Confessions of a Nerdaholic: Sole Collector Air Max Trainer 1s

Before kick starting our traditional Gran Prix weekend in Long Beach, Nick and Aaron came down and wanted to take advantage of the strobist kit by shooting shoes. In case you are not familiar with them, they are complete shoe fanatics. It's amazing how much they know about shoes, it's almost scary. There are times when I giggle to myself when they talk about shoes because it's like watching two "Rainman" reciting their vast database. I swear that if a "Stump the Schwab" shoe edition came out, Nick and Aaron would be the Schwabs.

As a side note, they review shoes for a living. Check them out at f5torefresh.com and solecollector.com

So Nick wanted to experiment with lighting and replicate the pictures featured in magazines. Never working with shoes, I figured it'd be a fun experience. We used a single SB-600 shooting into an umbrella and staged the shoes using a spare bed sheet laying around the house. The creases in the bed sheet were too distracting and the colors clashed since they were brown. We then used the black canvas bag from my fold-able poker table. On the camera screen, the images seem mediocre and nothing impressive. However, things changed when we saw them on the computer. The textures from the canvas bag that appeared on preview suddenly disappeared when viewing on a monitor. The pictures came out much better than I expected and I have to say that I'm quite satisfied with the results.

Just to prove my ignorance about shoes, I did not have the slightest clue about them. After throwing them around like a rag doll, Nick schooled me and said those are special edition. Sole Collector and Nike collaborated on the shoes featured and there are only 10 pairs in circulation.

Considering the shoes were laying on a piece of black canvas with texture, I can imagine how much better they'll look sitting on velvet or something silky smooth. One thing we realized from this photo shoot is that we need a soft box. Trying to direct the light via MacGyver style is time consuming and mostly ineffective.

For the last picture (below), Nick started to get creative with using flashlights to highlight the transparent bubble. To light the shoes, Aaron used his nifty iPhone and my Palm Pre.