Lighting Product Shot in Photography Studio - Photoshop Manipulation

Photoshop is an invaluable tool for photographers. Below are a before and after example of subtle digital manipulation using Photoshop. The first image is flat. The area with ‘SLINGSHOT 4D’ written on it is in shadow due to the shape of the club and the light being on the right hand side. One of the keys to this image is the black edging along the chrome which sets it apart from the white background. Black card is placed strategically around the club to get the black edging. Sometimes surprising where the black card has to be, and difficult to achieve without an assistant. The softbox is on the right side. Because this shot is one of 36 shots and working with time limitations I have left the lighting set-up simple and decided to Photoshop aspects of the images later to enhance them.

The Photoshop manipulation is minimal. A few sweeps of the dodge tool has lightened key parts of the image and illuminated the shot. The object now has illumination. The settings for the dodge tool vary and come with experience and experiment. Basically the setting to play with are the size of the brush, choosing ‘highlights’, ‘midtones’ or ’shadow’, and the intensity of the dodging which is in percentages. The highlight setting is good for bleaching out backgrounds to white. Using a lower intensity allows more control especially where light and dark areas meet in the photograph. Generally, it’s better to work at a lower intensity and keep checking how much has changed using the history palette.

~ by bip mistry on December 22, 2007.