Product Shot - Guitar

My daughter Ashley has guitar lessons every Saturday from 12:00 -1:00pm at O.DiBella Music.

Today's class was cancelled so I took this opportunity to try and make a product shot of her electric guitar. The following shots were made with the same lighting set up with a few subtle tweaks to change the highlight and reflections. There is a main light to camera left with a medium sized softbox . Right on top of the main light is a flash on a LumiQuest softbox to highlight the upper neck and headstock. Almost 90 degrees right of the guitar (from camera view) is a strip box to provide a bit of rim/highlight. The other strip box is about 11 o'clock behind the guitar. The last flash is set low on a table about 10 o'clock. Camera settings were at ISO 200 F9 @ 1/200 sec. Camera was hand held since my tripod wasn't cooperating.

Girl with Lantern

A few weeks ago, I was collaborating with Miguel Meola with this concept he had in mind.
He imagined a girl holding a lantern, backpacking in the woods and walking into the unknown.
I thought about the last exercise I did with multi layer lighting and thought that this presented an opportunity to improve on that last attempt. It would be the same multi layer lighting but this time, adding a 47" octobox to light up the forest canopy.

First we had to scout a location and decide on a time to start shooting. After finding this wooded part of Bergenfield New Jersey, we started packing the Jeep at 3pm with all the gear we needed.
It took us a good 3 hours to pack, unload, set up, test and tweak before we started shooting frames. The actual shoot itself took about a half hour and wrapped up at 6:30pm.

The flash lighting the girl was snooted with black foil to limit the light spread.

The second flash lighting the foreground tree was snooted as well so it didn't spill into the girl with the lantern.

We had the subject hold a video light in front of her to provide lighting for the path selling the idea that the lantern was providing the illumination.

We also had to drag the shutterspeed to about 1/30th to have the lantern burn in and register.

There was another video light behind and to the right of the foreground tree just to provide a dash of light on the leaves to the right side and a little bit on the ground. This way, the right side of the image wasn't completely black.

The flash lighting the 2nd layer of trees was snooted as well for a little splash of light.

The flash lighting the 3rd layer of trees was bare bulb and at a higher power setting to create a brighter area introducing an area of curiosity.

The 4th layer of trees to the right, was lit by a monoblock with a 47" octobox at a higher ratio to provide lighting for the trees and the forest canopy.

So here we are with an adventurous girl in the woods, holding a lantern lighting the path. A big fallen tree blocking the way, almost telling her not to procede. At the distance, a curious light source appears in two separate areas. What could it be ? It is both bright and cold but beckons curiosity. What would she do ? What would you do ?


Lighting diagram below: