# need advice for a complex shoot.



## quo55 (Jul 28, 2011)

I've been doing quite a bit of product photography the last few years, however the things I've been shooting have been small- to mid-sized. A client wants me to shoot a gigantic sunglass rack at their location (a few states away). When i say this thing is gigantic, I mean gigantic. It's probably 10 feet wide and 8 feet tall and will be filled with sunglasses that include mirrored lenses. My first question is this: since I am going to have to rent equipment once I'm there, what should I rent? What will produce enough light to cover how huge this thing is? My second question is this: Is there any way to prevent glare in these glasses? I can't imagine that there will be any possible way to avoid seeing the light reflections in the lenses (128 pairs of glasses). To add to the extreme challenge, I'll be shooting this in a company conference room and will have little control over the environment. 

Ugh.

Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks!


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## epatsellis (Jul 28, 2011)

Shooting this in a conference room, you're already screwed, unless it's bigger than any conference room I've seen. Best bet would be in a warehouse at night, with at least a few thousand w/s of lighting available. 

Without more details, it's hard to say, but I'd start by flying a 20' wide by 10' scrim at least 10' in the air, lit evenly (though a slight gradient would look nice if you can't eliminate the reflections in the product). Think movie set lighting. Another option would be several 5K HMI's to light the scrim, with some localized HMI scoops where needed.

 You will need to use a longer f.l. lens, I lean towards a 180 or so on FF, to help reduce the reflection angle family and eliminate geometric problems. Naturally, you're looking at significantly longer working distances than you're used to, figure several feet behind the product, and at least 20-30 in front.

Place the display on overlapping, multiple rolls of white seamless, with a roll of black seamless as close as you can get to the display, while still leaving a white area in front (this will keep the glasses from reflecting the ground seamless). Have several 4x8 sheets of white foam core and a few sheets of black foam core on hand. Light the display, use the fill cards to get the contrast down to where it's reproducable (4 stops max). Black cards to help define the shape and form. 

Then utilize your 2-3 assistants to clean and place the glasses on the display one at a time, tilted slightly downward to help minimize glare while spotting from the camera position (8x binocs would work well here). A high quality linear polarizer will help tame the last of the reflections, used judiciously. With any luck, you'll be ready to expose before daylight. 

I hope you're actually getting paid decently to shoot this, were I shooting this, it would be abour 2-3x my daily rate, plus expenses and assistant costs. Without doing a spreadsheet, back of the napkin calculations peg this at 8-10K, assuming I brought my camera and lighting equipment with me, with rentals, probably another 3-5k more (or much, much more depending on what's available locally)

There is no way to shoot this kind of product in a conference room with no control over the environment. That should be a negotiating point, and were it that easy, they'd of found a shooter much closer. Chances are they've tried and failed, so they cast their net wider.


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## epatsellis (Jul 28, 2011)

I'd also add that you're way beyond DSLR territory, think a P65+ or the new IQ180 back (or a 4x5 scanning back if you use HMI lighting). Anything less will not give you nearly enough resolution to clearly make out the product.


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