Friday, November 20, 2009

Trout Unlimited Pocket Knife



This is a closeup of the studio set. If you look really hard, you can find the knife on the rocks. The card on the right is a silver reflector that is creating a highlight on the knife blade.
You can see the camera, lighting, and the capture station with dual monitors. The camera is tethered to the capture station.  Each shot is displayed on the large screens.

Here I am adjusting the angle of the knife so the scrim feathers light across the brass part of the knife. You don't want metal surfaces to be all white, or all black. That doesn't look like metal. Metal surfaces should be lit so they gradate from light to dark across their surface.



Original shot with the lighting perfect for the brass handle. However, the blade looks dull and lifeless.



I changed the lighting so the blade now looks great. Notice this lighting is terrible for the rest of the knife.



Final Image after compositing lighting "fix" to blade. We started with the first shot where the handle looks great, then added the blade from the "fix" shot.