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.
Description: Nikon D610 Review: Day 6 - Keurig: Shooting the World's MOST Popular Coffee Maker (Product Photography with a Single Softbox)
Rating: 3.5
Reviewer: LAMPSOLS
ItemReviewed: Nikon D610 Review: Day 6 - Keurig: Shooting the World's MOST Popular Coffee Maker (Product Photography with a Single Softbox)
Posted by LAMPSOLS
Posted on 1:00 AM
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Nikon D610 + 50mm f1.8G + Window Light @ f1.8
As I continue with my review of the Nikon D610, I've been shooting as many different situations as possible to thoroughly put the D610 through it's paces, and I'd be remiss if I didn't do a natural light shoot with my favorite Nikon lens, the amazing little Nikon 50mm f1.8G.
Nikon D610 + 50mm f1.8G + Window Light @ f1.8
The Nikon D610 has an amazing sensor, capable of incredible detail, color depth, and dynamic range. The Nikon 50mm f1.8G is perhaps the sharpest lens Nikon makes, not to mention the fact that it also delivers wonderful color and contrast. Pair the two of them together, and you've got a match made in heaven.
Nikon D610 + 50mm f1.8G + Window Light @ f1.8
The Nikon 50mm f1.8G just squeezes out every possible bit of goodness that the D610's sensor can deliver. Shot wide open at f1.8, it's razor sharp and delivers a wonderfully thin depth of field.
Nikon D610 + 50mm f1.8G + Window Light @ f1.8
The 50mm f1.8G is also a wonderful lens on DX cameras like the Nikon D7100, D5300, and D3300 too, where it's field of view is effectively 75mm in 35mm equivalence. Considering the old school favorite for portraits has always been an 85mm lens on 35mm film cameras, the 50mm f1.8G's effective 75mm FOV on DX makes it a perfect portrait lens for the crop sensor bodies.
Nikon D610 + 50mm f1.8G + Window Light @ f1.8
Put the 50mm f1.8G on the D610 with it's full frame FX sensor though, and the depth of field becomes even less, making it a wonderful lens to work with for out of focus backgrounds.
As an added bonus, with the 50mm f1.8G being so fast and allowing so much light into the D610, the AF just shines. It's faster, snappier, and almost seems instantaneous. Bear in mind, with a small lens like the Nikon 50mm f1.8G, the elements are smaller, weigh less, and the lens has to move very little to focus. Add all these to the fact that it's a fast f1.8, and you can see why the AF seems super fast with the 50.
Nikon D610 + 50mm f1.8G + Window Light @ f1.8
All of the photos here are shot with available, all natural light, no speedlites or strobes. Just the bay window in my living room, the Nikon D610, and the amazing Nikon 50mm f1.8G.
Nikon D610 + 50mm f1.8G + Window Light @ f1.8
The images with the darker brown colored backgrounds are just my living room wall out of focus behind Lilly. The images with the whitish grey backgrounds are a piece of white MDF board propped up a few feet behind the girls.
Nikon D610 + 50mm f1.8G + Window Light @ f1.8
The Nikon D610 just becomes a new animal with the Nikon 50mm f1.8G on the front of it. Together, they are like an unbeatable skating team, each relying on and complimenting the other, so that together they make some absolutely beautiful.
There are a lot of other nice prime lenses out there, both from Nikon and other 3rd party manufacturers, but I don't think anything can touch the Nikon 50mm f1.8G for performance and price. Simply put, it's unbeatable.
A special thanks to my two amazing models, Lilly and Ella, my two beautiful girls. Lucky for Daddy, they don't mind helping me out by posing for some pictures once in a while. :-)
Stay tuned for more on the Nikon D610 as I continue my on-going review!
Day 3 with the Nikon D610 and I’m thinking it’s time to shake it up a bit. I was going to grab a couple of speedlite softboxes, but then I saw my gridspots lying there and thought it would be fun to play with them.
And, it just so happened the Mrs. had my cordless drill and a couple of other tools lying around after assembling a dresser from Ikea, which gave me an idea. Why not do some shots with the tools using hard lighting from the grid spots on a couple of speedlites?
