35/52 - Yet another pair

Yet another pair

I've never understood women and their need for shoes. However, with my wife bringing so many of them home I guess it was only a matter of time before I decided to photograph them as part of this project. I went for a black background to make the colour of the shoes stand out a bit. 

Lighting setup after the jump.

Lighting setup - Yet another pair

This was a two light setup.

I fired the Canon 430 EX II at 1/4th into a reflective umbrella. This was the main light and also created the specular highlight on the back of the shoe on the left. 

I used the Canon 580 EX II fired at 1/128th as the key light. It's effect is subtle. The highlight on the shoe on the right and the back of the shoe on the left were created by it. 

I also used a black foam-core board as the background and placed the shoes on a piece of glass to create a reflection.

4/52 - Asics

Asics 

To be honest, I found it a bit hard to come up with an idea for this weeks shot.... and I'm only in week 4! God knows how the guys who are doing 365s manage.... The process of actually taking a photograph isn't hard but coming up with a half decent idea isn't as easy as it seems. I had just come back home after a game of Tennis and figured my shoes were as good a subject as any. I decided to go for warm colours with the lighting. Maybe I'll try cooler colours next week.

Setup shot and lighting info inside.

Lighting setup shot for the Asics image above

The lighting was pretty straight forward for this one. I used a collapsed reflective umbrella again (without a flash in the setup shot) and placed it slightly behind the shoes on the left of the camera. The flash zoomed at 24mm and was fired at 1/8th into the umbrella. I used a full CTO Gel on the flash to warm up the foreground.

A white cardboard box was placed just out of frame on camera right and used to bounce the light from the umbrella and fill the shadow areas on the right hand side of the shoes.

A snooted flash was fired at 1/16th at the chair to light up the background. I used the chair to add a bit of interest to the background of the image as I felt the white wall was a bit boring. The spaces on the back of the chair created some light patterns on the wall which worked pretty well. A light Red gel was used on this flash.