Product shots (crisp white background)

Aruffell

Aruffell

Aruffell

Soldato
Joined
29 Dec 2004
Posts
5,653
Location
Chatham, Kent
To cut things short, i'm hoping to take images like you see on Overclockers and the bay with a clear crisp white background like:

CA-102-AN_400.jpg


As you can see, clear crisp product, clear white background.

Here is a picture of the area i'm working with which is an alcove with a MDF desk and backdrop coming from 6-8 feet above:

areak.jpg


Lighting wise i have 2 of these which are 20watt white bulbs but output at 125watt:

RIN-RIL9000.jpg


To take the photos, i'm using the Sony XR500 Camcorder with 12MP still shot. From examples, i know for a camcorder it's well and truely up to the task.

So my questions are:

Have i got enough lights?
Where should i place the lights? Bolt them onto the sides of the alcove?

Just want to get that even background sorted.

Also, what kind of exposure and white balancing settings will i need to apply to my camcorder?

Thanks in advance,

Andy
 
With a setup and products like that your best bet is just to get rid of the background in photoshop if there's any shadow, it really won't be too hard, and I'm pretty sure that'll be how the OCuk shots are done as well.
 
Been trial and erroring with this lighting setup for an hour or so now and still no luck :(

So ditch the lights and use photoshop to rip the background out of a normal exposed/no extra lighting picture?

Andy
 
Can we see a shot of your best effort so we know how far off you are? Have a play with levels and use the dodge tool on highlights to bleach out anything that's not quite White after level adjustment.
 
Aruffell said:
To cut things short, i'm hoping to take images like you see on Overclockers and the bay with a clear crisp white background like:

CA-102-AN_400.jpg


As you can see, clear crisp product, clear white background.
Click to expand...
That's not a particularly well-lit product shot that has been rescued in Photoshop.

It's possible to get the results you want without the post-processing, but you've got somewhat limited resources available to you.

Aruffell said:
Here is a picture of the area i'm working with which is an alcove with a MDF desk and backdrop coming from 6-8 feet above:
Click to expand...
The space is more than adequate, the set-up isn't. First job would be to construct/set-up an infinity curve to avoid the 'join' showing and help the background flood with light.

Aruffell said:
To take the photos, i'm using the Sony XR500 Camcorder with 12MP still shot. From examples, i know for a camcorder it's well and truely up to the task.
Click to expand...
Are you basing that solely on the fact it has '12MP' or that you can manually control aperture, shutter speed and ISO?

Aruffell said:
Have i got enough lights?
Click to expand...
That depends on how you're intending to use them. You could certainly wash the background out with them, but how are you going to be lighting the 'products' at the front?

Aruffell said:
Also, what kind of exposure and white balancing settings will i need to apply to my camcorder?
Click to expand...
You'll need to take a manual WB reading from the white background and apply that. Or set the WB to whatever colour temp the lights output at.

Or just leave it and do that bit in post. Entirely up to you.

Aruffell said:
Some efforts earlier on default settings with just natural lighting:
Click to expand...
If you're shooting reflective objects, you've got to be very careful about your surroundings. You can use a large piece of white foamcore to help you with that though.
 
glitch said:
That's not a particularly well-lit product shot that has been rescued in Photoshop.

It's possible to get the results you want without the post-processing, but you've got somewhat limited resources available to you.

The space is more than adequate, the set-up isn't. First job would be to construct/set-up an infinity curve to avoid the 'join' showing and help the background flood with light.

Are you basing that solely on the fact it has '12MP' or that you can manually control aperture, shutter speed and ISO?

That depends on how you're intending to use them. You could certainly wash the background out with them, but how are you going to be lighting the 'products' at the front?

You'll need to take a manual WB reading from the white background and apply that. Or set the WB to whatever colour temp the lights output at.

Or just leave it and do that bit in post. Entirely up to you.

If you're shooting reflective objects, you've got to be very careful about your surroundings. You can use a large piece of white foamcore to help you with that though.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the insight,

Ideally i'd love to not use the lights as they are cumborsome and annoying.

I'm guessing taking the normal photos and using the magic wand tool and some time would give good results?

Andy
 
Aruffell said:
I'm guessing taking the normal photos and using the magic wand tool and some time would give good results?
Click to expand...
To an extent, yes.

But there's more mileage in getting the exposures absolutely nailed on the products before you start removing the backgrounds. For example, if you were to cut those sticks of RAM out and place them on a pure white background, it would look awful.

To be fair, your shot of the TouchCam isn't that far off. You've managed to blow the highlights a little but the right side of the frame is excellent - it's just the left that needs some work.

Where were the lights positioned?
 
glitch said:
To an extent, yes.

But there's more mileage in getting the exposures absolutely nailed on the products before you start removing the backgrounds. For example, if you were to cut those sticks of RAM out and place them on a pure white background, it would look awful.

