Product Photography Help

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15 Apr 2003
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Hello

I have lots of products i need to take pictures of, they are all quite small.

Is there any kind of lighted box solution I can buy that i just put the product in, take a picture and it'll be good to go with a pure white background?

I currently pay approx £3-4 per product photo (still, no 360) and due to the number of photos that need to be taken in the next 12 months i think it would be better to spend some cash now in getting my own system.

I have seen something like this: http://www.alphashot.net/make-professional-2d360-degree3d-packshots which is appproximately £5500. This would be cheaper than what i would spend with my photographer over the next 12 months plus it has the benefit of doing 360s which may be necessary later (which i dont know how much the photographer will charge for). The idea is perfect but perhaps there is a DIY way which is just as good with a saving?

I need all equiptment associated with taking the pictures, camera included.

Thanks!
 
For a laugh and also some valuable tips please see her:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qk5hHNsAcec

You will only need a basic SLR. Something with "live view" will help. If your items are small consider the purchase of a macro lens also.

I doubt you need to spend £5500 for good results. On the auction site there are MANY cheap "photo studio box" or "photo light cube tent" kits which include lights for much less than £100.

So in summation you need:

>Something like a Canon 550D/Nikon D3100 or above will suffice.
>Macro lens
>Lighting and background kit - but you can definitely DIY it (as seen in the video) or go on to the auction site for some pre-fabricated solutions.
 
Wouldn't even say a macro lens is a must.

A small light tent can be had for £30, 2 or maybe 3 desk lamps and some 70w halogen bulbs (dont use energy saving bulbs).

Robert is your mothers brother.
 
Jesus, don't buy one of those. Completely overkill.

You need a camera, macro lens (for sharpness and minimum focal distance) and either 2 speedlights or flash heads (studio lights basically).

I only use 1 light to do product shots with a very large softbox to wrap the light around the subject. I rarely do high key shots though, with low key being more my thing.

Example of what can be done with 1 studio light + big softbox on a boom arm and a £6 sheet of black acrylic plastic:


The Mask by jjohnson2012, on Flickr
 
5c01e313.jpg


£20 light tent and 2 cheap lamps
 
I don't really have any photography knowledge and in all honesty don't have so much time to learn. So I am looking for a very user friendly solution.

With that in mind, what specific equipment would be recommended?

Thanks for the help so far.
 
tabs said:
I don't really have any photography knowledge and in all honesty don't have so much time to learn. So I am looking for a very user friendly solution.

With that in mind, what specific equipment would be recommended?

Thanks for the help so far.
Click to expand...

What budget have you got?
 
The budget is pretty open in all honesty considering the pricing of the initially mentioned item.

Obviously if I'm going to sacrifice some ease of use by going the DIY route, there should be some other upside e.g a cheaper cost or better quality images etc.
 
A popup light tent is pretty much all you need for a basic setup. I've used this in the past with a (semi-decent) P&S camera and two desk lamps. Results are better than you think.

These are all from the above setup (not hotlinked mods, my own website). Light tent (eBay job), Canon S95 and two desk lamps. Oh and some shiny/reflective card from Paperchase.

The not hotlinking is fine but please note as per the rules - you may not promote any website or business you have a financial or other interest in, or use the popularity of this community to help build one of your own. The forums are here to allow people to freely share knowledge, not provide them with personal financial gain, or free advertising.

If you'd taken two seconds to visit the website, www.scrabblecufflinks.co.uk, you'd have seen it's no longer operational :)
 
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Time will be your biggest expense. A light tent can be made cheap or bought for not a lot. It would be good to see what sort of shots you are looking to achieve\already get, so we could make a more specific response. In general though if you buy second hand and you're not looking to use the camera for more varied work that may involve\require better specs, something like a 450D with a tamron 17-50 will most likely sort you out no worries. Min focus on the tamron is pretty good, it's a sharp lens and coupled with a light tent with either desk lamps or a couple of cheap remote triggered flashes should give you all the light options you need. If you are wanting more fancy results then your lighting requirements (and budget) will start rising.

edit: Oh, a 450D and 17-50 second hand will set you back around £400...
 
Yeah get a light tent (£12 off ebay), I'd also consider heading down to argos/ebay or something and pick up some angle lamps with desk clamps then get some daylight bulbs and whack them in the lamps. Cheap and it'll set you back about £50 in all.
 
tabs said:
I have lots of products i need to take pictures of, they are all quite small.
Click to expand...

I did a project like this for my brother a couple of years ago. Hundreds of products in a weekend.

Start with a light tent. You want one that is comfortably larger than your largest object, so that you don't get corners in the background. if in doubt, go bigger. Mine is about a 1.2m cube. They are easy enough to find on the web.

Next, you need surfaces and backgrounds. I have a choice:

A white acrylic table for a white background and reflection like Apple use in their product shots. (from the same folk that sold me the light tent)

A black acrylic table (as was probably used for the mask and headphone above).

A black velvet background, for use behind the black table. (came with the tent)

I also have 1.2m x 1.2m sheet of clear acrylic that fills the bottom of tent, that I found in B&Q. With white card underneath, it gives the white mirror finish for larger items. I raise it a little at the rear to made sure that it covers the seam at the back of the tent.

You'll need a room of a decent size. Put the tent on a table so that you are working at a comfortable height. I arranged three flashes round the tent. One at each side and one to blow out the background. The flash needs to be back far enough away from the tent to light the side.

