Product shots - am I on the right lines?

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tommo

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Lee
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I've agreed to help a friend photograph some products he makes for his website, so I have been trying to get some practice in before so as to not waste anyone's time.

Can you provide some serious crit on the two shots below?

The setup is two softboxes, one each side, and a reflector on top. All on a table cloth.

Thanks in advance,

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The sunglasses need much more depth of field - or much less, depending on your style. This type of subject needs to be either pin sharp throughout, or the opposite, with just the main benefit in sharp focus.
Also, the left hand arm has been lost by overlighting.
Come to that, the lighting is completely wrong, what was needed here was a light from above and behind, with a gentle fill (from a reflector) from the front, this would have avoided the unwanted reflection on the lenses. The positioning is quite good though.

The fish food isn't as difficult to light and isn't too bad - but why on earth did you leave the price label on it?
And everyone knows that it has a top, so why show so much of it? Take the shot from much lower down, so that you're looking slightly upwards at the subject. This is known as a heroic viewpoint because it makes the subject look like a hero - i.e. it looks much bigger and more important.
 
Thanks for your comments Garry, some very helpful advice.

The glasses were shot at f16, to get more dof i need to zoom out and decrease the aperture to say f22, is that right? I was actually more concerned with the tip of the right hand arm being overexposed.

No idea why I left the price tag on the fish food, just used it as a prop to shoot!
You say the lighting isn't too bad-would the rim under the lid need to be filled to avoid the dark shadow to improve? Agreed about the lid, looks naff now I have slept on it.

Thanks again :)
 
No, I don't advise using a smaller aperture than f/16, in fact even f/16 is pushing it a bit in terms of diffraction limitation.

That leaves you with 2 choices, ignoring the obvious one of using a large format camera with movements to shift the plane of sharp focus...
1. Take the shot from further away
2. Take 2 shots with different focus points and stick them together in PS

The shadow under the rim is good, it helps to define the shape of the thing. If you light it as I suggest there will be a stronger shadow, but the reflector will probably take care of it, you'll have to try it and see.

Please don't regard shadows as a fault, the opposite is true. Shadows create 3 dimensionality, add interest and make the product/person more interesting, provided that they are under control. Good photographers create controlled shadows, not kill them:)
 
Garry Edwards said:
Please don't regard shadows as a fault, the opposite is true. Shadows create 3 dimensionality, add interest and make the product/person more interesting, provided that they are under control. Good photographers create controlled shadows, not kill them:)
Click to expand...

Brilliant advice, thanks Garry.

I'll try again and see if I can see the improvements (if any!) for myself, best way to learn :thumbs:
 
Ok, I have only only had time to have another go at the glasses, and below is my attempt. I hope you can see the improvements and what did I do differently?

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Need to either kill the reflections or make more of them. On your original shot of the glasses, I'd like to see some use of a polarising filter to see the effect.

A bit of post processing to darken the tone and bring up the contrast to a more dramatic effect might be useful
 
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