t'zan harmony exploding
We had a bit of creative fun shooting the the harmony bottle.
t'zan harmony on ice
Shooting on ice is always challenging – three shots, composited. One lighting the ice, one lighting the product, and one lighting both, then compositing all three to create the final version. Of course, the ice is always melting, so the set is constantly changing.
In this shot, I wanted to combine the ring used in the pigment shot with a vortex of water spinning down through the ring. The first trick was to determine how to create the vortex.
We started by placing a large 4L beaker on a magnetic mixer, and played with different sized stir sticks to get the right effect with the vortex – we needed to use the larger sticks given the volume of water.
But the biggest problem was trying to light a circular beaker that is made of normal glass i.e., not sand-blasted glass like our custom tanks. On a whim, I thought we could try the magnetic mixer under the tank we used to create the splashing pearls, thinking it might be powerful enough to move that volume of water.
And it worked!
We were able to get the vortex dancing about in the tank, creating all kinds of shapes for us. So we started working on lighting, and came up with the following setup:
Vortex in tank
The magnetic mixer was placed under the tank in the middle, supporting the weight of the tank. We placed a silver card on the mixer so the top of the plate wouldn’t reflect up into the vortex formed above it.
To provide the background, we aimed a broncolor pulso-spot 4 at a scrim with some tough-spun attached to it hanging just behind the back of the tank. The pulso-spot 4 created a round light on the scrim, which was diffused even more by the tough-spun, resulting in a nice soft round light with gentle fall-off, without eminating light into the tank itself.
We took a number of shots of the vortex while it formed in the tank until we had a number of great shots to use in the final composite. The tank was then removed, and the ring was shot in the existing lighting setup to use in the final composite. Using the ring shot from the pigment setup would not have worked – a different focal length lens was used in this setup (120mm) and slightly different lighting setup. The differences would have been enough to make the ring look as though it didn’t belong.
Here’s the final shot after compositing:
Ring vortex
Working on some jewelry shots with splashes. Started with pearls in a water tank. An inch of water in a custom-built tank – walls are roughly 12″ high, sandblasted on three of the four walls to reduce reflections and light bouncing in the tank. Fourth side is clear to shoot through. Bottom of tank is also sandblasted.
Here’s the empty tank
And a shot with the pearls splashing in the tank
We took over a hundred shots of the pearls splashing through the tank to get just the right look. The pearls had to have a nice flow to them, and the *tip* of the pearl clasp needed to appear as though it was surfing across the water.
Next, we’ll composite the shot without any pearls with the splash shots to create the final version.
Here’s the plan view of the setup
Pearls in tank
Strobes are broncolor Pulso-G connected to broncolor Grafit packs, with a flash duration set to roughly 1/4,000th of a second per head to freeze the water in motion. Camera is a Hasselblad H3DII-39MS with a 35mm lens. We use a Pocket Wizard to trigger the camera – easier to watch the pearls fall and release the shutter by pressing on the small hand held Pocket Wizard button than fumbling around with the button on the camera.
And here is the final composite:
Pearls in tank
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