Product Shoot – Cameron Karsten's Imaginarium

Photo of the Day: Beer’s Essential Ingredients

February 26, 2012 by cameronkarsten 4 Comments

Water, cracked grain and hops flowers from the hop vine. Three essential ingredients make the base of any beer. Add yeast and time, and your alcoholic beverage is ready.

For this shot I used the exact same lighting set up as the previous entry, but took two exposures for the final. One for critical focus on the dried hops and cracked grain, and another for the water pitcher. In PS5 I combine the two images with layers and masks for the final cut.

Location: Cameron Karsten Studios, Bainbridge Island, WA

Camera/Lens Specifics: Canon 5D Mark II with Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM Macro Lens

100mm, 1/5 sec at f/10, ISO 100, tripod mount.

Post: Adobe LR3 & PS5

Filed Under: Bainbridge Island, Cameron Karsten, Commercial Photography, Education, Food, How To, Photo of the Day, Photo Shoot, Photography, Product Shoot, Seattle, Still life, Washington Tagged With: beer, beer ingredients, Cameron Karsten Photography, grain, hops, hops flower, still-life, studio lighting, water

Photo of the Day: Odin Brewery

February 25, 2012 by cameronkarsten 1 Comment

Two fantastic beers by Seattle’s Odin Brewery: Freya’s Gold and Odin’s Gift

Lit with two Q-flashes both camera right and camera left diffused with softboxes and sheets, and one Canon Speedlite with a orange gel on the backdrop. One LED flashlight placed behind the bottle illuminating the rear. Mist covered the plexiglass which the bottles sat upon, while condensation formed after freezing the bottles and placing them in a room temperature environment.

Location: Cameron Karsten Studios, Bainbridge Island, WA

Camera/Lens Specifics: Canon 5D Mark II with Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM Macro Lens

100mm, 1/30 sec at f/5.6, ISO 100, tripod mount.

Post: Adobe LR3 & PS5

Filed Under: Cameron Karsten, Commercial Photography, Food, Photo of the Day, Photo Shoot, Photography, Product Shoot, Seattle, Still life, Washington Tagged With: beer, Cameron Karsten Photography, Commercial Photography, Freya's Gold, Odin, Odin Brewery, Odin's Gift, Product Shoot, Seattle, Washington

Seattle Central Creative Academy: Photography Assignment (Clothing)

February 13, 2012 by cameronkarsten Leave a Comment

Apparel. The working man/woman’s gloves – Carhartt. Comes with a price, too. At just under $30, I purchased these with the intent of photographing and returning them. Taped to a hammer, stuffed with cotton balls and a sock, hung with 6lbs fishing line and stabilized with a chopstick. It was hung in front of a black background with two white cards camera left and camera right. There was a diffusion panel above and a gold reflector card beneath. Two Q-flashes camera right and camera left in Strobo mode each flashing fifteen times while I dragged the shutter speed to 1 second. After checking the exposure in LR3, I then shot the background, the top of a nail, with a 100mm Macro, and edited the final photograph in PS5. Viola. A fun shoot of construction and design, problem-solving and improvising.

Location: CK Studio, Bainbridge Island, WA

Camera/Lens Specifics: Canon 5D Mark II with Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM Zoom Lens

50mm, 1 sec at f/16, ISO 200, tripod mount, trigger fired.

Post: Adobe LR3 & PS5

Filed Under: Cameron Karsten, Commercial Photography, Education, How To, Photo Shoot, Photography, Product Shoot, SCCC, Seattle, Still life, Washington Tagged With: apparel, assignment, Cameron Karsten Photography, Carhartt gloves, clothing, commercial photography program, education, hammer, product, Seattle, Seattle Central Community College, Washington

Seattle Central Creative Academy: Photography Assignment (Product Shapes)

November 18, 2011 by cameronkarsten 1 Comment

Location: SCCA Studios, Seattle, WA

Camera/Lens Specifics: Canon 5D Mark II with Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 L Macro IS USM

100mm, 1/8 sec at f/11, ISO 100, table mount.

Post: Adobe LR3 & PS5

Filed Under: Art, Cameron Karsten, Education, How To, Photo Shoot, Photography, Product Shoot, SCCC, Seattle, Still life, Washington Tagged With: assignment, Cameron Karsten Photography, commercial photography program, education, Seattle, Seattle Central Community College, still-life, Washington

Seattle Central Creative Academy: Photography Assignment (Stop/Blur)

November 15, 2011 by cameronkarsten 1 Comment

Stop/Blur is a challenge with hot lights, or continuous lighting. Typically, when a flash is used for a photograph, two exposures are taken simultaneously: flash captures the subject and freezes it’s movement, where the shutter speed takes in the ambient light of the atmosphere. But with hot flashes in a studio, you need enough lights to crank up the shutter speed for a moving subject. For my shots, I kept the ISO at 100 to record maximum clarity and used five lights and a reflector to highlight the liquid. My subject? The finest whiskey west of the Mississippi: Stranahan Colorado Whiskey. Below is my pick, and the remaining at the end of the post are other experiments with the shot.