Today’s discussion:

Inspired by flickr user nickwheeleroz, and his beer bottle pictures, I went out to the local DIY store today and picked up two pieces of 8×10″ plexiglas. A couple of bucks each. I also got a 12 pack of self-adhesive velcro squares and a roll of black duct tape. Combine that with three sheets of white foam core board, a pair of CLS-enabled speedlights and a Nikon DSLR, and you have everything a budding strobist needs to do product photography. Well, as long as the product is no wider than about 5 inches.

My first set of test shots were with a mini Southern Comfort bottle. Putting a piece of foam core down on the kitchen table, putting a piece of plexi on it, and then putting the bottle on top of the plexi gives you a nice, reflective surface that doesn’t show the table through the shadows. A small kids chair on the table balancing a second piece of foam core creates a white softbox to make sure the plexi is fully reflective. The third and final piece of foam core goes against the wall, to catch the light of an SB-600 fired at ¹⁄₃₂ power @18mm zoom. (A small gobo, attached via an ultrastrap, keeps the light going up and back.) The final bit of lighting is an SB-800 at ¹⁄₁₂₈ power with a dome diffuser camera right, illuminating the label of the bottle. A second gobo is attached to that speed light, to keep it from casting light on the lens. Here is a wider angle of the setup: