Well the practice lighting shots I did, were fun and can be done with a very inexpensive light setup. Equipment I used: 1) Photo Flood lamp with 12" reflector 2) 1 Lt Blue Poster board 3) 1 Card Table 4) 1 Cardboard Box (lights came in) 5) Reflector (could use white poster board) 6) 1 - Black piece of poster board The whole setup if you did not have any of it would set up back less than $100.00 Here is my stage (please don't laugh)

Here is the light stand with an umbrella. For the apple shot, I did not use an umbrella, and I used a flood lamp (see next picture). Tonight I played with lighting with 2 flashes. One on camera and one flashing into umbrella as shown here. I did not get as good a shot, as my experience with this type of setup is nil.

Here is a picture of the light I used in the apple shot. This light had a 500 watt photo blub in it. I also did not use the umbrella.

Now for the details. The apple was placed as shown on the 1st photo. The flood light was mounted on the light stand shown above, without the umbrella. The flood light was placed between 60 and 80 degrees of the apple. A while reflector was held by my daughter to reflect light back into the shadow side of the apple. My lovely wife held the black poster board to the side of the flood light. This created the shadow you see against the background that really makes the apple pop! Camera was mounted on tripod. Here is the results again. Not bad for such a simple and cheap setup.

thank you for showing your setup Randy, you know i was really curious!!
thinking of possible ideas now
handy to have people around to hold the reflectors! :]
makes me want to experiment too & read up some more on umbrellas & such
sure beats dragging everything over to my balcony doors & waiting for daylight,
or using the "bathroom studio" where the most indoor light is & using wrinkled material for backgrounds ;o)

Looks like things I try. I have 2 of those projector screens we used to watch slides on. I set them up and use the flash on a tripod to bounce the light from them. Have an old roll up blind that is white and it makes some good background. Thinking of painting it a pastel colour now.

here cyn......this might help...

...looks vaguely familiar... ;l

AWESOME shot there Randy!!!! and no way would i laugh at your studio! i want one!!!!!!!!!! thanks for showing us! makes me wanna read more about umbrellas and stuff too!

Hey Randy!
I'm not laffin at all! In fact this just goes to show that we don't have to go out and buy ALL kinds of expensive photo equipment to get some REALLY GREAT Images!

Now I just gotta make some room down in my dungeon...I mean basement! (LOL)

Thx for the behind the scenes look-see!

Joe

Thx for showing this - always nice to see how it's done :)

Man, this look pretty hi-end...don't know if I can afford to get into this kind of awsome product photography. ;]

Dungeon, Joe? I'd like to see that! ;) This really helps, Randy. I tried using a make-shift set up at home and didn't get it right at all. The poster board is a great idea and it really made the photo work. I'll have to do some more experimenting. My flood light happens to be a little book light by my bed. Yeah, I'm pretty low-end right now. That's why all my images are of outside things. :) And I'm not laghing at all! I love to see how people do things, especially when they work so well. :)

Yo!! Very cool!!! Thx so much for sharing this Randy!! I find this extremely interesting and inspiring!!!

Cool stage. I especially like the use of the box. :-)