Exploring Light and Product Photography!

So… I didn’t sign up for any courses at Collin this semester because I was worried about being in a classroom setting, with the pandemic and everything, whatever. I was obviously super disappointed, as I feel I’ve given up so many things I enjoy in 2020, but then a different opportunity to learn and be “around” other photographers emerged. Yay!

It’s a virtual, go at your own pace membership called THAT PHOTO SCHOOL, taught by Justin Clemons, an editorial photographer, that’s shot for Time, Wall Street Journal, NY Times, and so many more! I’d already known Justin for a couple years, from when he taught our portfolio class at Collin, and he’s been an amazing guide on my photographer’s journey since. I was absolutely stoked when he announced he was starting this new venture.

Anyway! We finally got our first project, and I’m excited to share mine!

Our objective was to understand how to balance a strobe (speed light in my case, #poor), with available light, and then over power available light!

This is something I don’t have as much experience with, so I opted to practice with product instead of people, so I’m not wasting someone’s time. I bought a cute pair of glasses over the summer, that came in a case just as cute, so I thought that might be a good candidate.

This first image is available light only! I opted for sunlight. This is a few hours before sunset, ‘cause I wanted some hard shadows! Shout out, the dry bouquet I used to style this shoot was done by Bianca from Flora TX.

Then… to enhance what the available light was already doing, I added a speed light! I wanted it to feel more autumnal, so we also layered an orange, and a brown gel on the light!

The result…

And finally, we try to over-power the available light…which basically means, the only light the camera records is from the speed light. I wish I’d gotten this at the same angle. :( My light isn’t very powerful, so I had to wait until the sun was pretty low in the sky in order to overpower it.

My favorite one is the middle one, with the available light and the speed light combined. :)

So anyway…I had a lot of fun flexing my technical and creative muscles on this project, and I definitely feel more prepared to balance a strobe with the sun on a future shoot. Add another technique to my arsenal ;)