At least that’s what someone told me once, in reference to having lots of them. I suppose so …
I’m personally partial to Nike (I pronate and the LunarGlides are my running shoe of choice). For casual wear I like Vans and Nike Janoski. I did a shot of grey Janokis here and decided to give my off-white ones a go:
I wanted a “Joel Grimes” look so I shot in studio and composited into a background plate I did at the local skate park. Simple rim lighting ala Joel with a kicker for the shoes.
During the same session I shot a pair of women’s shoes (they weren’t my size). I struggled with this, as my original concept of laying them in crinkled black paper wasn’t working. In the end I went for an industrial feel to the setting to contrast with the elegance of the shoes (juxtaposition always works in my book); the base is a type of black sand and the one on the left sits on a piece of aluminum extrusion (now you know why I am loathe to throw anything away). The background I’ve used before, which is the interior of a parabolic umbrella:
It’s always good to have something in the old bag of tricks when struggling with a concept.
The lighting was much more complex for this shot: 2 strip boxes angled to the sides from the front, a small softbox overhead, and a speedlight firing into the umbrella from below. Tone-on-tone images are a favorite way to flex the lighting muscles, showing texture, dimension, and differentiation. Photo graphos. Writing with light.
More to come.