What's In My Bag: Product Photography - Church

I got commissioned to shoot for a Teaching Mass at a Catholic Church. This required me to come prepared to shoot the items as they are. I was not going to be moving the items to a prepared location to shoot them. This provides for nice creativity opportunities to make each shot look it's best, but it also means I need to be portable. I decided on the following gear to go with me.

• Camera: Nikon D80
• Lens: 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 G VR
• Flash: SB-600 (w/ Gary Fong Lightsphere)
• Reflector: Photo Basics 5-way Reflector

The whole key here was to make sure I was able to get the shots done right, and get them done quick.  I really only had an hour to work, and a lot of pieces to shoot.  The reflector was good insurance  but I ended up not needing it.  The big thing was monitoring the exposure.  My D80 would get fooled by an open book and I'd have to up the exposure come to +1 to get it exposed correctly.  For instance, check these two shots of the same subject, one closed, one open.

Camera: Nikon D80      

Lens: VR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G

Focal Length: 55mm

Shutter: 1/40

Aperture: f/5.6

ISO: 800

Exposure Comp: -1 2/3

Flash: SB-600 (w/ Gary Fong Lightsphere)

Camera: Nikon D80      

Lens: VR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G

Focal Length: 55mm

Shutter: 1/60

Aperture: f/8

ISO: 500

Exposure Comp: +1/3

Flash: SB-600 (w/ Gary Fong Lightsphere)

Did you see it?  2 stops exposure compensation difference between the shots.  After you learn composition, exposure compensation is the next big thing to learn, and situations like this show just how much your light meter can be fooled.  

In the end, that is what was in my bag, and in this case it worked beautifully.