I'm a Canon boy, so I used 580Zs, with the Canon IR sender on the camera. This is OK, but battery based flash isn't really up to all-day continual use. If you are building a rig with a decent budget, a proper mains powered lighting kit may be in order.

My lens was the Canon 180L Macro. I happen to have one but I can't think of a better choice for the job.

You'll want a tripod and I would recommend a remote release, just for convenience when you are doing hundreds.

The choice of camera is probably the least important part of the equation, but if starting from scratch on this project, I'd pick a 5D as a good all-round tool.

You will also need a computer with a decent screen. You have a lot of Post Processing to do. I wouldn't want to do it without Lightroom, photoshop, a fast processor, a generous amount of memory and SSD.

Figure on at least half a day to get your first shot, balancing the flashes, aperture and depth of field. If you are inexperienced, it might take you a whole weekend. If it doesn't take a long time, then you arn't looking at the pictures critically enough. Post your first one here and we will take delight in pointing out everything you need to fix :-)

And when it comes to doing the entire inventory, you need help. Someone to run round the stock room finding things, and preparing them. Help to clear them away after. Help in keeping records of what you've done and what you need to do.

It helps to record everything in the camera. I take a shot of each item in the box or bag, showing the stock number, to help you to catalog everything afterwards, otherwise it becomes difficult to keep track. Think about how you are going to name the files before hand. you may want each file to contain the part number...

Good luck.

Andrew
 
My black acrylic sheet was from ebay mate for a few quid only. Its double sided glossy, so when I scratch the living daylights out of one side I can just flip it to continue taking nice shots.

Smokey glass gives some great and interesting effects on product shots and black glass also works just as well as acrylic.

Thing you need to remember is you need a large softbox to wrap the light around the object(s) and diffuse the shadows nicely. You don't want to get rid of the shadows as they add depth, but you do want to lighten them to the point where they become diffused instead of harsh. Its due to this why direct flash is a big nono.

Edit, to prove a point, look at the difference in the quality of the reflection between mine and the other dark photo (no offence intended on the owner!) The reflection on mine is almost the same as the actual object itself. This is because I used a very large softbox directly above the mask (just out of the frame) and got low enough to really pull that specular reflection out. My silly watermark obscures it, yet its one of a few stock shots I've got on my flickr account and its proven very popular over the last month!
 
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Actually I personally prefer the more subdued reflection as it doesn't take away from the product (as we are talking about product shots).
 
Rojin said:
Actually I personally prefer the more subdued reflection as it doesn't take away from the product (as we are talking about product shots).
Click to expand...

Sadly, a reflection that has loss of detail is nearly always cropped out of the image when it is sold, or rejected by companies who are buying them.

The current market trend though is to use matt white or black to completely stop reflections in product shots. Apple is a prime example of a company that use to use absolute reflections to none in the space of 1 product cycle.
 
James J said:
Sadly, a reflection that has loss of detail is nearly always cropped out of the image when it is sold, or rejected by companies who are buying them.

The current market trend though is to use matt white or black to completely stop reflections in product shots. Apple is a prime example of a company that use to use absolute reflections to none in the space of 1 product cycle.
Click to expand...

Not in anything I have seen, a full detail reflection doubles your image size and isn't required in the majority of output media. A more subdued reflection is what I am accustomed to seeing in advertising.

Just look at Apples site, it's all normal shadow or low key reflection, they've mixed it up. They used to show more reflection, but it was faded out. Granted they may have started with a more detailed image, but it wasn't what they output. If a company commissions you for a product shot they will specify what they require for a reflection. All I did was state my preference.
 
I think my problem here is that there seems to be a very wild difference as to what 2 people can achieve using the same equipment, so these set ups are leaving a lot of the finished product quality on the shoulders of the photographer.

Ideally i want a setup that tips the scale largely the other way, i want to be able to do it, have other staff do it etc with very minimal effort. Accurate colour reproduction is also pretty important and i just don't know if i have the time to train up, which is why spending so much on what appear to be very simple solutions was an idea that appealed to me. That is if they are as great as they make out.

It seems perhaps keeping the photographer in work may still have to be considered.
 
you can take decent product shots with a couple of table lamps, light diffusers, 2 stools, coloured backgrounds and a piece of glass. Flashes aren't needed as once you've set up the white balance to a custom setting it never actually changes. a cheap tripod, head and a £300 point and shoot camera with custom wb options. However, this is the cheap option and as you've considered spending £6k on something you don't need I doubt that is what you want.

I'd like to know where you are in the uk and what exactly you want to photograph, it'd really help and if close enough I could help set something up.

if you're willing to spend that kind of money and want to use pro equipment (depending on what the photos are used for) I would be be looking at something like a Canon MP-E 65 (£800 ish) + a full frame Canon camera so something like the Canon 5D mk2 (£1400) + £200 on a tripod & head. I'd take the rest of the cash and speak to Garry Edwards over at Lencarta.co.uk.

Explain to him that you have no or little knowledge and what it is you want to photograph and in what style and ask him exactly what you need. He has more knowledge than anyone on here, will tell you exactly how to get your results and how to set it up. Once you have set it up and everything is correct you shouldn't have to touch the setup again. hell, buy me all that and I'll do the photos for fee for the year ;) :p

If you need any more advice feel free to email me. Please email me and say what your product is and sample photos as it'd help provide more info :)

Don't forget, PC, software, knowledge and TIME are also a big part of getting that perfect photo ;) spending a bit of cash to save a bit sounds good, but when you factor in the time to take photos of a few hundred items sometimes it's worth paying :D
 
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