Congratulations to Pam Sargeant for winning February's Community Challenge! This was the second of a new line up of monthly challenges for members to challenge themselves in a genre that may be new to them, get creative and photograph something out of their comfort zone!
For February's challenge, the community continued with the theme of product photography and members were challenged to photograph a watch that a company could use for branding and promote their product on Instagram or Facebook.
Once submitted, all images were then posted anonymously on the Fellowships community group on Facebook for other members to vote on. The image that receives the most likes ultimately will in the Community Image Award and be featured as the cover image for the next month within the group.
Pam created this photo of a Sekonda watch and won the challenge this month. Below are a few details on how she captured this image.
How did you come up with the idea and how did you go about creating it.
I had seen an image on the internet by Barry Mountford, only a few days before the theme was announced and thought it would be a great idea to try and create something very similar.
I glued the smaller pieces of slate together and then placed them on a larger sheet over a fish tank, the watch was attached with both blutack beneath and fishing wire to hold it upright.
I lit the whole thing with a CITI300 in a large softbox, this was placed overhead, and I used a small piece of aluminium foil in front of the watch to reflect some light back onto the face.
I used a Speedlight with a Rogue modifier on a small stand behind the set up aimed at a sheet of black card to create the spot of light. My son then poured water onto the slate in various places to create the waterfall effect. I had to blend the layers in photoshop to get the water effect I wanted from 4 different images and added a few water splashes using brushes in photoshop. then it was just a matter of cleaning up the whole image of stray water spots and watch scratches.
What equipment did you use?
I used my Sony A7Riii,
Sony 24-105 F4 lens
A CITI300 Pro studio light from Pixapro
60x90 Easy up softbox from Pixapro
Li-ION570II Speedlite from Pixapro
Rogue 3 in1 flash modifier
What were your settings?
My settings were Manual mode, F10, ISO 100, 1.80sec
How many attempts did it take to get the shot?
I set up the first day and took 230 shots but couldn't get the lighting right on the water.
I then set it all up again and took 187 shots.
It's a good job we're in a digital age.
What advice would you give to those wishing to attempt a similar shot?
Have plenty of patience, towels, and a good assistant.
Website: https://www.pamsargeant.co.uk
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pamsargifts
Great image Pam 👍🏾