Hey everyone, it's Brian from Hypop and welcome
back to another video.
In this one, I'll be showing you from start to finish how I shot
this photo using basic lighting and styling techniques
that you can use in your own shoots too.
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Let's get into it.
My first step when beginning a product photography project
might seem a little obvious
but it's to look at what I'll be taking photo of.
I look at its physical aspects first.
So for this beauty razor I'll be shooting.
I pay attention to things like what type of packaging
it's in, the shape of the blade,
the accessories it comes with as well as the surface type
whether it's matte or glossy. There are also some details
as well such as the deboss logo on the side here.
I also do some quick product research
by looking at the company's website
and social media to see what the existing content looks like.
This will help achieve better results
by creating more relevant content
that also suits the look
and feel of the brand as a whole.
Once you have those details in the back of your mind,
you can move on to styling. I've decided to keep it simple,
installed the shot based on the brand colors of the product.
If you weren't starting based on appearance,
the other option can be in situ styling.
So for example,
you can think about where the product would be used
and by what demographic and base the styling on that.
For my shot, I'll be using one of the new Spectrum Pro props.
You can say that these props come as a blank canvas.
They're unfinished and unpainted.
So you'll be able to decide for your own project
if you wanted to paint them a specific colour.
There are a range of shapes available
but for this shot, I ended up using the three-step stair prop.
To achieve a smooth finish when painting the prop,
here's a quick how-to.
Sand down the props by hand using sandpaper.
This will leave the props with a smoother finish
and allow the paint to bind to the surface.
For an even smoother finish you can first spray it down
with primer filler and then sand it down.
After sanding, make sure the prop is completely cleaned
by using wax and grease remover
in a lint-free cloth or microfiber towel.
Make sure you have the correct PPE
when using spray paint. Spray in a well ventilated area.
Be wary of where you decide to spray your props
as there may be a chance of Airborne dust bags
that land on your prop while drying.
Allow the props to completely dry and cure before use.
Drying times are normally indicated
on the direction section of the can.
If you don't have the time to prepare your props
to this extent, we've also had a last minute
shoot where we added paint the props
with no prep work at all.
Although the finish on them didn't turn out perfect,
we left them with the imperfect finishes
and still got the project done.
Here are some of the results we achieved with those.
Now that we have ready,
let's jump into our shooting space
where I'll go through our complete styling
and learning setup.
So this is my shooting setup.
There's just a collapsible table.
This is just from Bunnings.
There's a half-size paper backdrop.
This is 1.36 m by 10 m.
And the color is cherry blossom pink.
And we have a Spectrum flat lay backdrop.
This is the blushing Rouge color.
The shade of pink of this half size paper backdrop
is actually the color
that I decided to match the paint with.
So I brought a Swatch book to the paint shop
and I just visually looked at the cans and the sample
and just chose the one that was closest to match.
The camera I'm using today is the Sony A6400.
This is a beginner's mirrorless camera.
So I feel like it's relatively easy to attain.
You don't really have to go
for the most expensive camera out there.
We still have the kit lens on there as well.
So apart from the camera setup, there's also the Godox
Light setup. I'm using a Godox X pro S trigger.
This will sync the camera shutter
to fire off the SK 400IIV strobe.
Generally, if you're doing product photography,
I definitely recommend using strobes over continuous lights.
They'll have more output.
They'll be able to overpower the ambient light
and you just get better quality and results from that.
The reason why I chose the stair prop for this specific product
was because it's kind of a kit.
There's multiple components to what you receive in the package.
So we have the actual Razor.
There's a microfiber cleaning cloth.
Spare blades as well.
And stairs kind of allow you to create
more hierarchy in your shot and create more interest
and balance your viewers' focus across the frame.
Play around with product placement,
the different levels that you have available with the Razor.
I'll probably put it at the top because that's the main focus.
And instead of just showing the razor with a closed lid,
I think it's better just to have the razor showing.
So you kind of see and get more context of what it is.
And I'll pop the accessories just over here. Cool.
So I know a lot of people looking at their first product
photography light setup
are always kind of scared about using strobes.
They're quite easy to use once you get the hang of it.
But the first step normally of what I would do
is set the setting on the camera
to a point where everything in the frame is blacked out.
So what that means is that the settings will be dark enough
where ambient light doesn't affect your photo.
And then from there,
you'll be able to set your strobe to a power
that best exposes your photos. If you don't have a light meter,
you'll probably be just doing trial and error
and you just play around with the settings.
But once you hit those settings,
you generally just leave it as it
is if your shooting space is consistent
and the same every time.
So what I'll do here is turn off the trigger.
You can see that the camera here displays
what the photo will kind of look like.
So if I take a photo, it's dark
but it's not completely blacked out.
I have the settings right now on one of the 50 shutter.
so this can go up to 1/160.
That's just standard sync speed. So we'll change it now.
It's still not completely blacked out.
We still are on ISO 100, which is basically the minimum.
But we still have aperture to play with.
So a couple more stops.
And the picture is completely black.
And that's what you want.
So what this means is that there's no ambient light
getting into your camera sensor,
which means you have more consistency and control
over your lighting.
Now, figuring out the strobe settings,
we turn on the trigger.
The basics of syncing up your trigger to your strobe
is quite simple.
It's just having your channel the same.
We have Channel 6 here on the trigger
which is matching what the channel is on the strobe.
There are groups here, A, B, C, D, E.
And that generally refers to which light you're using.
So if you have a multi-light setup,
you might have one light on A, the second on B, the third on C.
For now, we're just using one light which is on channel A.
At the moment, the light is set on 1/4.
We'll just see what it looks like when we take a photo.
This is how the photo turned out.
It actually looks quite good. For a lot of people,
this even might be a final result photo already.
For me though, I'm not happy with the right side here.
There's a lot of shadow here.
You can't really see the logo too clearly there.
A lot of the focus is more on the left side of the screen.
So I'm going to bring a second light
in just to fill in the dark sides there.
And I might actually use a hard light
instead of a soft light as well.
So this is what it looks like with a second light.
I haven't really played around with the settings yet,
but off the bat, I'm not happy with the shadow over here.
So I'm going to play with the light placement.
And in general, I'm just going to turn down the lights
just a little bit just so it's not so bright.
So this is the next photo. This is with a light raised up.
So we don't get the shadow hitting the backdrop.
And also with the light turned down slightly
just you create a little bit of contrast
and not have it so even. This is before and after.
So we basically have a final photo already.
But I have one last step that I want to do.
And that's to take inspiration from the actual packaging.
So this packaging has a nice gradient design on it.
And I'm going to replicate that in my shot here
by using a third light lining up the backdrop.
That was the final result photo. I'm pretty happy with that.
I'll put all photos on screen now.
Let me know what you guys think.
So that wraps up today's video. Leave a like if it's helped you.
We'll see you guys next time.