Screwdriver product shoot with 5X4

As part of my assignment I planed a product shoot and use the 5X4 camera. I choose to use a Rolson multi-screwdriver as my product, I used product shots of pens as my inspiration as screwdrivers tend to have basic pack shots. 

My plan was to shoot the tool suspend, side lit with a soft box and to use a reflector to fill in the over side of the product to give some depth and interest to the product.

Test shot on white background 

My first intention was to get a grey  use a unlit white background. after a couple of test shots I found this wasn't working due to too much light spilling on to the backdrop. so moved to the black backdrop and faced the soft box away from the background, I also positioned it front eh right instead of left as the highlights where distracting form the Rolson logo

After moving on to the black background i decided to mover the key light to the right to make the logo clearer (image unedited) 

To add some interest to this added a snoot on to the background, I was limited by the hight of the light stand and would have liked to have a steeper angle, I did later adjust the angle and position of this light, if i was to reshoot this i would consider using a flashgun to get lower or use different accessories to achieve a different spread on the backdrop. I purposely tried to used this to highlight the bit of the screwdriver so its not mistaken for a pen

The lighting was starting to give the pen depth (image unedited)

The addition of the fill light on the backdrop makes the tool pop of the page. (image unedited)

The setup used

ISO:100 SS:1/125 Aperture:ƒ8 lighting ration 1:4

As the tool was so reflective I feathered the key light by poisoning it toward the camera, I used a reflector to bounce some fill light on to the logo side of the object. 

The 5x4 Camera 

Once i was happy with the lighting I setup the 5X4 camera, this was new to me having such a small object didn't help with the framing as I had to get close to the tool after a long time altering and adjusting the focus, I didn't find the flipped perspective a problem it was the dull image on the back of the camera due to me using flash I only had the modelling lights to try and focus the image with.

Focusing the 5X4 camera

I sent the transparency off to palm labs to get developed and will see the result on friday.

overall I am happy with this shoot, I thought about what i wanted and how to achieve it which is why it went well. when my plan wasn't working i was ready to try new things and alter the out come. things i would improve are:

• Uses the space I've got, the setup was fairly cramped when it came to setting up the tripod for the 5X4 i found myself knocking the tool stands.
• Experiment with the background lighting, had i spent more time with this i could have used to the really pull the tool form the page.
• Reduce the lighting ration at 1:4 the back light is really subtle. 
• Practice with the 5x4, this is a complicated tool to use so the more practice I get with it the more I will feel at home and get the most out of it.

I edited one of the Images to remove the cotton and see how i could improve on the lighting.

• Burn tool, this was used to brighten the fill light off the reflector
• Crop tool and Ruler, I used these to correct the composition and straighten the tool 
• Lens correction, to remove a slight amount of chromatic aberration found in the highlights.
•  Curves, to add contrast and blacken the blacks.
• I duplicated the layer, desaturated it and inverted the colours them blended it using the overlay to brighten the background.
• unsharpen mask to make sure everything is clear. 

The image Edited.