Critique Welcomed Bambo Bike

[Bobby Deal]

From a recent commercial shoot for a client that needed a quick catalog shot to add this new proiduct into thewir exsiting catalog. Image was styled lit and composed to allow it to fit into an exsiting catalog that had been shot by another photographer. I was faced with a serios time constraint for this shot. The client was in town for a convention and needed the shot ASAP. From the time his hotel concierge called my studio until we were in the studio to capture this image only 90 minutes had past. Prior to the phone call I had never met or spoken to the client so there were a lot of high expectations with very little background to work from.

 

[Brian Moore]

Cool bike! I imagine a lot of time in post processing on this one, Bobby. Am I right?

 

[Bobby Deal]

Hi Brian, actually no, I would say post production time on this shot was approximately 5-7 minutes if that.
I have been shooting high key people and product shots for a very long time, and like to think I work with one of the most effective high key processes there is. When everything is setup and lit correctly there really is very little left to do in post. The techniques I use in the studio leave the subject around 97% isolated out of camera.

 

[Brian Moore]

Wow. I assumed lots of cutout in Ps. Sorry about making that assumption, Bobby. Amazing stuff! What is "High Key?" Is it the extreme white, nothing visible background?

 

[Bobby Deal]

Wow. I assumed lots of cutout in Ps. Sorry about making that assumption, Bobby. Amazing stuff! What is "High Key?" Is it the extreme white, nothing visible background?

No apology needed.

Yes it is the full 255 background. It is a simple matter to achieve on paper but is one of the most technically demanding techniques most will ever work with. I spent a long time perfecting the techniques I use. They are in no way unique to me I think I have simply shot this style enough that I can now produce the desired results with great consistency.

Ultimately it is a 4 light setup 20 lights light the background wall of the cyc and two lights light the subject. Ultimately the lighting is always very near dead flat as it is typically a technique used to create knockouts for compositing or in catalog style shots.

Some key issues to look out for is depending on the available space to working you want the background to be anywhere from 1/2 - 2 stops brighter than the subject. However since the background is a white wall one needs to learn how to control reflected spill and unseen fill from the light coming back off the back wall. People tend to struggle with the technique and have issues with lost contrast, and over exposure and detail loss of hard edges like hair, shoulders,torsos etc. distance, understanding the inverse square law and the addition of negative fill will all help to create a high quality isolation in camera but there is no substitute for practice.

I wrote a rather detailed article about the technique on my tumblr blog which sadly has been ignored for many months but you may find the article and some of the other content there useful if interested in commercial fashion and glamour photography

How to Creat A Pixel Perfect Isolation

 

[Brian Moore]

Thanks for the detailed explanation, Bobby. And thanks for the link. I'll have a look at it later today.

 

[Pete Askew]

Nicely done Bobby and perfect for the job I could imagine.

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Nice and clean - must be a great help if you have a dedicated studio space/set-up for this sort of shot.

How did they find you then, at such short notice?