Fastest method to take 1000 plus photos

M

malraff

Suspended / Banned
Messages
15
Name
malachy
Edit My Images
Yes
hi all

for the clearance part of our website i want to be able to add product images very fast, i have 3 images per product - large med and small.

In the normal part of the website, i take a photo of the product in a light box and then cut out the image from the background in photoshop - this is fine and the quality is good as i wanted a pure white background but slow.

so i need a clean fast way to photo lots of products and do away with the photoshop cutting to add lots of clearance items, i can sacrifice some of the quality here, i was thinking of some sort of long white marble type surface that i could set the product on and would allow me to simply photo and crop and resize the image,

can anyone advise on a setup that they use for similar results?

www.meteorelectrical.co.uk is our website to see the type of products i am chatting about!
 
A piece of white card or paper curved up against a 90 degree vertical edge will give you a nice clean background with no "line" where the surfaces meet.

Camera on a tripod.

Put the product on, click the shutter. Repeat x1000.

Open in your favourite image editing program, crop/resize/export each one. If you can get the product images to be within a certain region each time, you can probably write a batch export script to do it even faster.

Done!
 
shoot like syx says but either shoot tethered or import into lightroom after (just get the pics to lightroom)

then process image 1 just how you like it (levels curves ect) then sync the settings over the lot, it will also export all images to 3 size jpegs in 3 folders (or one folder but labeled small medium large ect) if you ask it to
 
the prob with paper is its a little to dull, i have a few decent white light bulbs but the room in general is poorly lit, which is why id like some other material

i like the sound of lightroom ***, so i must have a look into that as well
 
david1701 said:
then process image 1 just how you like it (levels curves ect) then sync the settings over the lot
Click to expand...

Didn't know that LR did that - shows how much I know about the software I use! :lol:

If you've not got much light, get a desk lamp pointed at it and put a sheet of baking paper or tracing paper between it and the subject to act as a diffuser.
 
daft idea
two people could do the job in half the time....:rules:
 
could try something like this if it is quick and simple you want

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?moduleno=229132

n60gu.jpg
 
You really need to get the lighting spot on, get it right in the camera and then batch re-size the original into 3 smaller sizes.

I'd probably look at getting the lighting spot on, then fill the frame as much as possible with the item. Then in Photoshop or Lightroom re-size the images, sharpen and save into specific folders.

Like you say, to chop the background and then do the re-sizes is too slow!

Carl.
 
do cameras in general allow you to specify the image size? eg 400pixels by 400 pixels?
 
malraff said:
do cameras in general allow you to specify the image size? eg 400pixels by 400 pixels?
Click to expand...

Yes most SLR images will allow some flexibility on the image size but not too sure if they will go down to 400 x 400

If you use software such as lightroom then you can do a batch export and select the desired size to export to. Once the images have been tidied up then you would just need to export 3 times for the different sizes. You could even rename the batches say which one is the small med and large etc
 
iv just found a copy of aperture, is this anything like lightroom ?
 
couldnt say really, its been years since i used Aperture. Suppose the best way to find out is load it up and give it a shot
 
yea just doing so, but ive never used lightroom before either, must look about a trial !
 
malraff said:
iv just found a copy of aperture, is this anything like lightroom ?
Click to expand...

They are very similar, each has a few features that the other doesn't. LR has been updated more recently. I moved from Lightroom 2 to aperture 2 because it integrates so well with the rest of the Mac OS. Plus I have MobileMe (Apple's web/sync/gallery solution) so I can have pictures of my kids up on the web for my family to see with only a few clicks.
 
malraff, if you shoot canon you can remote tether the pc to the camera with a usb cable and supplied software, then batch output the files at whatever resolution you require.

Shoot on a product table like this and set a flashgun/head underneath it to light it up
 
just hope aperture does what i need then! that will save me a lightroom purchase then!

Sounds good regarding the canon to,

cheers all for input so far!
 
i already have a light box, but i always find it difficult to get the back cloth smooth enough so no wrinkles etc show up with shadows etc!! plus i need the cloth to be white and it gets dirty very easy, i use it currently but i am cutting the image out of the background after so it has no effect on my product images!
 
You can use a piece of white stiff card, or a white wall tile if you're just getting the base - no wrinkles then! White card is also extremely cheap to replace if it gets dirty, and tiles just wipe clean :)
 
i used our ikea bread board..its white polypropylene and set it up against some books for a back drop to antique photography..its not reflective sort of and gave an acceptable background...i have 4 so i could have made up a little box but the cropping got rid of the dross i didnt want
you got some job ahead of you old chap
good luck

 
I just use one of these, then batch process the levels to get a white background

softboxlighttent.jpg
 
some good ideas ! i would not be worrying so much if it was just 1000 products, but 3 months later there could be another 1000 !! so obviously a good system setup now will mean less pain down the line!

im seeing batch process pop up alot so i must look further here to (im a newbie in the world of photography as you will already of guessed- well apart from what iv already on the website!)

with a batch process could i say take all photos in folder A resize them and output them into folder B with the same filename tagged with medium or small etc?
 
Lightroom has one big advantage it's web module. From one image it'll make a small medium and large image.

Simply import your images into LR. Then go to WEB module. Click on the export button and tell it where you want the images to be saved i.e Web.
It'll then process the images.

When done, got to the folder you named earlier. Open it and go to the folder labelled "bin". Open this and you'll find another folder "Images". Inside this are your images stored neatly in folders labelled Large, Medium, Small, and Thumbs

"Simples" as a certain Meercat would say
 
Sorry for going off topic, but wouldnt you already have pictures of them on your website if there clearance ?

Best idea is the white paper/card tethered to your computer.
 
i would set up a master folder
then 3 sub folders..A B C
then put the stuff in the 3 according to size
if you want to transfer the whole kit then you transfer the master folder

its going to be big !!
 
you could give faststone image resizer a try. this is a free download www.faststone.org and you can crop, resize, rename etc.. in a batch format, no problem. i used it for all my images in my gallery on this forum, so that the longest edge was 800p on each.

it does have a few limited tools for editing too - defo worth a bash!
 
great stuff

the clearance items are liquidised stock etc that we buy and don't normally sell - so i wish i was going mad but unfortunately not this time lol
 
forgot to say welcome and hope you stay..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top