Every once in a while I get asked to shoot some trophies for a company I have been dealing with over the last while. I have updated their images for their product catalog recently. I have also done some shoots of their staff and every once in a while the ever dreaded super shiny trophies shoot. The thing about shooting very reflective trophies or very reflective anything is that they can really go very wrong if one is not careful. Now a company will work very hard to gain recognition for their efforts to meet and satisfy the customer and it no easy feat to get these trophies. Especially since this company is an automotive supply company. The companies that supply the parts to the automotive manufacturers have had to become extra competitive to help keep those automotive companies stay alive. GM has fallen in the United States but in South Africa GM still survives and companies like Smiths Manufacturing try to help by providing cost effective and innovative products to keep GM South Africa selling cars. So to get a trophy is a big big deal and they want show potential clients their achievements. And nothing says we are proud of the award than showing a photo of the trophy complete with reflected photographer and an office behind them. Guess you wondering what is he on about. Right let me explain. Trophies generally are very shiny. So when you photograph them there are two things that will happen. The first is reflections. Basically these things are like mirrors so they reflect everything around them. Second is if you use a flash and everything set to auto you end up with a dark picture and very strange highlights. The reason for that will be when the flash fire it goes to what it knows and the problem is it does not know you are photographing trophies. When the metering pre-flash fires it sees very bright ares and thinks the scene is very bright and when it fires the main flash it will underexpose. So to conclude using auto with a flash gives the reflection of the photographer and a super muddy looking exposure. Just the sort of pictures you want for a presentation to potential clients. OK so maybe not the best idea. So they call me. One thing about corporate work is they are generally on a tight schedule this meant that the trophies needed to be photographed in the offices and reasonably quickly. Also the trophies being the pride and joy of the company taking them to the studio is not always an option. So what now. Hello speedlites. Yes speedlites are always the answer. Only one small problem being a bit of a unplanned job light modifiers were in short supply. To the photocopy machine to liberate the light modifiers from the cruel fate of toner and heaters and rollers. So setup and ready to shoot off I went.
My shutter speed was at 1/250th to kill the florescents aperture was F4 or there abouts and I also dialed the exposure compensation up. I wan
ted the background overexposed and I was shooting full ETTL so the flashes were pretty much trying to figure out what I wanted. After a short while I was not a very happy camper. Why ?
Because the images were looking like this....
I wanted smooth and even. Well its better than reflections everywhere but not much better. So all the flashes were put onto manual - the evil and stupid ETTL just wanted to ruin my day!! After a short while a many adjusting of flashes later I was still not a very happy camper. Oh and sorry evil and stupid ETTL the even stuipederer human could not do much better. I think if I spent more time and played with more light modifiers I would have got a better results from the speedlites but I wanted soft light and fast.
It then hit me like a train. AVAILABLE LIGHT. It was staring to me all along. Why did
it not occur to me first off. Well I think that when you walk into a situation normally the first thing that comes to mind is what tools did I bring and not what is available to work with. Ahh The florescents my friends the flourecents I know I have had harsh words about you before and I keep trying to kill you with very high shutter speeds but today we can have a truce and you are my friend. The florescents were the perfect light source and with a long enough exposure turned out to be the right tool for the trophy job. The trophies were shot at 1/4 sec and at F4. The only things done in post were cropping, levels and a bit of dodging.
And well done Smiths Manufacturing here in Durban South Africa on the great achievements.
The results
My shutter speed was at 1/250th to kill the florescents aperture was F4 or there abouts and I also dialed the exposure compensation up. I wan
ted the background overexposed and I was shooting full ETTL so the flashes were pretty much trying to figure out what I wanted. After a short while I was not a very happy camper. Why ?
it not occur to me first off. Well I think that when you walk into a situation normally the first thing that comes to mind is what tools did I bring and not what is available to work with. Ahh The florescents my friends the flourecents I know I have had harsh words about you before and I keep trying to kill you with very high shutter speeds but today we can have a truce and you are my friend. The florescents were the perfect light source and with a long enough exposure turned out to be the right tool for the trophy job. The trophies were shot at 1/4 sec and at F4. The only things done in post were cropping, levels and a bit of dodging.
