Macro Shot - Studio Shoot
What worked:
- High quality images
- Strong composition
- Bright and bold colours
- Even lighting
- Focus is the sandwich
- Set up of equipment went well
- Used grey cards
- I styled the sandwich before getting there so I just had to do minimal touch ups in the studio
- I took two sandwiches with me so I had one as back up if anything went wrong
What didn't work:
- Noticed shadow from the green part of the Subway wrapping, after that I moved it as the green was ruining the bread and distracting
- Apart from that it all went well due to planning
What would I improve:
- I would do the exact same as what I done as it went well
- Maybe I would check if there are any harsh shadows before shooting next time
- Images just need some retouching
Raw Shots:
Studio:
This was the studio set up for the macro/close up shot. When we got in the studio we started by setting up the equipment and lighting. After we had set that up we began styling our sandwiches. I already made mine before coming to the studio but I coated it in glycerine to make it look more fresh. I placed the subway wrapper on the backdrop to be the background of the close up. The lighting looked good and it lit up the sandwich well. I think it helped that I did lighting diagrams before shooting. It was quite hard using the Phase One camera as I hadn't used one for a long time but I soon got the hang of it. One of the most challenging parts was getting the camera to focus as it was so close up I wanted it in focus as much as possible. My assistant was the digi op and reviewed the images as they were going through. I noticed half was through the shoot that there was a green shadow from the subway wrapper reflecting onto the sandwich, so I repositioned it and did more shots. The tripod was very helpful as it help me get a straight angle and allowed for the shutter speed to be lower.
Retouching:
During the shoot the images were directly tethered in to Capture One session. We used a square overlay to make sure the images worked in a square crop. After the shoot the images were imported into Photoshop.
My process:
- Rate images in Capture One
- Import the best ones in Photoshop
- Crop to square
- Retouch the sandwich with the spot healing brush tool
- Adjust the brightness to make the colours more bold
Retouched Shots:
Grey Cards:
Final Image:
I believe that this is my strongest image as you can clearly see the Subway packaging in the background. The sandwich is in the centre of the composition which makes it the main focus. It shows the end of the sandwich which best shows the layers and textures of the ingredients in the best way.
