Lighting is everything.  Always start with a lighting triangle.  Also each subject should be covered by fill and moderate key light.  Here is an example with a functional lighting setup.

Lighting in ads drive the emotion and the direction of an ad.

The use of unusual photography will often give an ad impact and catch someones attention.  However it fails to connect with advertisers intended message.  Some ads do it better than others.

Here is a link to a photoshop tutorial site that offers a lot of tutorials that complement photographic images with advertising design in mind.

www.tripwiremagazine.com/2009/10/95-great-photoshop-tutorials-to-learn-awesome-photo-manipulation-tricks.html

I like high contrast ads that have a lot of white space.  These ads offer a lot of space for typography.  If applied in moderation the ads are well balanced.

Here are some examples of industrial photography that are on the fantasy side.  These images require a great deal of Photoshop work and image manipulation.

Industrial photography is equally as complex at fantasy photography.  However the artist must find the most interesting elements for a natural subject that people fail to see in their everyday lives.  Here are a few examples.

 

Steampunk is a through back to old time photography and the classic cinema of the 20s and 30s.  It also reminds me of the fantasy world of Jules Verne.

Here is some more fantasy photography that have inspired me just might influence my future photographs and my photoshop work.

One of the reasons like fantasy photography is because it requires a great deal of planning.  Preproduction, production, and post production are all equally critical.  The photographer is essentially building a movie, set preparing the shot,  and finally establishing the mood in Photoshop.  Here are a few more examples.

I enjoy fantasy photography.  When you do a search on the internet for fantasy photography you will get two general categories of fantasy photography.  One genre refers to glamor photography, which i do appreciate.  However,  I'm referring to the more cinematic vein of photography which include punk, make-believe, gothic, steam punk and so on.  Here are a few examples.

Here are some incredible photographs that tell a story.  Each of these photographs were take for National Geographic and Time Life.

One of the thing that I find that helps me when i attempting to take photos is first plan an look for composition.  Second, if you can find a way to take a picture that tells a story.  Sometimes you have to build something from nothing.  In this shot I actually had to build a little set in a ordinary library.

I did learn a great deal from my product shots.  I approached the task as if the toys were people.  I tried to light them the same and I tried to pose them in such a way that I could capture their personality.  In my portraits I primarily used natural lighting.  However, I used a reflector to act as my fill light.  i still have some editing but i think the initial photos came out well.

Here is my second opportunity to shoot some product shots.  Here I used a black backdrop,  a 3 point lighting setup,  and a reflector to set the subject apart from the background.  I really enjoy working with toys.  You really have the opportunity to experiment without the uncomfortable feeling of dealing with a human subject.  I hope the knowledge I take away from my two product shoots will be useful to me when I photograph my model.  I also look forward to editing these photos.

Here are a few product shots from last week.  I plan to edit once I have picked my best shots.   I plan to push the contrast, inhance the lighting and seperate my feature eliments from the background.