Compositing Still Life Photography | One Light Watch Photo Part II
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- Опубліковано 24 кві 2018
- This is the 2nd part in my one light watch photography tutorial.
When I became interested in still life photography it seemed clear to me that gear was a very important aspect, and it is. However, what I have learnt over the years is that there are far more important things, technique being the biggest of them.
In this tutorial we delve into Photoshop and I show you how I turned 13 separate images captured with one light, into a final advertising-quality image. We cover the composite itself and then I take you, step-by-step, through the rest of my edit, touching on concepts like Linked Smart Objects, Frequency Separation, and lots more.
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EQUIPMENT USED IN TODAYS VIDEO
Wacom Tablet - geni.us/wJ5z
Adobe Creative Cloud - fave.co/2qe3JxV
LINKS TO MOST OF THE STUFF I USE…THERE’S A LOT!
CAMERAS AND LENSES
Nikon D810 - geni.us/cwHFb
Nikon D750 - geni.us/yya8gC
Sigma 150mm Macro - geni.us/B56E
Nikon 50mm - geni.us/F8mw9
Nikon 85mm - geni.us/oye1
Tamron 15-30mm Macro - geni.us/fzAJn
TRIPOD AND HEAD
Manfrotto 410 Junior - geni.us/9FB5b7
Tripod - Need a better one for the home studio
LIGHTING
Profoto D2 - geni.us/8uMYmJ
Profoto Air Remote - geni.us/ssbMlqc
Godox Speedlight - geni.us/HUKtxA
Shutter Release Trigger - geni.us/kxzt8I
MODIFIERS
Profoto 3x3 - fave.co/2q4RKTk
Profoto 1x1.3 - geni.us/dbBF4
Profoto Reflector - geni.us/mqwrzOr
Impact strip small 9 x 36 - fave.co/2q4Q3W0
Profoto Gird kit - fave.co/2q6E61S
Acrylic Mirror - geni.us/tHHV6X
Opal Acrylic - bit.ly/2EfVV2V
Lee 129 - fave.co/2q4BaTE
Savage Translum - fave.co/2IsZpS3
Cinefoil - geni.us/uz7rAbd
Polarizing Gel - fave.co/2q4IjTJ
GRIP
20-inch C-stand - fave.co/2It9q1M
40-inch C-stand - fave.co/2uOdQhG
Matthews Knuckle - fave.co/2uKFWu5
Matthews 48x48 Trace Frame - fave.co/2q71RXy
Baby Wall Plate - fave.co/2uIlqdH
Overhead Boom - fave.co/2q54M3j
Extension Arm - fave.co/2q4WBny
Manfrotto Super Clamp - geni.us/DmQmnKf
Manfrotto Magic Arm - geni.us/rAyO84
MISC
Acrylic surface - bit.ly/2Emr7xC
Acrylic blocks - bit.ly/2Emr7xC
Acrylic Ice Cubes - setshop.com/special-effects/ic...
Matt Paint Primer - bit.ly/2GuhHFY
Vegetable Glycerin - geni.us/oEGj
Label remover - geni.us/xjYcFyB
X-rite Colour Checker - geni.us/iDhK1
Wacom Tablet - geni.us/wJ5z
SOFTWARE
Adobe Creative Cloud - fave.co/2qe3JxV
Capture One - captureone.sjv.io/c/1331257/5...
Helicon Focus - store.payproglobal.com/r?u=ht...
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
RGG EDU - rggedu.com/collections/availa...
SLR Lounge - www.slrlounge.com/store/?refc...
Fstoppers - fstoppers.com/store
Phlearn - phlearn.com/affiliate/199/
Jesus why dont you have a million plus subs! Superb videos.
The blue you had to remove was probably the anti-reflective coating on the crystal, which is only viewable at certain angles due to the fresnel effect.
Awesome tutorial, immensely underrated!
Great tutorial I am going to try it, thank you for making this!
I think i found UA-cam's hidden gem
Nice explanation of your process, Max. Linked layers are definitely the way to go to keep PS from grinding to a crawl when you’ve got a hires file with a lot of layers. Keep ‘em coming!
Yeah, they're great aren't they, so useful! Thanks for the compliment, will definitively be making more and more videos.
I have to say that this video series is worth a watch.... See what I did there? ;P
I'm living in a tiny flat so I will attempt this using my speedlite and a macro softbox. I'm very experinced in Photoshop, so that's not scaring me, but the photography part can seem a little overwhelming, at least to me :)
Thank you! Very useful video.
vraiment superbe video !! Other one tutorial please !
Such amazing content! UA-cam should be promoting your stuff way more I don’t know why they are not?
My fault really, I don't post enough videos. Too busy working. Hopefully I'l get some more time in the next few months. Thanks for the support!
