Emulating the characteristic look of the sunlight during summertime seems to be a trend in product photography, especially in cosmetic photography. Some may think it is a simple thing to do, since it might only require a single light source, but it can easily turn into something more elaborated depending, for example, on the reflections and/or texture of the surface to photograph. Whatever the case may be, this How-To is meant to instruct photographers who want to achieve that kind of look with a rather reduced amount of gear.
Taking advantage of the inspiration I got by observing some objects floating in a swimming pool during my summer vacation, I decided to create an image that could give an instant summer feeling with a refreshing touch. For such a goal, the image concept and the lighting itself were just as important.
I started by choosing a combination of highly reflecting surfaces (water, gel and shiny plastic) and a transparent object, preferably blue as a homage to the vision of the swimming pool I had. Thus, I placed a light-blue A3 sheet underneath a fish tank that I filled approximately three fingers deep with water, waited until the water was still and added that turquoise bottle of “After Sun Gel” which you see on the photo.
In order to fake the sunlight in our studio, I first chose a point light source and placed it about two and a half meters above the bottle. I used a Unilite lamp without any light shaper, i.e. bare bulb, and mounted it on a Mini Flamingo stand. However, I realized soon that I needed to concentrate the light beam on a specific spot of the surface where the “After Sun Bottle” sat. That is why I added a P65 reflector to the lamp. Power-wise, I would have been on the safe side with a Siros S or L but I wanted to freeze the water and capture its movement on a wave as crispy as possible. This is where the Scoro S and its amazing short flash duration came into play.
Considering that the flash duration on the Scoro S menu dictates the camera settings (see information below), I adjusted all values on both devices and I took a couple of test shots, right before noticing that the right side of the image was lacking some filling light. Hence, I added a silver reflector panel, touching the edge of the table where I had the fish tank, about 25cm from the right wall of it.
Focal length: 80mm
F11
1/125
ISO 100
The gear was ready and the bottle was on its place. So, it was a matter of generating a wave by sliding my left hand on the bottom of the fish tank from left to right, press the shutter release and repeat the sequence several times until I got the wave you see on the image. The tricky part was the movement of the objects inside the fish tank, for I forgot to glue the bottle to the bottom. So it moved and turned as the wave approached. This forced me to take several shots until I got not only the wave, I wanted but also the bottle in the right position while surrounded by still water. I could have taken several shots and composite them in post-pro but, following my own studio philosophy “if I can do in in camera, why should I do it in Photoshop?”
It required extra patience but it was fun and 100% rewarding.
