Beginner and Taking Effective Product Shots

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BrianCorbett

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Hi there,

I am totally new to photography. I have pretty basic equipment being a £200 5mp Digital Camera and photoshop. What I am trying to achieve is good pictures of hair pieces so that I can remove the background out of them. Can anyone give me some advice. Also, trying to achieve the same lighting, distance and angle between each of the photographs I am taking. I would like to achieve this as cheaply as possible because I am just setting up a new business.

Thanks in Advance
 
removing the background should be relatively straightforward if you set up a self coloured background, try using a white sheet or something and light it seperately to give you some decent contrast. Use the magic wand and lasso tools in photoshop, although depending on the hair pieces it could be fiddly work.

Setting up the same conditions should be pretty easy. Presumably you're using a dummy for placing the hair pieces? If so leave it at exactly the same position for each shot and set up your camera on something solid and don't move it. I'm assuming you don't have a tripod but you could pick up a cheapy out of jessops or ebay which would probably do the job. It would be a considerable help.

For lighting try using spotlights, table lamps, whatever you have. You will probably end up with a colour cast in the shots which you can correct in photoshop. Use your camera's RAW option if it has it, it will make this type of processing a bit easier.
 
Hi Dod,

Thanks for you reply. The hair pieces are extensions so they don't really work on a dummy, I'm currently hanging them on a hook out of the wall for the pictures. I was thinking of getting a green or blue backing sheet so that the photoshopping is easier (because it's a nightmare).

I'm not sure about the RAW option, what does this do?

Thanks Brian
 
BrianCorbett said:
I'm not sure about the RAW option, what does this do?
Click to expand...

Just a different file format, don't worry about it. What camera is it and I'll check it for you.
 
Thanks Dod,

Not sure if it's any good. Fujifilm Finepix F47.
 
There are numerous ways to change the bg in a shot, but I have to say that fine stray hairs in a shot are one of the biggest photoshop challenges you can have to change a bg effectively and not lose those very fine hairs. It is do-able, but it's very slow painstaking work.

If that's likely to be a problem for you, I'd strongly recommend that you spend the time getting the bg right when you take the shot, saving yourself a lot of time and frustration later. :)
 
Not my first choice but you need to work with what you've got :D

Right, no RAW, only JPEG so set it to maximum quality/resolution. Official site is stressing how good the flash is but with extensions hanging off the walls I'd think you're going to have shadow problems. Maybe not, probably worth a try to see how it goes but I'd be sorely tempted to seperate the extension from the background.

You can choose the white balance which is just an adjustment for the type of lights you're using. If it's normal 60/100W bulbs choose incandescent, if you're using a mix just experiment.

It looks like you've got to choose the "mode" via picture icons or menu. Probably get some disagreement here but I'd probably go for "portrait", I'm assuming again that it will use a bigger aperture but could be wrong. Again, experiment.

Best of luck :)
 
Buy a really large ( biggest you can buy ) peice of white cardboard. Then set it up inside a kitchen chair. This will give the cardboard a curve to it like a half moon. THen set up a light above and below the camera without any shades round the bulb. Make sure the bulba are behind the front of the lens. Then hang the extentions off a coat hanger or something poking through the cardboard. Spot meter off the extentions not the background.

The curve of the card should reflect light removing some shadows. And you can play around with the WB to make the background white and get the real colours in the extentions. Because the exposure is for the extentions you'll loos any detail in the card and it will be invisible.

Well that's what I'd try anyway :)
 
Borrow a tripod, set up a background, separate the hairpieces from the background (get some distance between them, like 2 feet minimum), side-lighting (window) on one side, a (D-I-Y) reflector on the other side to open up shadows and get the texture and subtle details to be visible. Do long shutter times (at low iso) using the selftimer to prevent camera shake. Do test shots. When you're happy with those you do bracketed sequences of each hairpiece to give yourself some choice afterward.

Have fun!
 
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