I learned a lot from this video. But it should be so much better if you do another video on how to set up the lighting to get every specific exposure shots. That will help us newbie a lot! :D
Glad you like the video. In part one, I do cover lighting a little. Sadly, it would take far too long to show how every shot was created. One day I hope to make much longer videos but for the moment, I have to keep them short and sweet. Find part one here: ua-cam.com/video/JkHkQZcz_Bk/v-deo.html
Thank you for answering. I did watch part one before part two and I think they're in proper length - not long, not short. I'm kinda looking around for videos that teach me how to light certain products with difference surface texture and shape but nobody actually done that series. If you know any source, please put a link down for me, I would be really appreciated. And maybe that would be a good next video series idea, too. I hope to see it in your channel in the future.
I'm not sure if there is any free content out there which specifically covers that topic. Although, there are plenty of videos on photographing different objects. If you watch enough you should be able to gain the knowledge you want.
Thanks for the video suggestion, I've added it to my spreadsheet of video ideas and will definitely make it at some point.
When you have a midterm on Monday and you have to shoot, edit, and turn in a final image of a watch in 3 hours. I’m stressing hahaha
Hey. Big fan! I am addicted to your tutorials :) Do you ever come across a problem with focus stacking? Photoshop missing bits or edges or misaligned details?
Thanks mate, I'm sure I'll make some more one day! Photoshop isn't great with focus stacking, I use helicon focus which does a much better job. There's a link to it in the description, heads up that is an affiliate link
I've found that to avoid image shaking while taking photos(I'm a stop motion animator so I need to take hundreds to upwards of tens of thousands of shots without shaking things), using a magic arm on the surface I'm photographing things helps a great deal compared to using a tripod I'm prone to accidentally kicking. Just make sure you have the right kind of clamp attached, otherwise the clamp might shift around a bit on you. I really want to try compositing different types of lighting exposures though, as having multiple lights on at the same time on such tiny scenes can muddy up the atmosphere.
Btw thanks for this tutorial series. The way you explain things seems to be helping me a bit more than most.
Happy to hear it's helping. I normally use a studio stand (a large and very heavy column stand 6-9ft tall) which works well. Only trouble there is how sturdy the table you're shooting on is and what the floor is like. Nice idea clamping to the table, I seem to remember Matthews (maybe) making a table clamp for cameras.
@@maxbridge8921 oh, maybe if you're having issues with the table, you could get a magic arm and two clamps to secure the table to the stand. They should be strong enough to eliminate basically everything short of deliberately kicking the table over.
Amazing video! I could tell that you're addressing people who already have a comprehensive knowledge of PhotoShop and compositing, but what advice would you give to someone like myself who is new to all of this? I plan on studying this intensely for the next few months and would like to see the best and most thorough tutorials I can find. My plan is to do this professionally. Sincerely.
My advice would be to do exactly what you've said. study. There's loads to learn both inside and outside Photoshop so study and practise as much as you can.
On the photography side of things, always push yourself with what you're creating. Aim high, very high. If you fail and can't create the image you want, you'll learn far more than simply creating easy imagery.
In march I'm going to hold my very first workshop. If you're in London it might be good for you. Head to my website and click on Workshops to learn more www.squaremountain.co.uk
Thank you Max. I won't be able to make the workshop because I live in Canada, but I appreciate your advice!
This is awesome. Have you updated the process in the last three years since posting?
Lastly, what’s a good recommendation for base setup with lighting? I understand that you’ve only got one here but what’s ideal?
Cheers. There's no "ideal" base setup for lighting. It's always going to change depending on what you're shooting and the brief. Just experiment. The more you do it the better you'll get.
Has my technique changed since then? Not massively no but you have to remember this video was just about one technique which I sometimes employ. It's part of a much wider toolset that you need to learn. Hope that's a little helpful
Hello, great video. Quick question, the base photo is only a point of reference for your composite? You don't see it at the end?
Honestly, I'm not sure about your question, I think I'd need to watch all these videos again...was such a long time ago that I made this. Remember though this is just an extreme example to demonstrate a point. In general my "base" image will be far more complete than in this example (I'd use more than one light) then the composites just help to push it a few steps further. I hope this helps a little
Do you only focus stack the face? And then focus on the other elements individually when you are shooting them? E.g. Was the strap exposure a focus stack, or did you just focus on the strap for that shot?
That's right. I tend to do one stack of the whole watch, usually when shooting the face, then focus on the individual elements I'm shooting. Sometimes I don't need to stack at all if the element is small enough. Hope that helps
Cheers! Brilliant tutorials by the way. Nice to see from a fellow Brit, too! You're great at what you do.
@@maxbridge8921 do you ever run into issues comping the non-stacked exposures with the stacked ones, due to the slight focus breathing/zooming effect being different in each single exposure? If that makes sense...
@@ballamoto makes total sense. Not really had issues before. I can think of a couple occasions where things don't quite line up perfectly but you can usually employ a little Photoshop wizardry if need be; warp, liquify, etc.
@@maxbridge8921 Alright thanks! I'm actually doing a watch shot right now! Focus stacked some, and composited some others. Hit a few tough spots, but all in all its going ok! Thanks again for the tutorial 👍
The only issue with brands doing this is that it reaaalllly oversells their cheapo-looking watch.
wtf .. i thought you were showing the image in tv with all the giant speaker and all fuck .. you tricked me