Product Photography

htid · 20 Jan 2011

I mainly do wildlife photography, however I work for a small toy company and since I've gotten into photography I've been taking product photos. The setup is very basic:

Nikon D5000
18-200mm 3.5-5.6
A fabric white "box" to put the products in when taking
Standard fluorescent overhead lighting
Tripod

The pictures do what they are meant to do, however we are now growing and I'd like to start making the photos look more professional so I'm going to speak to my MD and see if I can persuade him to invest in some equipment. It would mainly be to take the product alone, but if possible I'd also like the equipment to cover taking photos of people using the products, i.e. lifestyle shots.

I haven't a clue where to even start with what equipment would be needed for this, so I was hoping you good folk would be able to spec me up 3 setups, the first a basic entry level one, second a mid range setup and finally a more professional setup. I haven't a clue how much he'd be willing to pay (if anything), but speaking to a family member who has does a bit of product photography in the past I get the idea that a basic one would be around £150, mid range £500-700 and professional £1000 (although I'm sure the sky is the limit if you want to get really serious).

Anyway thanks for any suggestions!

Garry Edwards · 20 Jan 2011

Your present setup will give you a good likeness but won't show the products at their best - a bit like a passport photo, as I think you've already discovered...

You won't get decent lighting for anywhere near £150, but if you double that you can get a SmartFlash twin head kit with 1 softbox, which will probably be just about all you need, although you'll probably end up with a honeycomb as well, costing another £20-£30. You may also want a boom arm, which holds a flash head directly overhead, which you'll want to do quite often. You can live without a boom arm though, it's a nice-to-have rather than a must have.

And exactly the same kit will be fine for photographing people too.

The SmartFlash heads are out of stock at the moment but should be available again in a few days.

htid · 21 Jan 2011

Thanks for the link, however I don't really know how to do this. The link you gave goes to a page showing the Elite Pro and a price of £255 but then if I put add to cart, it wants me to add head 1 and head 2 at the bottom, which would be another £71 per head...do you know why there's no SmartFlash, or is that the one which is already £255?

After that I choose the stands and then I'm onto a page with light shapers. Is the default OK? You mentioned a honeycomb (which I have no idea what it is or does)...do I add that to just 1 of my 2 lights on this page or do I need that in addition to the 2 lights? The same goes for the soft box on the next page, do I need that in addition to the 2 lights or do I just place that on 1 of the 2 I'd already buy?

As I said I haven't a clue about lighting so could you elaborate a bit please?

Garry Edwards · 21 Jan 2011

htid said:
Thanks for the link, however I don't really know how to do this. The link you gave goes to a page showing the Elite Pro and a price of £255 but then if I put add to cart, it wants me to add head 1 and head 2 at the bottom, which would be another £71 per head...do you know why there's no SmartFlash, or is that the one which is already £255?

After that I choose the stands and then I'm onto a page with light shapers. Is the default OK? You mentioned a honeycomb (which I have no idea what it is or does)...do I add that to just 1 of my 2 lights on this page or do I need that in addition to the 2 lights? The same goes for the soft box on the next page, do I need that in addition to the 2 lights or do I just place that on 1 of the 2 I'd already buy?

As I said I haven't a clue about lighting so could you elaborate a bit please?

As I said earlier, the SmartFlash is out of stock - that's why that option isn't available and the kit builder forces you to choose the ElitePro instead. Once the SmartFlash are back in stock then they will available on the website and they will also be the default choice.

You can leave the lighting stands at default.
You can leave the first light shaper at default (standard reflector)
In your case, the second light shaper needs to be a softbox - get the biggest one you have space for.

The Honeycombs aren't offered in the kits, just go to products > honeycombs. A honeycomb directs the light in straight lines and is used as a backlight and/or to put more light on a specific part of the subject (they produce a very small, hard light) and the smaller the number, (they are available in 10, 20, 30 and 40 degree versions) the more effective they are but the smaller the circle of light they produce.

If you need any advice on this then just ring me.

htid · 25 Jan 2011

Garry Edwards said:
As I said earlier, the SmartFlash is out of stock - that's why that option isn't available and the kit builder forces you to choose the ElitePro instead. Once the SmartFlash are back in stock then they will available on the website and they will also be the default choice.

You can leave the lighting stands at default.
You can leave the first light shaper at default (standard reflector)
In your case, the second light shaper needs to be a softbox - get the biggest one you have space for.

The Honeycombs aren't offered in the kits, just go to products > honeycombs. A honeycomb directs the light in straight lines and is used as a backlight and/or to put more light on a specific part of the subject (they produce a very small, hard light) and the smaller the number, (they are available in 10, 20, 30 and 40 degree versions) the more effective they are but the smaller the circle of light they produce.

If you need any advice on this then just ring me.

Hi again,

I know you said I should ring you, but as we are only a small company, my MD would like to read your information too, so it's better that I have a written record of it to show him.

The lights you've mentioned, are they flash or continuous? I've read on your website that flash is better so I assume that's what you suggested (and since it's called a "smartflash"...). Just to give you some information, we are a small toy company and our products are things such as:

My concern is that using flash, we'd get lots of highlights where the flash reflects off the plastic packaging or the shiny polypropylene backing that some of products are mounted on. The biggest of our products is around 2ft high with the smallest being 2 inches. With this in mind, would you still suggest the same setup as in your original post?

Thanks again,
Chris

Garry Edwards · 25 Jan 2011

Yes, they're flash and yes, I still recommend the same kit.

What you may not understand is that although it's flash it also has continuous lights, the sole purpose of which is to show you the effect the flash will have. What this means is that if there are specular highlights (reflections of the lights) on the products/packaging then you'll see them, so can move the lights to get rid of them, move them closer to create a highlight that you can see through or whatever.

There are other things you can do too, to remove the reflective quality of the packaging, and you can often remove the packaging too.

htid · 25 Jan 2011

Garry Edwards said:
Yes, they're flash and yes, I still recommend the same kit.

What you may not understand is that although it's flash it also has continuous lights, the sole purpose of which is to show you the effect the flash will have. What this means is that if there are specular highlights (reflections of the lights) on the products/packaging then you'll see them, so can move the lights to get rid of them, move them closer to create a highlight that you can see through or whatever.

There are other things you can do too, to remove the reflective quality of the packaging, and you can often remove the packaging too.

Unfortunately the packaging needs to stay on so I'll have to read up on removing the reflections. Anyway we'll be moving premises mid Feb and will set aside an area for product photography, at which point I shall be in touch. Thanks for the info!

htid · 25 Jan 2011

Actually, whilst I remember, can I just ask why you don't suggest the 300 or even 600w elitepros? Is it simply because of the budget I stated, or would they just be overkill for products the size we use? (having said that I did mention that being able to take lifestyle shots of people would be useful too, in which case is 600 x2 again too much, or is it a case of if our budget stretches, then go for it?

Garry Edwards · 25 Jan 2011

You'd be surprised at what can be done with packaging, a sharp craft knife and care, I do it all the time and the packaging always looks complete in the finished photo...

The ElitePro 300's will be fine, the 600's will be overkill and too much power can cause problems as well as solve them.

As for reading up on product photography, I have a tutorial specific to still life photography or you could buy the book Light: Science & Magic (3rd edition) which is basically the best book there is about lighting, but it isn't exactly light reading.