Studio Product Photography-Task Two

Task Two: Product photography. Several shots of products that are related to me and about who I am. They can be shot in either low key or high key or both. They have to reflect a particular aspect of my own persona. The final images have to be produced as jpeg for publication on the internet.

After days of racking my brain with an endless amount of ideas for what products to use to represent my persona I sent a text to my nearest and dearest family asking what the first thing/product came to mind when thinking of me.

My mum said butterfly, I flutter around and never land in one spot for too long, I even have a butterfly tattoo at the base of my back to represent this. So...the first product was chosen.

The second text through was from my dear brother. A lighthouse he said, his reason was this....I stand out tall and bright and have always been there for him and helped him out of rough waters. I love my bro :)
So the second product was chosen!

I then trawled through the internet and shops looking for the right type of butterfly and lighthouse. I wanted a realistic kinda butterfly, preferably in one of my favourite colours which are blue, purple and green. I eventually found one on the Ebay site for a bargain £1.50!

For my lighthouse I wanted it to have the standard features of tall and white with stripes and the little details like the platform around the light and a little door etc etc.
I eventually found one in Matalan which was a lovely blue and white instead of the typical red and white.

I decided to shot both images in a nice bright high key. I made this decision as I thought if I wanted to superimpose them onto other backgrounds it would be easier to select images with a blown out background.  I am not a moody dark person either so I thought a bright and cheerful high high would be better to represent my persona rather than a moody low key.

So my set up kinda looked like this for both product shoots.

Please bare in mind that the backdrop is actually a product scoop.

At first I found my images were not displaying a perfect blown out background and instead had shadows created from the softbox etc, I tried to counteract this with a reflector but is was still proving to be difficult. In the end I had to cut out the lights in the studio and voila, problem solved, although my fellow students were left sitting in the darkness!

I attached my butterfly with clear fishing wire to allow it to dangle in the air. My trusty friend/fellow student Ste helped out.

Below is one of my selected butterfly images SOOAC.

I automatically saved this for web at around 40k, please see belows notes for more details.
Note the background is more blown out on the top right? On this particualr image I had no reflector to the left of the butterfly thus creating a slight fall off.

How to save an image in JPEG for Internet publication

1. Choose File > Save for web...
2. Since it's a photograph, choose JPEG.
3. You can check the option Progressive if you like, it's only difference is how the loading will look like. Progressive images first appear blurry, and then become clearer as the image loads. Non-progressive images load line-by-line.
4. First choose quality level, High if the image will be visible, Medium or Low if it's meant as a background.
5. To have more control over the quality, use the slider or enter number in the field Quality
6. Look at the file size and estimated loading time displayed in the lower-left corner while adjusting settings. At the same time, look at the image to decide on what quality looks good enough.
7. If it's a background, make sure file size is under 5KB, up to 2KB would be better. (YOU ALTER THE KB BY ADJUSTING THE PIXELS, THE KB IS ON THE BOTTOM LEFT OF IMAGE)
8. If the image is a layout header, up to 40KB is acceptable.
9. If it's an image to be displayed on the page, 20-30KB is reasonable, depending on dimensions.
10. Artworks may be saved in better quality, since people who will look at them already expect to see large images.
11. Once you have found the perfect balance between quality and compression, click the button Save

Ok, so I was a little bored one evening and decided to experiment with photoshop. I wanted to place my butterfly on another background. I found an image of frangipanis....my favourite flowers which are native to my old home Australia and thought this would be perfect. Me, the butterfly sat on a branch full of yummy smelling frangipanis! Below is my final edit:

I found the background image online, it was taken by an amateur photographer in Queensland going by the name sped kid. Beautiful isn't it?

OK, so how did I achieve this? It was very simple. I opened both my background image and the butterfly image. I played around with the curves to create similar tones as the ones on the background image. Once I was happy with this I used the quick selection tool (W) and selected all of the butterfly. Once selected I refined the edge, with only a slight adjustment to the contrast and also selected the smart radius and decontaminate colours with the output selection set to New Layer.
I then dragged the new layer over to the background image (just drag and hover over the tab) I then did a Free Transform on the butterfly (CTL + T) and right clicked on my mouse to bring up a more indepth selection. I chose the persective. Messed around until it looked comfortable and confirmed by OK.
I wanted the butterfly to merge into the background more to add some depth so using the same technique I selected part of the frangipani and created a new layer with a petal on. Dragging that layer above the butterfly then allowed the petal to overlap the butterfly rather than the other way around.

 To finish off I added a photo filter layer. I selected my own colour filter by using the colour drop tool and clicking on the yellow of the flowers. I adjusted the density until I was happy then used the above saving method to ensure it was saved for web publication



Now onto my product number 2, the lighthouse:

I bought this dear little lighthouse from a department store locally. I loved the colours, much softer than the typical red and white lighthouses you so often see.
I took plenty of shots vertically, horizontally and birds eye but decided and this tilted version. Not sure why, I liked it at the time but looking back at it now I don't particularly like it. I just want to straighten it haha, ah well. What I do like it that it is clear and precise. It stands alone, strong and tall , the tilt gives it a bit of a twist.

I used the clone stamp tool to extend the background on the top left where the product scoop ended.
For the warm vintage colour I created a fill layer of a peachy colour as an overlay then a contrast adjustment layer to add depth to the little windows and highlight the reflection on the bottom left. I adjusted the opacity of this layer so the contrast wasn't too harsh. Once happy I followed the above procedure to ensure that the image was in the correct size and format for the web. Whilst doing so I recorded and saved the procedure as an action to make it easier in the future.

SOOAC, note the glare on the bottom
 right I mentioned earlier, although it has helped
catch the reflection 

Edited in photoshop, I used the clone stamp selection tool
 for the backdrop and a blend layer decreasing the opacity
on one and increasing on a pass through layer.
I like the way it creates a vintage feel 

During editing this post I decided to add another product to represent my persona. My perfume.
Watch this space........................