The Gary Bernstein
Photo Tip of the Month
Octoberr 2007
Text and Images © 2007 Gary Bernstein . All Rights Reserved

GLAMOUR AND PRODUCT IMAGES

Every image must truly have “glamour;” not just pictures of professional models. Even your product shots must have glamour – meaning an appeal that makes it look better on the printed page than it does in person. That’s the essence of true glamour photography – enhance reality.

This is a continuation of the glamour shoot we discussed in last month’s tip of the month…

In the shot above, 3 different light sources were used:
A mainlight in an umbrella to camera-left (my keylight). It’s the keylight than provides the primary facial modeling. In this case my keylight is RPS Studio RS-SB160 strobe which is part of the RS-SB/SLK3 strobe kit

The same light configuration was used to illuminate the background by placing a second umbrella strobe behind the model to camera-right and directing it toward the background at a 45-degree angle. The exposure on the background is about a full stop less light than the amount of light striking the model’s face.

A third strobe – used bare bulb – was placed behind me to camera right as an accent light bringing out a second catchlight in the models eye and certain specular highlights to the face.

And how about that flare coming from the light behind the model? I added that flare in photoshop. It was never in the original photograph. Why not shoot it that way? I hate to admit it (being the old photographer I am (and telling people that it was indeed “better in the old days”)), but I can control it much better in photoshop after the fact!

As stated, product shots have to possess the same appeal as people shots. These two product shots were made during the same session. I used the soft boxes supplied with the RPS Studio RS-4022 CL Soft box lights. Soft boxes are what create the long linear highlights you see on the products. “In the old days” excessive sharpness was the key to product photography; an element of using large sheet film up to 11x14 inches in size. And while today there are many product art directors and clients who demand the same kind of digital resolution (resulting in HUGE digital files), more and more clients opt for an “editorial feeling” in their product images as well. That’s what I went for in these two photographs…editorality combined with colorful graphics that compel the viewer to look and stay on the photograph.

Each photo was made with a single strobe to camera left and the fill source was natural mid-day window light.

I recently did an advertising shoot for Zija – the amazing power drink company in Utah www.drinklifein.com (Shot 4).
It’s a beauty and a product shot combined. It was taken at about 12 noon, outside, with high overhead direct sunlight as my main “problem” lightsource. I asked my young subject to lay down under a picnic table to shield him from the direct sun – and creating soft directional light. I was on my stomach facing him (this was not even remotely comfortable by the way ;)). To my left was a large foam core reflector that simulated the elongation of highlights created by a softbox—that created the long highlights on the Zija can. The image was made completely with natural light. Now it can be told: The model was actually 34 years of age and I retouched him in photoshop (I’m just kidding).

The Bernstein classic photo of the month:

The date is August 28, 1985 in a rental studio in Culver City, California. ABC Television hired me to create and shoot a series of ads for a new TV show called Moonlighting, starring the wonderful model/actress Cybill Shepherd, and some new “hotshot” actor named Bruce Willis. This is a never-before-seen shot (taken right off the contact sheet) that was made during a lull in the shooting. The image was recorded on Plus X film (you remember film, right?) in a Hasselblad camera with a 150mm Zeiss Sonnar lens. 7 – 1200 watt-second electronic flash units were used, and 2 - $2 million dollar insurance policies from Lloyds of London just in case the guy wires on the wood moon happened to break.

See you next month – and at my home www.garybernsteinstudio.com