Photo Credit: © Chris Collins Styrofoam hills and lots of produce went into this set. Strobes simulated early morning sunlight and a smoke machine added a touch of aerial haze.

To create this photo, we had to build a field of fruit and vegetables as far as the eye could see—in my studio, within the space of maybe 100 square feet, give or take. The picture would be used in trade ads promoting Syngenta, a company specializing in solutions to enhance crop production. First assistant on this shoot was Leon Carter, with Leila Sutton as producer.

Martin/Williams Advertising's Susan Arens, art director, and Lisa Crawford, art producer, handed me a rough layout that planted the seeds for the shot. Essentially, what the agency was looking for was a hilly countryside filled with produce—a virtual cornucopia consisting of fruit and vegetables of virtually every color, shape and texture.

So we needed two things for starters: the edible element being one, and a hilly set being the other. Our food stylist, Dyne Benner, combed gourmet shops to supply what we needed. Mark Borow of PropArt built the foundation for the set out of Styrofoam blocks, shaping them into rolling hills that were mounted onto three tables behind the immediate foreground. In all we had four tables, each 2 feet deep and gaining in width toward the back, where it was 8 feet wide. Then we moved the tables relative to each other and the camera (which was locked down) as I viewed the set on the groundglass, so that we'd have what appeared to be a contiguous landscape. When done, we had our set in forced perspective. I tilted the lensboard on the 4 x 5 Toyo View (with 90mm Schneider lens) downward, holding focus from front to back. This was a single capture on a Phase One P45 back.

The next step involved populating the landscape with our produce. Because this was a hilly countryside and many of our items were round, we had to secure them to the set. That meant sticking wood skewers into the Styrofoam at the bottom of each hill, with a line of fruit impaled at the other end of the skewers, thereby creating a retaining wall. The "yellow brick road" of pecans, along with the adjoining hilly embankment of tomatoes, helped establish continuity front to back. Producing this set, top to bottom, took about a week.

We used real melons for the hills in the foreground. And we added a sprig of broccoli (hanging off a wire armature to the side) just out of focus—all of that for an enhanced sense of depth. And to lend this sunrise shot even greater verisimilitude, we needed a subtle drop of early morning haze, so we brought in a smoke machine, using it very sparingly.

I should point out that we actually only had half the set filled with edibles. The rear half of each table (behind the immediate foreground) was digitally replicated in perspective by Mark Caparosa.

We now had the set, but one thing was missing. I always carry my Canon G9 with me, anticipating a grab shot that I could later incorporate into one of my composites. And as I left home for the studio one morning, to continue work on this image, I noted that this particular sky would fit perfectly here. Back in the studio we hadn't finalized the background, but did add a pale blue seamless backdrop to our set, expecting to drop something in later. We now had that missing element.

The shoot itself took two days. In theory, one light should have served as our "sunlight." But since our set was spread out over several tables and due to its complexity, we needed each of the back tables to receive a more or less equal blast of light. That translated into three main strobes, each gridded, from the left side lined up with each table—all Speedotrons, and each on a separate 2400 w/s pack at full power. For the true sunrise effect, each head was gelled with a half CTO. That left the foreground melons and broccoli, and for that we had a snooted light, also coming in from the left. We set this light to 800 w/s, again with a half CTO, to complete our simulated sunlight. All these lights hung low on the horizon.

When you're recreating an early morning landscape, you have to be watchful of the lighting. It's not simply sunlight. There is also an element of skylight. So for our skylight, we bounced a couple of heads off the ceiling, flanking the set from left and right, each appropriately gelled with a half CTB. We also had goboes and scrims selectively controlling the lighting. More to the point, the green and yellow apples (middle ground, left) were receiving too much light, so we had to screen out some of that light. We still needed one more light—specifically a small spotlight on the cucumbers and green peppers. We positioned this head right above the middle 2400 w/s head from the left side.

We now go from the extraordinary to the unexpected in this shot for New Jersey Life magazine. The story was about five famous dogs from New Jersey, each a "show" dog in its own right—hence the theatrical setting. We worked with AD Tim Baldwin (B&G Design Studios) to fashion this concept. First assistant was Weston Wells.

We began with one row of five seats that we rented from a theatrical prop house and digitally duplicated the others, shooting entirely in studio. We worked with each dog individually, each photographed in its respective seat. While the animals were very well trained and extremely cooperative, it always helps to have the owner and trainer on set and behind camera, to get the dog's attention. Thanks to that help, we didn't need more than an hour with each canine, if that, though we built in some wiggle room and booked each for two hours.

For our lighting, we started with four 1200 w/s Speedotron heads, each gridded and attached to a horizontally positioned Polecat, which was supported by hi-boys—at the back of the set. This added accent lighting to the dogs and provided rimlighting on the chairs. In addition, we had two 2400 w/s heads flanking the row of chairs on which the dogs sat, one head from each side, bouncing into the ceiling for overall fill. And to soften the contrast, we created a virtual wall of foamcore surrounding the camera position.

We also had a 400 w/s head with a diffuser as a frontal light for the dogs, which also added catchlights in the eyes. This light was kept in one position and angled respectively at each dog in turn. The popcorn was part of the overall shot (sans dogs), with a tight snoot hitting it from the right, from 6 feet up. In all, five shots went into the final composite. The movie projector light is actually an effect added in post.

Tech Tools

Camera: 4 x 5 Toyo View with Schneider lens; Canon PowerShot G9 Digital back: Phase One P45 Lights: Speedotron Accessories: Rosco smoke machine

Chris Collins operates out of the Flatiron District in New York City, and specializes in commercial problem solving and conceptual still life for advertising.