Janna Hurtzig Astro Satchel's shot on white background

The shoot was for a book and we had discussed shooting on a simple white background. Janna was fun to work with as she described what she wanted and then let me go with it.  To get a better image with a high end feel I thought I’d experiment a little.  The shoot directives were to keep it simple, keep it clean and modern, and to highlight the natural elements being the nature patterns on the product.

Lighting scheme for the white background bag shoot

I went about doing this with by using 3 lights.  One main hoisted above the product and slightly angled from the front, a highlight of direct light 1 stop greater than the main coming in from the side and from above, and the background light which was the same as the main in intensity but shot through a gobo with horizontal lines cut into it.  This gave the effect of sunlight and gave some angular elements to the shot.  I also brought out a small reflector to bounce some light into the dark side of the bag.

All in all I’m happy with the results and will be using this technique far more often. The biggest issue with the lighting was deciding on the strength of the backlight, the angle of the gobo and the distance between the gobo and the light source which affected the heaviness of the shadows. Also, the highlight positioning was a bit tricky at times.

Styling the product was probably the most difficult thing about the shoot. I wanted the bags to look natural and baglike, but I didn’t want them to be under filled, over filled and I wanted the straps to look good.  To get this right required some stuffing – but not too much – as well as some lifting, placing, and pinning things into place. That’s why stylists are an important part of every photoshoot.