Trying to build a studio for furniture photography e commerce

[jw0405]

Hi,
I'm new to this forum, so if this sounds amateurish I apologize.
I have a startup focused on furniture e-commerce based in Taiwan, and we are trying to set up a photography studio in our warehouse.
As a reference, we are trying to benchmark the photo qualities of other e-commerce platforms such as Burrow and Floyd, but obviously we are at a startup phase and would prefer to control the budget.
I would like to get some advice and suggestions on some of the key ingredients on how to achieve quality of photos as attached. I will also attach a sketch with specific dimensions of our warehouse space designated for the studio.
note - measuring metrics in the sketch are meters!

Thanks!

 

[learningtofly]

Are you going to use a clipping mask/background replacement service? If so (as you can see from the example images above) that's a game-changer in terms of studio requirements.

 

[jw0405]

Are you going to use a clipping mask/background replacement service? If so (as you can see from the example images above) that's a game-changer in terms of studio requirements.

yes

 

[Garry Edwards]

Metric is fine, we moved over to it 66 years ago and the whole of the developed world uses it, there are I think just 3 countries that don't

You've got enough space and height there. As you're planning to use cutouts you don't need to worry about building a photography roomset, but you do need to ensure that colours are neutral (you don't want, for example, a red carpet or blue walls reflecting unwanted colour on to your subjects).

Your first example, in particular, is poor, you can easily beat that with a minimum of equipment and care.

All that you'll need for simple soft furniture subjects as per your samples is a minimum of the following, obviously you'll need to source them locally to you.
2 x boom arms https://www.lencarta.com/lencarta-studio-boom-arm-kit or https://www.lencarta.com/wall-boom-arm-lencarta (permanent fixture alternative, better really)
2 x low level light stands
2 x medium size softboxes https://www.lencarta.com/redline-pro-profold-folding-octa-softbox-lencarta-95cm
2 x larger softboxes https://www.lencarta.com/redline-pro-profold-folding-octa-softbox-lencarta-120cm
4 x flash heads https://www.lencarta.com/lencarta-smartflash-4
And a radio trigger/receiver kit to suit both your camera and the flashes.

In terms of cameras, the truly professional solution is a monorail camera with movements, the falling front prevents perspective distortion, but I'm sure that you won't go down that route.
Next best is a full-frame or larger digital camera with a tilt/shift lens, again to prevent perspective distortion.
Or, if near enough is good enough, you can manage without the tilt/shift lens and correct the problem adequately in Photoshop.

But, for more complex setups or if you're shooting reflective panel furniture, you'll need more gear and more knowledge.

Hope that helps.

 

[jw0405]

Metric is fine, we moved over to it 66 years ago and the whole of the developed world uses it, there are I think just 3 countries that don't

You've got enough space and height there. As you're planning to use cutouts you don't need to worry about building a photography roomset, but you do need to ensure that colours are neutral (you don't want, for example, a red carpet or blue walls reflecting unwanted colour on to your subjects).

Your first example, in particular, is poor, you can easily beat that with a minimum of equipment and care.

All that you'll need for simple soft furniture subjects as per your samples is a minimum of the following, obviously you'll need to source them locally to you.
2 x boom arms https://www.lencarta.com/lencarta-studio-boom-arm-kit or https://www.lencarta.com/wall-boom-arm-lencarta (permanent fixture alternative, better really)
2 x low level light stands
2 x medium size softboxes https://www.lencarta.com/redline-pro-profold-folding-octa-softbox-lencarta-95cm
2 x larger softboxes https://www.lencarta.com/redline-pro-profold-folding-octa-softbox-lencarta-120cm
4 x flash heads https://www.lencarta.com/lencarta-smartflash-4
And a radio trigger/receiver kit to suit both your camera and the flashes.

In terms of cameras, the truly professional solution is a monorail camera with movements, the falling front prevents perspective distortion, but I'm sure that you won't go down that route.
Next best is a full-frame or larger digital camera with a tilt/shift lens, again to prevent perspective distortion.
Or, if near enough is good enough, you can manage without the tilt/shift lens and correct the problem adequately in Photoshop.

But, for more complex setups or if you're shooting reflective panel furniture, you'll need more gear and more knowledge.

Hope that helps.

Thanks Garry for the response, it's very helpful, do you mind if I send you a message to ask you a bit about details?

 

[Garry Edwards]

Thanks Garry for the response, it's very helpful, do you mind if I send you a message to ask you a bit about details?

No problem. Today if possible, I'm going away for a few days in the morning and won't have a computer until I get back.

 

[CharleyL]

Garry gave you some good advise, but there are other good alternative sources of equipment available for what he suggests.

You don't need to do much to your warehouse space except clear a large enough area to put a background and floor covering behind and below what you will be shooting. Good even lighting and a backdrop/floor color that's evenly lit makes Photoshop cutouts much easier to do. Chroma Green and Chroma Blue are two common choices, but any evenly lit color that isn't part of the furniture color will work too. Be careful of any reflections in any reflective surfaces of the furniture, as this becomes difficult to remove in Photoshop. Spacing the furniture several feet away from the background will help avoid diffused reflections of the background and floor color from affecting the furniture colors. Soft even lighting will help to avoid shadows. TV studios use many soft sources of light from many directions mounted high on the ceiling to cancel the shadows out. These are usually placed in a U shape around the area that will be included in the video. For still shots, these could be flash or continuous, but flash is the usual choice.

Charley