Best material for a black product table

arad85

arad85

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Andy
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Hi all,

I need to take some product photos against a black background on a product table. The products are effectively 2 dimensional, so it's not about making light bounce off them in interesting and alluring ways - I'm just after the best starting position for post processing.

I currently have a velour style material which reflects some light in places, but I want to know if there is anything that is better. Yes, I can drop the blacks in post, but I'm willing to spend a little to make this a lot easier with less post. An unprocessed example of what I might take is:

P1000303-800.jpg
 
Black velvet, with the nap brushed so that it is all in t he same direction, is the only material that comes close. Imitation velvet is a waste of time.
 
Garry Edwards said:
Black velvet, with the nap brushed so that it is all in t he same direction, is the only material that comes close. Imitation velvet is a waste of time.
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Yo da' man... as I'm told the kids say these days Garry....

I only need 3 metres of it, so I'll get ms arad85 (it's her products and she buys lots of material so...) to investigate.
 
Sheet of matt black stuff(any old black stuff) place item on a (matt black both sides) board slightly smaller than the item so the edges don't show, place the board on a matt black tin or something that lifts it about 9" odd, above the black stuff but out of sight.

Works with unglazed bisc tiles Andy:thumbs: so should work well with fabrics.

I keep meaning to make a black box, opposite of a light tent I suppose) just for this 'floating in black' effect.
 
Thanks Steve, I'm just as often doing 3D things from the front though, so I need something that is both easy to setup as well as goes up the back of the product table. See this as an example (what you can see behind the bag is the slope away of the product table):

P1000298-800.jpg
 
What I should have made clear is that I shoot down onto the produst from about 45degrees, with the product 'side' facing the lens. So the near side is nearest the focal point and the product looks larger that side. I then rotate the image which presents it the right way up but looks as if it was shot upright from the side. The lighting is flattered and easy to play with and the product seems to float in mid black air. I'll try to put up a shot tomorrow to explain what I mean Andy, I'm crap at explaining stuff.
 
Hope I sussed that out this time, what a game I have uploading images in a post:bang:

This is a crap photo Andy but it is shot on a flat surface, looking down from above at an angle of about 45 degrees and raised up off the crappo surface about 6/9".
This allows you to show a bit more dimension and light the underside/side if you want. I stuck that cleaner bottle in just to show the orientation before rotating the shot and the height off the background. As I say, it makes my tiles look a bit more interesting and the black background is easy with any old crap paper etc, plus I just like that angle of view.


Just a thought:)





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Nicked wife's old night dress case:naughty:
 
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Thanks Steve. Yes I see what you mean - you mention rotating the image... do you mean perspective transform or just rotation to get it level? Would you mind posting the original image before any processing has been applied (now you have sussed out image uploading ;))
 
What a bloody performance, I don't think you can upload a cr2 file to this thing. hope this is the same file Andy. All i did to it was rotate and align a bit better.



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What is the idiots guide to uploading images on here!!
 
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This was a bit easier...



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This may be a better example Andy, to get this shot without having to fix the tiles to something and al lthe space that would take up in my studios, I do this...



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The tiles are laid flat and not grouted(so what?) a lump of worktop is stood up aligned and aimed with good looks and boyish enthusiasm, I then balance and stick stuff in the shot to spruce things up, then once I've shot it, I rotate level and b****r about with it in dpp. I cannot abide anything photoshop and can't/won't use it.

Blue tack and gravity are my friends here:love:
 
Thank you very much - so much easier to understand when you see the original. Very clever with the tiles :)
 
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