San Francisco product photographer burnt by acidic colorful batteries!

How exciting can it be to be a product photographer, shooting say, 100 pair of shoes on a light table all day. Ok, if you have an assistant, you get to say, "Next!". Otherwise, you're fumbling opening boxes, taking a new pair of shoes out, propping it, stick them in a pose, take some shots, change the angles, adjust the lights, photograph some more, wrap the shoes back, stack the boxes properly, then repeat....times one hundred. Ugh! The thought of that makes me cringe!

What about photographing batteries?!? *groan* What could be worse?!

Well, what has batteries and fashion, colors, beauty have in common? Leave it to the owner of HyperMac to seed that idea, a mere 2 weeks ago. Did I go, "that sounds silly!"? No, we flew a rocket with it!!

(click on images to enlarge)

Too bad we only had one day. The idea _will_ continue with the next shoot, I guarantee it!! These were done using the Profoto D4 power pack, 5-6 light heads and the Canon 1Ds Mark III camera.

About photography lighting... my next class, Lighting for Photographers is on March 21st, 2010 and will be held in Maggiano's in Santana Row. Both our classes, in the last 2 weeks, "Photography Made Simple" and "Model Photography Workshop" were filled to the brim. We expect this one will be as well. So, do sign up before it is filled up. Early bird (before Feb 15th) pays $20 less.

Battery Life for my iProducts

The HyperMac is a cool-looking external battery pack designed to make the iPhone and MacBook products even more mobile. I wanted to get that message across in the pictures I took, and to me, the key to getting great product shots is great lighting.

On the day of the shoot, Daniel from HyperMac, showed up with product in hand, and we got going. As we talked, I began to light the HyperMac to show off how sleek and small it is, and how good it looks side-by-side with Mac products.

Expert lighting does the job that some photographers depend on Photoshop to do. No doubt, Photoshop can help out with minor enhancements after a picture has been taken, but the trick is to get the lighting right from the very start. It’s always great to see the satisfaction on a client’s face when the images appear immediately on the monitor to show how the finished photos will look.

- Michael Soo