Bathtime, studio style

So, we had an assignment to shoot metal and glass in the studio. I picked glass. Pretty early on, I had thought about doing a bath theme but it was more based on the visuals in the Dove, Go Fresh commercials; however, as I played around with the idea, I decided that I would prefer to focus on relaxation rather than wakening. I still wanted bold colors, but I kept them cool. This particular interpretation went through a few variations before I ended with this one involving the sponge, the flower in the bottle, and the soap scattered. I liked this for its touch of whimsy. It's a somewhat classic still life, but I think the soap makes it look more like a sketch. So, here's the picture:
Lavender scented bath beads lie piled next to a hand-blown glass bottle holding a Stargazer Lilly on October 7, 2009. All of these items demonstrate that relaxation can go toward a good cause. The sponge, a natural sea sponge, was bought at Makes Scents while the lilly was bought from Allen's Flowers, both local mom-and-pop stores in Columbia, Mo. The bath beads and the glass bottle are both fair trade items found at World Market.

Lighting this was interesting. The concept of the light table is simple. light the entire thing more or less evenly. However, getting the ratio right for the bottom was kind of difficult because I kept getting halation with despite changing ratios. Moreover, lighting the flower, the candle and the sponge without getting any specular highlights on the photo was a challenge. We ended up using all four lights, a piece of black paper, and a lot of extra stuff like snoots and barn doors. Here's the diagram for the final picture:

Ladies and Gentlemen, the great Tim Rice

Caption: Timothy Rice, a Photojournalism student at the University of Missouri-Columbia, poses for a portrait on September 22, 2009. Rice's exhuberant and eccentric personality is an extension of his approach to life. "I have a very active unfiltered persona and that is really me, but that's just me spreading some light heartedness. Why so serious? Its just life. Try to be happy. Try to ensure the happiness of others."

So here's my select for the classmate portrait assignment (anyone else upset with the way blogger interprets color profiles?). This project was very fun and extremely elucidating. I learned so much from doing this shoot and playing with the lighting. I'm fairly happy with the results, but now, looking back, I wish I had used a hair light. Ok, ready for the technical stuff?


I made the background light the strongest because I wanted a really intense pinkish red. I had originally planned to do an orange to red gradient, but I was difficult to implement. Honestly, I think that this was better considering his outfit (a Hello Kitty v-neck t-shirt, a black suit and a bow-tie) and personality. The light was a little more intense than I had hoped and it looks like it caused some over-saturation around his outline. I then made sure to have my key light the next brightest and the fill light the lowest wattage. All in all, I like it, but I wish I would have added a hair light.