Acrylic trophy

First, I intended to put this in the "Product Lighting" category but the dropdown list doesn't get that far.

Perhaps a system operator could take a look at that?</p>

 

<p>Okay, I have a client who makes chocolates, and apparently there's a lot of folks that are interested in hot

chocolates. I don't mean the steaming drink here, I'm talking truffles with habeñero and chipotle and other

incendiary flavors blended in. His "Great Balls of Fire" truffles just took first place in the candy category at

ZestFest 2008, a major event in the world of pain-inducing food products. Feel free to visit his <a

href="http://www.chocolatesbygeorge.com/shop_hot_and_spicy.html">Hot and Spicy</a> page, my shot of the sampler

pack of four truffles shows that I'm getting better at this stuff.</p>

 

<p>So today he came over with the trophy. It's basically a cast acrylic slab, about 4 x 6 x 1.25 inches, standing

on end

on a small black plinth. There is a "gold" chile pepper and some text suspended in the center of the block. The

text was apparently printed on a clear plastic, the type is black. There is some visual interest on the top of

the plinth, but it's minor and I'm assuming we'll want to take the heroic pose here, which won't show much of the

top of the plinth. Besides, the engraved metal piece that will have his name and the category on it hasn't

arrived yet, so we're not particularly interested in playing up that part.</p>

 

<p>I just did a couple of quick searches for photos of similar trophies, and I'm underwhelmed. I know I've seen

some stunning shots in magazines where they were introducing their annual awards, so they had done good studio

shots of the trophies they were handing out, but if those are on the web they don't seem to have references to

acrylic trophy photography in the text!</p>

 

<p>Does anyone have any suggestions, or know of any really great images online that I can refer to?</p>

 

<p>Van

I'd shoot it like any other shiny object. The reflective face(s) should be reflecting a colored surface that provides contrast for the print (type), with a neutral background. If the transparency is to be emphasized, perhaps a trophy-shaped white reflector behind it, such as you would use for a beverage bottle.

 

The book "Light -- Science & Magic" will provide you with lots of info on how to shoot shiny and transparent objects.

 

<Chas>

Put a small light box directly behind it, with a large polarizer (say 18 inch square) over the light box. Then put a polarizer on your lens. I guarantee the acryllic award will get much more interesting...

A polarizer will certainly make the acrylic more interesting. It will reveal all the internal stress patterns in a myriad of colors. Fun, but not very functional for a web site.

 

<Chas>

Black seamless paper roll backdrop behind a table for the shooting platform. Gelled background light from below

(whatever color you prefer, but blue is terrific) directed upward on the paper for a fade from intense color to black.

Place the trophy on the table on black velvet draped over something to elevate the subject for that heroic position you

mentioned. Could be a butter tub or anything else to support it. Slightly turn the trophy to the left and light it with a

large soft box from overhead. Use a large fill card on the left side angled and positioned to kick light into the legend

and the gold pepper. Just be sure you place it to avoid an overall reflection on the face of the trophy, just to kick light

into where it's needed for the print and pepper.

 

Make sure that no light from the softbox spills onto the background and that the two sources balance for your choice

of brightness levels and you should be good to go.

"It will reveal all the internal stress patterns in a myriad of colors."

 

Exactly!

 

"Fun, but not very functional for a web site."

 

Functional?

 

Functional?!?!?!?

 

This particular web site is for a product line called "Great Balls of Fire", hot pepper truffles.

 

I didn't suggest a "fire" themed shoot because I thought it was so obvious that 12 other people would be giving better directions for that than I would. If I could talk the client into springing for more than just an hour or two of studio time, I'd stand an 18 inch square of Borofloat (the "Flachglas" brand equivalent of "Pyrex") up behind the award to protect it, and set a fire behind it. Or project some fire from my stock collection. The award is clear, with black lettering. It would look great against a background of fire.

 

I'd also light it with multiple spots gelled red, orange, and yellow, and probably crank up the fog machine. Then deliberately create some condensation on the award, to get it to look like it was "sweating" from the heat, and to give the spots something to reflect off of. I figure spritzing it onto the edges so that the sweat doesn't mask the central writing.

 

I might also take some of the "exploding habeñero" shots I did recently (pellet gun, laser trigger, etc) and work them in somehow. Heck, I exploded truffles recently for a "bursting with flavor" ad.

Here's a similar trophy I shot recently for one of my clients. It's not quite the same as yours. It's a clear acrylic backed by black plexi. But it does have a very shiny surface with embedded and suspended silver type in the middle and surface silver type at the bottom. It also has a decorative star shaped top which needed to be defined.

 

I used a slightly low camera position to look up at the award and create a "hero" perspective. Surface and background were two pieces of black foil board.

 

Lighting was a single medium 3'x4' softbox overhead as the main light with a second gridded round reflector light making the round glow on the background.

 

Shot with Speedotron Blackline strobes at f/22 on a medium format digital back.<div></div>