I had an entire week without internet recently and was forced to do something other than my ordinary routine of browsing the web. Simultaneously, I had access to a spare tire sitting around in my living room. I used the opportunity to put together a couple of images that you can see below.

The first photo is meant to be a commercial representation of the tire showcasing the logo. The lighting was fairly simple: One Alien Bee 800 strobe providing the main light from behind and to the right of the camera. I also positioned my speedlight directly to the left of the tire as a spot-light on the lettering.

The reasoning behind the lighting seemed somewhat obvious to me as soon as I had a mental image of what I wanted it to look like. I knew that the strobe would create enough light to be used as the main and would create soft shadows, especially with a small lightbox attached. The speedlight, hitting the rubber directly, would generate some nice highlights to emphasize the logo. After seeing what my initial setup produced, I simply made small adjustments to lighting power and location. Part of the reason that it seemed simple was the material I was shooting. The rubber of the tire has very little texture on the tread but a lot of texture along the side. Hard light coming from the speedlight combined with the textured text created very nice contrast. Finally, the black and slightly reflective traits of the material told me that positioning of the lights would be important – part of this comes from knowing the different types of reflections and how to use your light to take advantage of them.

I want to note the white space at the top. This space is free to be used as I wish. It can remain white or I could place some other content there to help me portray a particular message. One idea is to include a scene of a Nascar pit crew, or just a race track or stands. It delivers the message of speed, performance, and professional quality. How well this can be done will depend on the photographer (or illustrator).

The second image is of the same tire but from a different perspective and with an even more simple lighting setup. The idea behind this was for something more artistic and conceptual. I have recently really enjoyed photography of flowers in black and white and this was my attempt to use a similar style on a very different subject.

What I like most about this photo is the detail of the tire’s surface. This isn’t just limited to the treads but also includes the texture of the rubber itself. I mentioned earlier how the flat part of the tire does not have much texture so I tried specifically to get as much of it as possible. I didn’t use the Alien Bee strobe and instead made exclusive use of the speedlight which I handled without a tripod. I simply hand-held it, lighting the different areas of the tire. I then created a composite of two different photos.

Above, quite clearly, is a picture of a small glass flower. I took this while trying to practice some basics of lighting. The equipment I had on hand was limited to: a small white box with white paper; a LomoPro manual strobe; and an Alien Bee 800 strobe with a reflector. The first thing you might notice about the image is that the subject is directly in the center. Again, I was not attempting to create a masterful composition but was simply testing my light placement and strength. The small LomoPro speedlight was hanging above the flower point slightly behind it, shooting directly into the paper leaving a fairly noticeable brighter section directly overhead. The unevenness of the light is something I did not immediately distinguish and will likely try to avoid were I to have a similar setup. The Alien Bee strobe was placed directly behind the camera, standing roughly two feet above the subject with the head angled down directly at it. This was, primarily to hide the shadow behind the flower after failing in my attempt to eliminate it altogether. There are some shadows still visible near the blue pot which can be addressed in Photoshop.

Speaking of Photoshop, below is a comparison of another image of the very same glass flower but using a 100mm Macro lens. On the left is the natural image whereas the right is the same photo after having been edited.  Other than the typical clean-up one does to remove dust, the main task of the edit was to eliminate the shadow near the right petal. I do not remember exactly how I did this but it was quite likely a series of complicated and not fully thought out steps that required a greater degree of time and effort than necessary. I typically begin by entering quick-mask and creating a selection of the subject. After selecting the inverse, I simply create a new layer of the subject and another layer of the background. I then edit these two layers accordingly.