. Second, I would have shot a new image of the sword with light that more closely matches the scene, the sword is quite clearly composited, with the highlights on the blade not matching the trees behind, and not meshing with the illusion of there being additional light coming from above.