Let’s have a look at the set-up. (click on any of the photos to see larger version)
Nothing fancy here. I just cleared off my coffee table, moved it away from the couch for some seperation, and started playing.
Camera left, I've got a speedlite with a grid spot on it atop a Manfrotto Nano stand.
Camera right, there's another speedlite firing into a piece of foam core that I'm using as a reflector.
Here's a close-up of the speedlite with the gridspot attached via velcro strap. You can see the wireless receiver between the speedlite and the light stand mount.
Here's another angle showing the gridspot more from the front.
And here you can see the speedlite camera right pointed at the foam core. The speedlite is sitting atop a wireless receiver sitting in a speedlite foot stand.
***Side note: Please don't tell my wife I'm showing you messy photos of our living room :-) ***
This shot is pretty much straight on, and you can see it's a little two dimensional. Probably should've angled the drill a little more for a little more depth of perspective. Still, not bad.
The reflections on the surface of my black coffee table make for a nice effect too.
As far as positioning and lighting details, I'm basically just moving the two speedlites around a bit, as well as repositioning the tools until I get the light and the reflections to look how I want them in the photo.
Power settings on the speedlites haven't changed through-out the shoot as I recall. I pretty much set the speedlite camera left to 1/4 power and the speedlite camera right to 1/8th if memory serves, and then just backed them in and out to finess as required.
The nice thing about using a grid spot on a speedlite is that you get a pretty controlled, focused beam of light that allows you to control where the light is hitting your subject.
If you haven't played around with grid spots on your speedlites, I heartily recommend you give it a try. You can get some pretty nice effects from them, and it's just plain fun!
The Nikon D610 performed admirably in this type of studio style shoot, as did the 24-85mm kit lens. In fact, I think the the D610 is well suited as a studio camera. With it's rich, full-frame, 24 megapixel sensor, it delivers very detailed, very nice images with plenty of latitude for post-processing.
Continuing on with my visit to the Beachville Museum with the Nikon D610 on Day 2 of my Nikon D610 review, it was time for some a little bonus fun. I always love playing around with speedlites because it's more often than not what you don't light that makes an image interesting. :-)
I found these old Singer sewing machines interesting, probably because they reminded me of the one my Mum used to have when I was kid. They also made for some neat shadows when I played around with the direction and angle of the light from the speedlite.
The hat on the hat stick was a nice rich color and made for an interesting shot. I'm sure it has a proper term, but as I'm not aware of it, I'll refer to it as a hat stick for now :-)
The speedlite adds some dramatic effect to the shot above. I'm holding it in my left hand, as far out as I can reach, firing high and angled downward from camera left.
My Dad used to build remote control airplanes like these when I was a kid, so these brought back memories too. Lit pretty much the same way, with a speedlite held out in my hand camera left.
The planes were a fun subject to try for just the right angle for both the lighting and the over-all image. I played around with quite a few variations.
We have an old doll similar to this one that was my Mum's when she was a child. My two girls play with it now, although I've always found dolls like this a little creepy looking. I was able to add to the creepy look with some nicely angled lighting from the speedlite.
Same again with this doll. I was envisioning some kind of horror movie look, perhaps remembering Chuckie or something similar from my teenage years. You can do a lot with a single speedlite, and I like the effect here.
Obviously one of the BIG advantages of using off-camera speedlites is that you can keep your ISO down, making for over-all image quality. Contrast is better. Color is better. Pretty much everything is.
Granted the Nikon D610 can shoot comfortably at ISO 6400 without any significant hit to image quality, but you still get better results lower down, and when you add off-camera lighting, you have the power to create whatever look your imagination dreams up.
Over-all, I'm really enjoying my time with the Nikon D610. It's a very nice camera that delivers top notch image quality. Auto focus is good. Ergonomics are good. Usability is excellent.
Stay tuned for more as I continue my on-going review of the Nikon D610!
Description: Nikon D610 Review: Day 2 - Off-Camera Speedlites at the Beachville Museum Pt2
Rating: 3.5
Reviewer: LAMPSOLS
ItemReviewed: Nikon D610 Review: Day 2 - Off-Camera Speedlites at the Beachville Museum Pt2
