More lessons from product photography

Following up on the post I wrote yesterday about a few lessons I had managed to learn from shooting an event for the first time, I wanted to share some other images on different areas of the project. Particularly as this event was focused more on product photography. I think I managed to get my job done within a short ten minute period of time, and the rest of my time there was actually just enjoying the food myself, as well as the Karas dry red wine you see in the first image. Funnily I was capable of just grabbing a drink and enjoying myself while I worked, shooting pictures here and there and also letting that nice wine hit me a little. If you read that last post, I mentioned that this was my first time shooting product images, but I generally had an idea of how to go about it. The lighting was mostly natural, with a few Christmas lights dangling here and there. While those lights were not strong enough to influence the images directly, my decision was ultimately to find ways to utilise them in the background, using the bokeh and shallow depth-of-field to give off a more magical feeling in some compositions.

With the others, I tried to be sure I didn't just take everything in portrait or landscape. Getting a mixture of the two seemed important, especially since the person that had hired me to take them hadn't actually told me what sort of images he actually wanted. I sort of just turned up and guessed it all in the moment. But I quite like how they turned out, especially that second image of the different types of cheese. The way the fork is stabbed into it, the depth it gives as it pulls your attention in and out of the foreground and background. It's pretty effective in that, making it a pleasing image to see that really does get the viewer to consider the entire image. Though in other instances, the focus really is on a specific item in the image. Take the nuts and crackers for example, how the bokeh blocks out the rest of the image, how your attention is only pulled to one area. The only thing I think I wish I had was some more control over the light, to give the images a bit more of a key light, fill, and backlight. But all things considered, no lights and just natural light in a huge hall, it wasn't a struggle to take these at all.

It was a really fun experience, and I actually feel I'd be happy to do it again. I wouldn't say it was a major challenge, though it was something I definitely didn't think I'd ever do, with my photography interests mostly being open, empty urban environments and the emotion within them. But this is something that's happening to me often as of late, being offered all kinds of events and situations to experiment in with a camera. Certainly a surprise, definitely a bit scary sometimes with the fear of how the images may turn out, and what the client expects. But so much fun to learn in these environments. For the most part, the basics of photography always apply to these shoots, but each location is a different challenge to try to adapt to and pull the most quality from.

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