Studio Product/Model Ad Inspiration

Plan for 'Wonderstruck' perfume portrait

• Black background
• Model wearing white
• 2 lights - 1 rim light, near ground pointing upwards, 1 softbox at front
• Glitter blown into shot from side, from above head height so it floats down and minimises mess. Glitter also closer to camera than subject, so it blurs out of focus more and reduces amount of glitter on model.
• Cloth on floor to catch glitter

Photographing Tea...

Had a go and shooting the tea in studio yesterday. Worked for nearly 3 hours and still aren't 100% happy with it. Planning to reshoot in a couple of weeks, once I work out an alternative plan.

Off Camera Flash Task

Task 1

Expose for subject

ISO 100, 1/60 @ f/4

Expose for sunlit area (I exposed for the sky to get the effect I wanted)

ISO 100, 1/60 @ f/22

Add flash, balance flash and ambient

ISO 100, 1/60 @ f/22

With flash, reduce ambient exposure by 2 stops

ISO 100, 1/250 @ f/22

Task 2

A portrait in the shade

ISO 100, 1/60 @ f/4

With flash

ISO 100, 1/45 @ f/4.5

Reduce ambient exposure by 2 stops

ISO 100, 1/180 @ f/4.5

Task 3

A portrait indoors

ISO 500, 1/60 @ f/2

With flash (bounced off ceiling)

ISO 400, 1/60 @ f/2

Reduce ambient exposure by 2 stops

ISO 400, 1/250 @ f/2

For me, this task looked really easy on paper and then got difficult when I had to put it into practise. I've been experimenting with off camera flash for a few weeks, trying out everything just getting the hang of it. I was finding it quite easy, and I've been achieving some results that I'm very pleased with, but I found that when I had a set of instructions like this to follow I found it much harder and I was much less pleased with my results.

Lighting Painting

http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2012/05/these-girls-are-wearing-nothing-but-light/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/purplemattfish/3286862210/

Studio - Small Product Part 2

Beer or Wine
Red wine. Backlit, like this:

http://static3.depositphotos.com/1006126/208/i/950/depositphotos_2088787-Backlit-wine-bottle.jpg

Electronic Household Device
Non-chrome kettle.

Product of your choice
T2 tea, with teapot and cup (see separate post).

Small Product Test shot

This is the set up I'm thinking of using for one of my product shots. I wanted to test it out at home before getting into the studio, so I using my Speedlite inside a white paper bag to act as a softbox and just played around with compositions and lighting. This is the one I like best, with the light directly above.
This is not the particular tea that I'm planning to use - the one I'll be using is called Oolong Chocolate Chai.
I also want to add some loose tea coming out of the cup, and onto the table. And possibly some pieces of chocolate too.