Tabletop Photography – Oval and Rectangular Crystal Hair Accessories

Even More Fun with Tabletop Photography

Doing tabletop again today. I have two subjects to show this time and they are similar to what we saw in the last post. After this we move on to a different tabletop subject.

The Lighting Setup

This is the lighting setup used for the following shots of the crystal hair accessories. As before there is a single softbox, Photoflex Q39 (large) overhead at about 32” from the table supplying the main light at f/11. The white table surface offers a bit of diffuse reflection. 32” silver reflectors are at the left and right corners. There is also a gridded light using a standard 7” reflector fitted with a 10° grid. However, this time the gridded light has been moved to just below the camera and slightly to the right so it is providing near on axis light. This might be a good application for a ringlight, but lacking that tool, a gridded light will have to do.

Lighting the Oval Piece

Here is an oval piece lit with just the overhead softbox metered at f/11. The exposure is okay, shadows are soft and faint, and the lighting is very even. All is well except for lack of pop. This is the same theme from the previous post and the solution is the same.

Lighting to Make It Pop

In this photo the gridded light has been turned on and metered to f/4.5, just enough to notice, but in my opinion, not enough to make the needed difference.

In this photo the gridded light has been boosted up to f/8, which adds more direct reflection and really makes the crystals pop. I'm happy with that, so this side is done.

Finishing the Job

We need the back view to complete this piece, so that was done using the same lighting setup.

This is the back side lit with just the overhead softbox at f/11.

The back side again, only this time with both overhead softbox at f/11 and gridded light at f/8.

Rectangular Crystal

Did the same thing with the rectangular crystal piece. Got the same results too.

Overhead softbox only at f/11.

Gridded light added at f/8 for some very effective pop

Here is the backside with overhead softbox only at f/11.

Backside with gridded light added at f/8.

This is a Photoshop composite of the above two views. The back view was mirrored and resized to better fit the composition.

Coming Next
I have one more tabletop post to share before moving on, and it will present quite a different lighting problem from what we've seen in these last few examples.

Until then...

-Gene