To be fair, your shot of the TouchCam isn't that far off. You've managed to blow the highlights a little but the right side of the frame is excellent - it's just the left that needs some work.

Where were the lights positioned?
Click to expand...

See ideally id love to not use the lights at all, as it's a lot of hassle based on the amount of pictures i will have to be taking of various different sized/coloured products.

The lights were positioned next to the product pointing "just" behind it.

I'm just toying around with photoshop now.

Lots of tutorials out there show how to delete backgrounds but they are extreme differences to the foreground colour, whereas mine are very similar colours so am trying to master it with levels etc...

Andy
 
I'm learning a lot about this at the moment. But I have a slight advantage as I've been allowed to set up a studio at work (cost cutting, as we currently pay loads to have it done off site).

This is our studio:
IMG_0039.jpg


And a shot I've recently taken using it:
DSC_3162_resized.jpg


The key here was using one light to light background, I also had an SB900 under the table to light from beneath too, but no where near full power.

Im happy with the shot, but I want to learn how to do a 'fake' shadow under the product, so it doesnt look like it was floating in mid air.

You really need a surface with a curved background too so you dont have an 'edge' behind the thing your shooting.
 
Shadowness said:
I'm learning a lot about this at the moment. But I have a slight advantage as I've been allowed to set up a studio at work (cost cutting, as we currently pay loads to have it done off site).

This is our studio:
IMG_0039.jpg


And a shot I've recently taken using it:
DSC_3162_resized.jpg


The key here was using one light to light background, I also had an SB900 under the table to light from beneath too, but no where near full power.

Im happy with the shot, but I want to learn how to do a 'fake' shadow under the product, so it doesnt look like it was floating in mid air.

You really need a surface with a curved background too so you dont have an 'edge' behind the thing your shooting.
Click to expand...

Like this:

shadowu.jpg
 
I've been trying this recently too, with very limited success to be honest. Here's two examples:

p1050787s.jpg


The background here isn't lit as I don't have enough lamps, nor any powerful enough! I was using two cheap LED desk lamps from ikea :)

p1050791s.jpg


Here there are some nasty shadows, again, because I didn't have enough lighting. If it's one thing I learnt about taking these shots, it's the lighting that's key. I was pleased with it considering what I was using. I think that even with a pants camera, if the lighting is right, you can get good results.

I think you'd need at least 3 lights to really get the shots you need. Compared to shadowness, I'm a total amateur, but I thought I'd share my thoughts.
 
My brother takes loads of shots of computer parts, and I think they look great considering the limited equipment he has. He has a giant white lightbox thingy, 2 white A2 cards (back and rear), a desk lamp to 1 side, 1 ceiling light and the D40 inbuilt flash. Everything lying on an uneven bed. I do know he does process the background a lot to get it as white as possible using paint.net.
A few of his results are here:
http://www.vortez.co.uk/articles_pages/asus_rampage_iii_formula_motherboard_review,6.html

He is a member on here too using the same username and if he's online, I can get him to read this thread.
 
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Yes I work over there too now (small world!), Sahil does some quality reviews and shots, I think he posted his setup over there somewhere too. I need to build a lightbox too really if I'm going to do a lot, especially for the smaller things. There was a half decent guide on lifehacker somewhere...
 
I've got a lightbox somewhere.

I've managed to rope my mate in to use his Canon EOS 450d so that should be interesting and give the results im hoping for.

Andy
 
DB_SamX said:
My brother takes loads of shots of computer parts, and I think they look great considering the limited equipment he has. He has a giant white lightbox thingy, 2 white A2 cards (back and rear), a desk lamp to 1 side, 1 ceiling light and the D40 inbuilt flash. Everything lying on an uneven bed. I do know he does process the background a lot to get it as white as possible using paint.net.
A few of his results are here:
http://www.vortez.co.uk/articles_pages/noctua_nh_c14_cpu_cooler_review,5.html

He is a member on here too using the same username and if he's online, I can get him to read this thread.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the insight, them stills do look really good.

No point getting your bro to read the thread, i'm on the understanding that he doesn't like me and my site. Not sure as to why but there you go.

Andy
 
Aruffell said:
Thanks for the insight, them stills do look really good.

No point getting your bro to read the thread, i'm on the understanding that he doesn't like me and my site. Not sure as to why but there you go.

Andy
Click to expand...

Lol, cut me some slack here, I just do the reviews. I'm not sure what I've done to warrant that comment. Anyway I tend to take my pictures in RAW format and edit the lighting and the background afterwards. I used to try and get the best lighting possible but in the end settled with post processing instead. Here are some shots:

http://www.vortez.co.uk/articles_pages/asus_rampage_iii_formula_motherboard_review,5.html

You're setup looks good though and they generally come out well in your videos.
 
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