Lens - Product photographer

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Snappyphotos

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Claire
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Hi All,

I'm Claire, a product photographer based in uk.

I'm new to this forum and instead of trailing the internet looking for answers and advice i thought i would take the plunge in talking and asking others for advise.

I am product photographer and have a Nikon d3300 camera, i was thinking of buying an upgrade but decided against it and i am now going to buy a new lens or 2 instead.

The question is which? I am looking for sharpness and obviously great looking work.

I already have a 35mm, 70-300mm, and a 18-55mm.

So i think my choices are 85mm, 50mm, 105mm and possibly a sigma 24-70mm although I'm not sure about the compatibility of this one yet.

Does anyone have any suggestions or advice? I am going to be dabbling in candid and portrait shooting too.

Thank you in advance

Claire
 
Hi Claire,

As you already have a 18-55mm and a 70-300mm these should help you decide what focal length you prefer. That could help to whittle down the list of possibilities a bit.
 
Snappyphotos said:
Does anyone have any suggestions or advice? I am going to be dabbling in candid and portrait shooting too.
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From my point of view, you already have the equipment you need, unless you're making images for 24 sheet posters.

Why not explain what is frustrating you at the moment? It may be that we can advise you properly then.
 
Well im not sure if its the camera, my distance or the lens...or just me! My focus seems to be temperamental, and the distance i seem to struggle with too (although i may being too hard on myself. I feel like i have to sit on top of the project and products being photographed with my 35mm (and get distortion too) and my 70-300mm i feel like i have to be far far back before i get focus (and i don't have that much room, I'm literally right across a 2/3 m room, and the 18-55mm dosent seem to have the sharpness of the 35mm.
Thank you in advance for your reply.
 
Im really looking for good auto focus with possibility of manual too, sharpness and quality; as a product photographer these are the most important for me,
 
Do you have and use both a tripod and a remote release? A great deal of unsharpness is due to vibration of the camera/lens during exposure.
 
Are you using flash or natural light?
What editing program(s) are you using?
What aperture an SS are you using?
 
Snappyphotos said:
Im really looking for good auto focus with possibility of manual too, sharpness and quality; as a product photographer these are the most important for me,
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Isn’t manual focus the way to go with (presumably) stationary ”product”. I would have thought auto would get confused.
 
Yes i use a tripod and have just purchased a remote, do you think it could be shake from the release when i press? Some of these lens have VR
 
I am using artificial lights in my set up- 2-3 depending on the look i want. SS 1/125, and aperture ranges between f1.8 and f8 depending again if i want the background blurred etc...and lastly my editing program is lightroom and i am just starting to learn photoshop
 
Snappyphotos said:
Yes i use a tripod and have just purchased a remote, do you think it could be shake from the release when i press? Some of these lens have VR
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VR generally needs to be off if the camera is on a tripod.
 
What are the products? If they're small, a macro lens (such as the 105mm mentioned above) might be ideal but for larger products, perhaps not!
 
@sphexx ok i will try this tomorrow thank you for your advise :)
@Nod the products range as i work as a product photographer, so can range from small as tweezers, to candles.
 
There's the 60mm Micro Nikkor as well as the 105mm. Might be better suited to a Dx body than the longer lens.
 
Snappyphotos said:
Thank you but the 2 above are out of my price range really.
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There are perfectly good 3rd party lenses for Nikon ( Sigma/ Tamron) which are usually a lot cheaper
See here https://www.camerapricebuster.co.uk/Lenses , also don't discount used both MPB and Wex , to name but two sell used lenses in various grades with warranties
I am not familiar with your camera but does it have live view? If so that is very useful for focussing in fact when I had a tilt/shift lens it was very difficult to achieve sharp focus without live view.
Also you said you use artificial lights are these Flash, LED or something else
 
Welcome to TP, it's a good place to learn.
Well, I don't know what kind of product photography you do, but your whole approach is a bit unusual . . .
In my experience, nearly all (about 90%) of all normal product photography will be fully covered by your longest lens, and very occasionally you may want to use the 18 - 55mm.
Auto focus is hardly ever used with product photography, simply because we usually need to maximise the available depth of field - which, for all practical purposes, nearly always means shooting at f/11 with an APS-size sensor.

If you really feel the need to spend some more money, it would be better spent on a full-frame camera and - just guessing here - on some better lighting.
 
Which lens do you use most?

If your current lenses are entry level kit lenses, the the more expensive versions may well allow closer focussing and better image quality. Purchases for business have taxable benefits, amongst others.
 
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