How I shoot product

I'm pretty open when it comes to my shooting techniques.
Because of the fierce competition in our profession many professional photographers keep their secrets close to the chest. Others get insulted when another photographer takes influence or copies their work.

Personally I could care less if anyone copies my work because I feel that pretty much everything has been shot before, so really who cares if someone gains influence from your work even if its an exact replica. When it comes to keeping my shooting techniques a closely guarded secret this is another area I really could care less about. I quite enjoy sharing photography knowledge.

(fishing line gone.. )
Let's be honest with the amount of info available online, in seminars, in schools and at Chapters (Barnes and Noble for my American friends) there really are no secrets in the photography game anymore, so why not share them?

Anyways, this post is about the positive and inquisitive emails I have been receiving wondering about my equipment and techniques I used to photography my product work on my last post.

My lighting is all over the place. I use hot lights, ambient and fluorescent but about 60 percent of the time I use strobe. For strobe I use Elinchrom. Everything from RX600, AS and RX Ranger packs and the new Quadra packs.

(shot with hot lights, look at the burn in the top right)
On my lights I typically use umbrellas or medium soft boxes. I also use hard light from reflectors and bounce it off different objects like paper, foam board and or mirrors.

(hot spot is gone with 30 seconds of post production)
I love using mirrors for close up work to bounce light back into my product, especially food. I am always using a color corrector. I like to use fishing line a lot to ensure finicky product is always in the right place like on hand bags. I also use tape and stuffing for clothing

I do not but I should use the Elinchrom fiber optic kit when I am asked to shoot jewelry. My colleague Trevor uses fiber optics and his results are simply mind-blowing.

I almost always use some sort of stylist when I am shooting. Why? Because my strengths are making things look good in pictures, not to make them look good FOR a picture.

(exposure is correct, but the "ticks" above the Fossil logo are reflecting black... So either spend 20 mins adjusting the reflections if its even possible or fix in post)

(3-4 mins and its fixed, with more control)
I do rely on post production to make the images stronger, but I do not alter the reality with my postproduction techniques. My post is mainly for controlling reflections and dodging and burning.

Hope this answers a lot of questions people may have.