Product Photography

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johnso_m

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Mark
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Hello everyone,

Firstly can I say what great forums these are. Already found a lot of useful info which I'm using for my landscape/hobby photography.

At work, we're having a new website developed to show off our products and I thought I'd have a go at taking photo's of the products myself - This didn't work out as easy as I planned!

Does anyone have any tips/suggestions on taking nice product photographs (i.e. white background type of thing) that I can use - preferably without spending a fortune?
 
What products? What size? Post an example?
 
I'm sure the website was a substantial investment, typically the ongoing product photography would need an even greater investment. john
 
here are 2 examples that may help





two different lighting and backdrop techniques used, both taken around f/10 with a shutter speed of 1/60th and a hotshoe mouted flash with swivel head
:)
 
I spent a lot of my early life doing product shots for catalogues.
It is far from easy and there is no one size fits all method.
It is one of the most challenging of all professional areas.
After a few years you have learnt the basics of most of the techniques.
 
Terrywoodenpic said:
I spent a lot of my early life doing product shots for catalogues.
It is far from easy and there is no one size fits all method.
It is one of the most challenging of all professional areas.
After a few years you have learnt the basics of most of the techniques.
Click to expand...

:agree:

Hi Mark
I would suggest a book called Light: Science and Magic: I do golfing stuff and this book really helped :thumbs:
 
For small items, a light box would allow you to get a white background quite cheaply, especially if you make your own!Linky. Off camera flash is needed to make the most of it though. And id recommend two for even and more controllable lighting.
 
Small, table-top stuff then.

The equipment side is easy enough. If you want clean white backgrounds straight out of the camera then you'll need a light table with a transluscent top that you can light from underneath. You need to get the balance of top and bottom lighting just right, probably one light underneath and a couple with a choice of light-shaping tools on the top. You can get a small light table for under £100. Set of lights £500 upwards.

If a bit of very light grey tone is okay, plus a hint of shadow for the product to 'sit on' is acceptable, then one of the many light tents or boxes sold for shooting ebay stuff will do the job very cheaply and easily. Cut them out in post processing to get pure white. Might be good enough?

Getting a result that's okay for basic on-line product stuff is pretty straightfoward, but if you want the best quality, every time with different products, it needs a fair amount of skill with a camera and lights.
 
Not sure I agree, the investment in equipment will be so simple

One of the items is translucent, an under-lit light box will give a totally different result to placing it on a white surface

The black shiny objects really need a lot of control of the shape and hardness of the lighting to control both the highlights and the tomes in the blacks, which will make the object look three dimensional

A light tent will just give flat even lighting, and in the above examples, neither need it
 
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