Product photography - glassware & ceramics

[srichards]

I'm looking to be doing some of this in the next few months but don't know the best way to start. I know diddly zip about studio lighting and artificial lighting as most of my photos are taken outside in nice weather....

The only equipment I have so far is a dslr, some lenses and a light cube tent. I haven't invested in lights or any other bits. Is it possible to get decent resuls with natural day light only? My dining room has windows on 3 sides and is quite light on the 4th too so I'm wondering whether it's a natural studio...

What are the essentials to produce good results? They're going to be used on websites so they won't have to be printed 8 feet wide. I don't want to spend any more than is necessary but neither do I want to waste money on anything that isn't going to be a long term reasonable solution. Which areas can you skimp with and which areas do you have to spend the bulk of any budget to get the best bang for the buck you have?

Are there any reasonably priced portable kits that would have a table, lights and background that would work well together?

I did see some fancy plastic cubey thing with a camera slot in the top and a rotating product display with lighting inside that you hooked up to laptop to make 360 degree images. Are these worth investing in? It would be simpler to be able to pop something in a box and press go and obtain consistent and decent quality results every time.... a bit lazy I know!

I also looked on amazon for books aimed at product photography but didn't see any that looked particularly suitable. Are there any good ones?

 

[Garry Edwards]

Is it possible to get decent resuls with natural day light only?

It depends on your definition of decent. Decent exposure? Certainly. Can you get nice clear pictures? Certainly. But can you control the direction and quantity of the light to show the products off at their best? No.

What are the essentials to produce good results?

A means of controlling the size and direction of the light, plus something to act as a product base and/or a background.

which areas do you have to spend the bulk of any budget to get the best bang for the buck you have?

The lighting. Some people are bound to say that you can use table lamps, hotshoe flashes and the like, but to get good results easily, you need at least 2 studio flash heads and a large softbox. Just about everything else can be bodged.

Are there any reasonably priced portable kits that would have a table, lights and background that would work well together?

As long as you avoid the Ebay junk, just about any make will do the job. As you can see from my signature, I'm involved with Lencarta, take a look at their 2 head kitsSome pages are loading painfully slowly, sorry about that the webmaster is working on it.

I did see some fancy plastic cubey thing with a camera slot in the top and a rotating product display with lighting inside that you hooked up to laptop to make 360 degree images. Are these worth investing in? It would be simpler to be able to pop something in a box and press go and obtain consistent and decent quality results every time.... a bit lazy I know!

Well, you'll get consistent results, and it will be easy - but lacking in terms of 'punch'. Punch sells, bland doesn't.

I also looked on Amazon for books aimed at product photography but didn't see any that looked particularly suitable. Are there any good ones?

Click on my 'Photolearn' link and you'll find my still life tutorial - a whole £5.95

 

[srichards]

That's great thanks. I'll have a look at that lencarta gear. The basic kit looks pretty good.

I'll have a shufty at your still life tutorial too

 

[kennysarmy]

Read thiS book
Light: Science and Magic: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting [Paperback]

 

[srichards]

http://www.stevesphotoshop.co.uk/daylight_fluorescent_lighting_set_single_bulb_S25P.html

Tabletopstudio also have similar. http://www.tabletopstudio.co.uk/Pages/Two Lights Set.htm

They both also have flash sets using daylight balanced CFL bulbs....

Being cheap and lazy I was looking at the above to work with the light tent I already have. I have managed to get a light box to use for uplighting so was thinking that and two other continuous lights would be easy to set up and use either with or without softboxes... but would it be better to get one flash head with softbox and do a rim lighting kind of effect by draping a black velvety strip down the middle of the softbox? It's something Lee Frost mentions in his book which I've just got....If I get flash heads then I'll probably need a flash meter to get exposure right but with continuous lighting I wouldn't.

Or the real even cheaper solution would be to get the right kind of cable to use my jessops flash gun off camera to add some directional lighting in another direction.

Cheap flash alternative would be interfit as I've seen some twin head kits for under £200 and they have a portable pair I've seen for £150. Is any old cheap flash gear better than using continuous lighting?