tabletop shoot with rain

[Christopher William]

Hello everybody, let me start off by saying I've shot a few things before but lighting is definitely not my forte. I provide animations for the food network, and I recently just said I could do live action shooting for them. Me and my big mouth. haha.

 

here's the deal: it's a tabletop shot. The set-up will be about 3 feet by 6 feet MAXIMUM with a blown up picture of a rainy day scene thats out of focus as the backdrop. The foreground will be a food product with rain cascading down.I want to put focus primarily on the rain hitting the product. I want this to look like a miserable wet dreary day. I'll be shooting the product pretty much head on.

 

There's very little budget for lighting on this as it's just a quick 4 second shot. Any suggestions on lights I should use? And how few I could get away with? Believe me, any and all tips would be greatly appreciated.

 

Cheers,

 

Chris

[Matt Dennie]

It would help if you could specify what kind of equipment you have access to; lights, camera, modifiers etc. Also, just because it is a 4 second shot, doesn't mean you can get away with bad lighting.

Edited February 24, 2011 by Matt Dennie

[Brandon Whiteside]

It is hard to imagine this with the lack of detail provided, but I will give you my setup as if you were the client and you gave me that scenario. First thing I imagined was night time. A dark solid or lightly patterned background. This will be the easiest way to make the rain visible. Set the item on the table (how about a card table? Nice and equal) covered in duvie (to cut reflections). Since you are doing a dreary day, maybe a rough 2:1 ratio. Although dreary and dramatic I might keep it soft since it its a product shot. Throw up a couple of 4x4s with some grid at a 45 degree angle on either fron side of the product. Put the Key on the Left. Maybe a 1k? Throw a 350w or 650w on the fill, depending on the amount of drama that is required. Throw a hard 2k on a dimmer at the rear of the setup and flag it off from the product. That will highlight your rain against the dark background. Dim it down until your liking, if necessary. Toss another 1k facing the rear of your product. If you don't like the hard light, put some light grid or full grid on it.

 

Shoot it with a lens ranging from an 85-135 (I love doing product stills with the Canon 135mm 2.0L). Shoot at a 2.8-4.0.

 

But hey, one different thing could change it completely.