Hanging on the telephone

This week has been all about chrome, buttons and shiny bits. Mobile devices to be precise. How hard could it be I hear you say? Plenty hard would be my reply! Whilst not looking like the most challenging subject, they are a technical exercise in lighting...and patience!

Because you are dealing with chrome, shiny and matt plastic all at the same time with a multitude of colours and bizarre shapes, things can get interesting! Some people throw small devices like this in a light tent. I personally don't think this is the way to go, as you have so little control over the shape of your reflections, the detail doesn't look as crisp and edges look soft. So for me it's all about multiple lights and moving pieces of black or white card all over the place. Somehow you have to squeeze a camera in there too...which of course is bound to show up in the reflections. Hello Photoshop! Quite often the key to lighting these devices can be in lighting what they reflect and not actually the device itself. All in all the clock ticks by fairly rapidly on these shoots.

No matter how much time, effort, patience you bestow on a device, ultimately you will end up in Photoshop. I use canned air, anti static cloths, brushes and much swearing, but there is always dust and dirt to contend with on the final capture! Bearing in mind these images can be used up to 2 metres tall in shopping malls, they need to look pretty perfect.

So that was my week, kept in the dark talking to Mr softbox... I think I need to get out more!