Product photography Help & Guidance

[Robbhp]

So as above really, The better half is setting up her own business selling on-line. We will be importing a few products but at first we will be buying UK supplied product. Unfortunately the pictures that are supplied are really not of the quality that you would be happy to buy from. We are looking to photograph her stock although at the moment we are having difficulty getting the area bright enough. I have been looking at getting a lighting set up but I am a little confused by the option that are available to us.

Should we go for continuous lighting ? Or strobe ?

Continuous Lighting is much cheaper but I have read that this really is more for film than Photography, but also heard that apart from heat output it's not bad for Product photography as well. Thinks it was also mentioned that in comparison to Strobe its a relativity low light output.

Most Strobe light seem to have a "Modelling Light" function where by a normal bulb illuminates your subject allowing to to fine tune your placement of lights to reduce the possibility of shadows. If we are going strobe light we are looking at the budget end of the market and could do with something under the £200.00 mark as we also need a light box for some of the smaller items.

So SXOC I call on you for some advice please,

Items to Photograph will include

Jewellery
Shoes
Clothes
& Some Confectionery.

Currently My camera is a Cannon 40D, we are looking at a macro lens although due to the cost this may have to wait and we will limp along with our Sony H1 For close up detail shots.

Any input will be appreciated.

[Chriscooke]

To get half decent pictures easily with the kit you have get a large white background and use the normal flash. I've done it before and it seems to work well enough

An old attempt of mine



A proper flash with a defuser would help no doubt.

[Robbhp]

Yea for small products that method works well but unfortunately when you increase the size of the item it starts getting difficult :-(.

[Garrett_T25]

What photographic equipment do you have already (lenses, tripod, flashes etc)? How many products will you be shooting and will this be a short/long term thing (i.e. do you just need to photograph an initial batch, or will there be constant new products coming through?)

[Robbhp]

At the moment camera wise we have a 40D with the stock 18-55 lens and a 22-105 EF lense although that may not be correct (will check when I get home). I was also thinking of a Nifty 50 with some of the screw on macro adapters as a cheap option but any other lens option you could think of would be helpful.

We have a tripod and a basic light box setup but are looking to improve on the light box with something less DIY.

It will be a constant process although only done once a week :-).

[Garrett_T25]

There's probably two options I would look at, depending on what magnitude of quality you want out of the end product.

Option 1: - Contracting the work to someone else/highest quality. For small still-life shoots like this, there are plenty of photographers of varying degrees of quality that can do the work for you. Obviously the higher the quality, the more you'll generally pay. The biggest advantage is that it will save you the ball-ache and cost of buying equipment while simultaneously being of a higher quality than you can produce yourself. Consider it a business expense and it's arguably one of the more important financial decisions you'll make from a business perspective.

Option 2: Do it yourself. You can buy more equipment, but if all you want is a decent representation of the product and not a glossy magazine advert then you've already got the basics covered without spending anything. Your current lenses are both suitable and if you dont want to spend money buying lights, just stick the camera on a tripod, turn the lights off and use the torch on your phone to 'light-paint' the product. It won't work for macro/detail shots as you won't have the light power or accessibility for it, but certainly it will give you better control of more conventional shots than studio lights or flash-guns will. You then have the option of picking up a bit of photoshop yourself to edit them, or handing them over to someone who can do it for you (again like option 1). It does sound like a bit of a pikey option, but to be honest with you I shoot cars commercially and use exactly the same technique.

[Robbhp]

Thanks for the info thus far. Still thinking that I like the idea of lights for the simplicity of it. The other half can then just point and shoot once I have shown her the basics, quick and simple or am I wrong ?

The smaller items will not be a problem as we are going to buy one of the lightboxes with built in lighting, our diy setup has worked well thus far but sometimes you are spending too long in Photoshop.

Do you have any recommendations in Terms of lightboxes ?

