Lighting up the Puchi Puchi

I wrote my first post for the ST Blog today, and to go with the article, I took three pictures of my Mugen Puchi Puchi toy. (You can find the ST Blog entry here.) This is just a quick note on how I lit up the photos.

All were taken from a top-down perspective with the AF-S 60mm micro at f11, 1/100s, ISO100 and with the SB900 off camera, controlled by the SU800. The items were placed on a black acrylic board on the floor.

#1


#2

Photos #1 and #2 were lit up in the same way. Very simple, the SB900, with diffuser on was positioned to the top right of the frame, propped on a small stool and pointing to the bottom left of the frame, parallel to the floor. I placed a white sheet of paper at the bottom left as a reflector. (Note that I didn't submit #2 for the article.)

#3

Photo #3 was much harder to light up. The problem is trying to light up the bubble wrap evenly. My first attempts were dismal -- the top right area was too "hot", while there was too much falloff at the bottom left corner. Eventually, I got the shot by moving my SB900 further away from the subject, increasing the flash EV compensation, and used a sheet of white paper to diffuse it instead of the diffuser cap.

The main reflector remained but I propped up a white namecard below the Puchi Puchi to reduce the shadows there further.

It was my first time doing a product shot, and I suspect it could have been done better. But at least my makeshift setup worked this time round.

Maybe I'll try lighting up the Mugen Can Beer if I get it and post it here...