I’ve been posting a lot of portrait sessions to the blog. Well, I’m switching it up with photos from a product shoot I did last year. This was for my day job. I occasionally get to photograph some product photography for them. These are ageLOC Galvanic Gels. There is a pre-treatment and treatment ampule and it is used with their Galvanic Spa around the world.
My direction was they wanted the new ampules photographed to match a setup from about nine years ago. I didn’t need to copy, but to be inspired by that shoot. So the style was very grey, white, and black. I bought some front surface mirrors, acrylic surfaces, and we had some acrylic blocks for stands.
These photos are also closer to social media photos. We didn’t need formal photos. We wanted the gels at different angles, layers, and also feature the liquid itself. I had several days to photograph the gels, so I often would revisit some of the setups.
I played with light. This was a chance to get creative. We had 2 color gels and the liquid. So the difference in each photograph had to be the angle, direction, and color of light. I played with some blue gels to help color the background a reflection.
And photographing on a mirror is a huge challenge. I didn’t have a huge budget, so I couldn’t afford a large front surface mirror. If you don’t know, most mirrors reflect at the back of the glass. That means there is a small gap between the item on the mirror and its reflection. So a front surface mirror has the reflection at the top of the mirror, so there is no gap between the gel and the reflection.
Here are more examples of layouts, layers, and organized chaos.
Here we have the black acrylic and the frosted acrylic. Each creates a unique look to the photo. I was definitely a fan of the frosted.
I spent a bit of time cleaning up the scratches on the acrylic blocks. Next time, I want to by new, fresh, and clean blocks. It’ll save so much time!
Similar layout and surface. The difference comes from different lighting. Using spotlights and gels to color or shape the view.
Photographing a clear liquid on a white surface is almost pointless. I figured out a few solutions next time I photograph, including using black objects to create reflections. What I did this time was create the liquid and bubbles entirely in Photoshop. It was a fun challenge and I was able to get sign off cause it looked so real.
If I was to name this photo… it would be angelic choir. It just looks like heavenly lighting falling on a choir of gels.
