The studio setup, part 1a
by Eki Halkka ( erkki.halkka@kolumbus.fi)

This time we will try to recreate the look and feel of studio product shots in lightwave. We will study different lighting techniques used in real life photography, and their counterparts in LW.
 
 

1. Intro

Here's a photographic dilemma for you: How to take a photograph of a chrome ball in real life?

While studying at Lahti polytechnic us videographers also attended to photography classes, and one of our assignments was to have a shot at this, using christmas tree decoration ball. The task seemed really easy, and we couldn't understand why they gave us three days or something to take this one simple shot...

Well, none of us managed to get a good photo.

Why? Well, chrome balls tend to be reflective. And because of the, umm..., ball-like (DOH!) shape of chrome balls, EVERYTHING gets reflected from them. The lights, the camera, the photographer, the studio. WHOA!

I don't have the actual shots anymore, but I did a LW approximation of them ;-)

Eventually we got quite close to the solution, I will reveal the answer to this assignment in the end of this tutorial - you may come up with it earlier. The ingredients to right answer will reveal themselves along the way.

But before that we have a lot of ground to cover...

This tutorial will quickly go through the basics, and build from there - be patient!
 
 

Next we will hop to layout and load a scene.

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