Information Paralysis, The Path of Least Resistance, and Microlearning

Case Study 1: Clayton and his vintage luxury goods company

A former consulting client fictitiously named Clayton for privacy decided to expand his family's vintage luxury goods company online. He enlisted my help with learning how to photograph reflective products. He said he got the best stuff and wants to learn how to use them.

I went to his place and saw his setup and some of the things he got were the stuff of envy. He got a top-of-the-line macro lens, an uber-fancy focus stacking machine, and a carbon fiber travel tripod. Pretty frickin' good...except they weren't.

The lens - Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro lens. Top of the line. It's a SUPERB lens except it "zooms in" to 160mm when used with the camera he has because of the smaller sensor. He has to place the camera further back because of the narrower angle of view which means he now has all the dead space between the camera and the lightbox. Lightboxes "work" by surrounding the product with either a diffusion material or light source thereby practically eliminating the pesky reflections that people generally do not like. Most of them have a small hole for the camera lens so you can "shoot through" it. If your lens is too "zoomed in" and/or the product is too big, you won't be able to photograph the product at least without getting rid of one of the sides which pretty much defeats the purpose of the box. Now everything in front of the product (indicated by the red shaded area) he's photographing is reflecting and showing up in the shots.

The focus stacking machine was the Cognisys StackShot system. I haven't heard of this machine because I've only used manually operated focusing rails. Macro photography can involve close working distances so it's pretty much impossible to get the entire product in focus front to back. Focus stacking is a technique where several photographs are taken focusing at the closest point, the furthest point, and everything in between. A focus stacking software is then used to combine everything into one image. The Cognisys system automates the physical act of focusing which is great especially if you don't have the discipline of moving the gears manually which requires a certain level of fine motor control and some understanding of depth-of-field. The problem is that it's quite expensive at $900 or so. It's also heavier which is not a very good thing when paired with...

The tripod - an unknown carbon fiber travel tripod. I don't know the make or model, but carbon fiber travel tripods are made to be small and light. Small and light tripods are not very stable when you put a lot of weight on the top. A dSLR + premium (aka lots of glass and heavy-duty parts) optically stabilized lens + motorized focusing system = pretty frickin' heavy. Its carbon fiber construction also makes it quite expensive. Such tripods are great for travel when you don't want to carry the extra weight or bulk, but they're not the best option if you're not moving around and you need weight and size (specifically a wider footprint) for stability.

Case Study 2: Marcus and the Golden Hour

This one is super simple. A former client (let's call him Marcus) asked me to accompany him to scout a location. We got to the spot and I made a face while entering the exposure settings on my camera. He asked what the problem was and I said it was dark. He was surprised because he said it "should be good because it's Golden Hour (one hour before sunset in this case) and it's the best time to take photos." I said that it is the case if you're shooting at a wide open space but not in the middle of a bunch of buildings because you're pretty much shooting in the shadows.

Both people are busy small business owners who do not have a lot of time to sift through all the information out there to properly educate themselves on photographic stuff because they have 127 things to do and a bajillion websites, blogs, posts, videos, reels, and other forms of opinions out there. What did they do? They took the path of least resistance.

"What's the best Canon lens for product photography?"

"When is the best time to take photos outdoors?"

Google:

ChatGPT:

YouTube:

They were not exactly doomed, but they had to do more than what they expected. Clayton needed to get additional equipment (stands + diffusion material) AND learn reflection control except he already overspent on the other stuff so a couple of hundred dollars is a stretch. Marcus's location idea would have required lights or a different time of day - not good if he was on a tight schedule or budget.

Microlearning via Google or social media searches is good, but they work best if you ask the right questions or if you already have strong foundational knowledge on the field or even just the topic to discern gaps in the limited information presented.

Luck be in the air tonight. Wait. I thought the song goes, "Luck be a lady tonight?"

*Cover explanation*

Image was taken during the overhyped "Golden Hour." Camera exposure settings were ISO 400, f/6.3, 1/60 sec. I call that dark especially for being outdoors in the open. Just extrapolate what it would have been in the shadows/shade.