It’s always fun to take a peek behind the curtain an see how things are done. Sometimes I forget to grab a shot of my setup, but I’m working on getting better about remembering.

Last week I wrote a post that needed a combination of photos and screenshots. So I headed over to my in-house studio (actually the third bedroom that doesn’t have a renter right now) and set up under the window.

The subject was a fancy USB cable, and I wanted two shots. One by itself and another on a note book.

The setup was about as dead simple as you can get. I put a cutting board on top of a Adorama box near a window. The first shots were ok but the backlighting was just a bit too strong.

The solution was just as simple. I propped up a piece of white foamcore to use as a reflector. It was low enough to not interfere with my shooting angle but bounced enough light to soften the shadows.

The next shot took a bit more work. I wanted to show the cable plugged into my phone and camera. Here’s the final version.

At first I tried my desk. I thought the keyboard would make a good prop due to the article’s topic. I tried several setups using my desk lamp, window light, flash, and a combination of all of them. Have a peek at the ugly, the note are in the captions.

That last one isn’t too bad, but the cutting board background works better. It’s a nice organic contrast to the high tech phone and camera and it ties all the photos in the article together.

PS, I did buy a neutral gray desktop on purpose! In case you were wondering.

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