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Friday, April 11, 2014
Nikon D610 Review: Day 6 - Keurig: Shooting the World's MOST Popular Coffee Maker (Product Photography with a Single Softbox)
Day 6 of my time shooting with and evaluating the Nikon D610, and it's time to play with softboxes, or more specifically, 1 softbox. Today I'm going to be doing a product shoot of the Keurig K60 coffee maker.
Plus, I'm going to use continuous lighting instead of a speedlite in a softbox.
The softbox I'm using has 4 sockets for standard household bulbs, and I
use daylight balanced CFL bulbs, although you'd be fine with regular old
lightbulbs too. I'm using four 23 watt / 100 watt equivalent CFL bulbs
in mine, so that gives me the equivalent of 400 watts of light from
regular lightbulbs.
4 Socket Softbox with individual switches for each socket
The softbox has individual on/off switches for each of the sockets, which is nice because it allows for more control over the amount of light it puts out, basically giving you 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 and full power.
Softbox on Manfrotto Nano Stand Camera Left, Foamcore on the Right
My set-up is simple. One softbox on a Manfrotto Nano stand camera left, and a piece of white foam core to act as a reflector for fill camera right.
I'm not shooting with a tripod as I want to be able to move around and see how the play of light looks in the shot, both as I change my position with the D610, as well as moving the softbox position, direction, and angle.
Keurig K60 Special Edition in the box - Nikon D610 1/60s f8 ISO 800
I started with a shot of the Keurig in the box, and this was actually one of the most challenging to do due the highly reflective nature of the glossy box.
Next up was a shot of the welcome package, basically a bright yellow folder that held the manual, warranty, and other paperwork. The bright yellow made for a nice contrast against the black background.
Keurig packaging inside the box - Nikon D610 1/60s f8 ISO 800
This shot shows the internal packaging around the Keurig K60 inside the box. Note that the background hasn't gone completely black, and you can make out my couch and living room. A little burning in PS would take this out, but I left it in to illustrate that the aperture should've been higher to make the back-ground completely black. I should also note that this can be a limitation of this kind of softbox lighting as it is not as powerful as a speedlite in a softbox.
Nikon D610 1/45s f8 ISO 800
The nice thing about a continuous light, is that you can see where the light falls and the reflections it creates as you move the softbox and/or your subject around.
Nikon D610 1/45s f8 ISO 800
As I shot the Keurig from different angles and perspectives, I just kept watching to see how the light played off it in the shot.
Nikon D610 1/45s f8 ISO 800
The shot above is one of my favorites. I just seemed to be able to get the lighting bang on for this one. :-)
Nikon D610 1/30s f8 ISO 800
Notice you can see the background peeking in again. A higher f stop would've pushed this to black, but then you'd need more power out of your lights.
Nikon D610 1/90s f8 ISO 800
Nikon D610 1/125s f8 ISO 800
Nikon D610 1/90s f8 ISO 800
I like Keurig's choice of the bright yellow for their documents package. Made for a nice contrast with the dark colors of the background and the Keurig itself.
Nikon D610 1/30s f8 ISO 800
Nikon D610 1/60s f8 ISO 800
Back side of the Keurig K60 with the power cord at the bottom.
Changed mugs for the fun of it (and also because I'm a Pink Floyd fan). You can get a Pink Floyd "Hammers" mug just like mine on Amazon here.
Nikon D610 1/30s f8 ISO 800
The Nikon D610 performed admirably for this product photography shoot of the Keurig K60 Coffee Maker. I continue to be impressed by it's performance, and the incredibly excellent quality of image files it produces.
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