Screwdriver product shoot with the 5X4 camera

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

The studio setup   

 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.