Creative Flash Photography

Workshop 32

Campari in a Bathtub

▸ How to produce soft surrounding light

▸ Using a bathtub as a light tent

▸ Using Photoshop to create colors that pop

If you want to create a setup that bathes the subject in light, where better to work than in a bathtub? I wanted to photograph some Campari bottles and give them a gaudy, pop art look. I used a bathtub and two flashes to completely bathe the scene in light.

The Setup

A white bathtub is the best location for this kind of setup, but you could also improvise with a bed sheet in a large cardboard box. I used Plasticene to keep the bottles in position and lit them from the sides using two non-TTL YN-460 flashes aimed at the sides of the tub and softened with paper diffusers. I used RF-602 radio triggers ...