I dont know if the heading is right or wrong, but one thing i do know is that whoever is working with tiny sticky products i will always be here for you when you need to vent.

Let me introduce this shoot however.  I was contacted by Foxy Foils to do some product photography for their new designs.  The breif was simple

“Make them appear round, shiny and reflective with lots of detail”

So i set out to think about how i was going to do this.  Macro? Light Tent? Perspex shelf – great all things i didnt have.  All things which i should have? Maybe 🙂 only time will tell.

So making my mind up i decide i need a light tent.  Well this i didnt have. So lets break it down.  What is a light tent.

• Seemless white background – Tick
• Light coming from all angles – Tick

Well that solved that issue i just proped up an a3 paper against my coffee machine and held it in place.

Next – lighting!

Overhead octabox as close as i could get it to wrap, plus, plus a ringflash as a fill (however it could have been any source), and some bounce cards around the nail.  Just using plain photo paper worked a treat.  Whats better is i have just made my light tent and the results looks flawless!

Now we needed to put in the tiny product.  When im talking tiny, im talking tiny tiny.  We are talking about 7mm by 10-12mm nail foils.  these are stick on products for girls to wear over their existing nails to give their nails an extra bit of sparkle.  Working my way through many many different rounded objects (ahem) in my apartment i found that a wooden spoon was the best for the job.  Sticking the nails down on the wooden spoon then capting them was perfect!

Some final touching and cutting out in photoshop and we were done.  Attached are some setup, bts and final product shots.

Just goes to show with a little thought, gear isnt always the answer.