[Garrett_T25]

You're not wrong as such; once you've mastered using a multiple light set-up it is fairly straightforward, though learning initially (depending on your experience) could be tricky if you've never used additional lighting before. You'll need to be completely comfortable setting up a manual exposure and knowing how adjusting those settings will work with your light source, as well as getting your head around how the light travels and falls off. A decent/cheap light will set you back around £300 per head, then you'll need stands and soft-boxes/umbrellas. Ideally you'll need 3 heads (one either side of the product to light it evenly, one behind to blow the highlights of the background. Even more ideally, instead of a light-bath you would use an infinity curve and use the third light underneath. The third light essentially saves you the step of cutting the product out in photoshop.

So approx £1200 for a cheap set-up that will give you some consistency. I dare say that's a fair chunk more expensive than it would be to take the products to a studio...

Alternatively, you can buy flash-guns and wireless triggers for much less (Yongnuo products currently strike a good compromise between quality/cost)- You'll lose the power output of a proper flash-head (so again they wont be much use for macro) and some consistency, but you'll spend less than a third of the cost and can still buy adapters to use with light-stands and diffusers.

[Leviathan]

Re lighting have a look here
http://www.lencarta.com/studio-light...ing-kit-3-head
you can phone them to customise different lighting modifiers if you want.
Also worth reading is
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Light-Scienc...ence+and+magic

"Garrett_T25
So approx £1200 for a cheap set-up that will give you some consistency. I dare say that's a fair chunk more expensive than it would be to take the products to a studio..."
All depends on how many hours they spend on the items being photographed.

[Garrett_T25]

For the needs of the OP (i.e. simple clear images on a plain white backdrop, probably 1-3 shots of each product) you're probably looking at 10mins per product, maybe less depending on size and how intricate the product is. If you can take multiple products in one go so you're not paying per sitting, I'd say you'd be a fair chunk of cash better off than attempting it yourself. The images are then also being taken on better and more relevant equipment and you are given the images ready to use. As a short-term solution, this is the one I'd at the very least get quotes for. Having run my own (proper) studio before and now using a makeshift one, without a good standard of editing there is a massive difference between the two. To get a good standard of imagery you either need a level of equipment and knowledge available to you in the first place so that you can get it right largely in-camera, or a good working knowledge of editing and the time to do so. Any compromise in either method will show in the final images, which will then reflect on the product being advertised.

My own personal opinion on this is that if you were intending to do it long-term or even contract out your work to other people (or indeed if it's just a hobby you're interested in developing), by all means invest money into equipment and invest the time to learn how to use it and to develop your editing. However if you just want some good images that you can use to advertise the products and save yourself time and money, I would contract the work to someone else and concentrate on something else. With the right equipment, studio/product photography is very easy and very quick, therefore not very expensive. The only difficulty will be finding a photographer who doesn't see dollar signs when you explain you want to use their work commercially and so tries to extort you for the licence to use them.

That kit above certainly looks cheap enough, substantially cheaper than the lights I would have recommended and certainly in terms of spec they tick the right boxes. Not a brand I've heard of or used before but definitely worth trying out at that price.

[Robbhp]

The studio option is not going to be a convent option or viable. I have a modest grip on photography but fall way way short of your level. I have been looking at an even cheaper option than the one Leviathan posted above.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Studio-Fla...item19f01aae45

In all honesty even if it only lasts for 1000 shots it still a cheap option to test with and decide if it's the correct option and either sell it on in the future and upgrade or keep it until it's dead.

[Leviathan]

Just to give you an idea of prices
http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/c...to-prices.html

The setup you posted a link to may seem good value for money, but I bet there is going to be quite a big variation in colour temp between each light and each shot, making editing even tricker. Plus if you decide that diy isnt for you then you can always sell them on, as im sure they will last longer and have a greater resale value than the cheap set.

[Robbhp]

Yea thought that aswell LoL still tempted to give them ago lol. If their Shit I can always return them, that is unless they burn down my house :-(

Those commission costs are not viable, our average selling price is £45 pounds and unique items most of the time which will require a new image.

[Leviathan]

I recommend the Light and Magic book though, well worth a read if a little heavy in places.

[Robbhp]

Cool I will pick that up too :-) thanks for your help guys :-)