Product photography *help*

Cuchulain

Cuchulain

Cuchulain

Soldato
Joined
28 Dec 2004
Posts
7,620
Location
Derry
Hoping to get a bit of advice if possible, my wife has decided she's going to make personalised gifts in her spare time and wants me to start taking decent photos of whatever she makes. I haven't really done any photography of any kind in many years but I needed a new camera and recently bought a Nikon D5200 with the kit 18-55mm VR lens.

Would I be better off with a 35 or 50mm prime over the kit lens? (they're both reasonably cheap) and I'm confused with lighting, I have a huge white backdrop and could probably cobble together something for the foreground but how to cut out harsh shadows? Remote flash and umbrella or some kind of daylight bulb setup with a softbox?

Cheers!
 
All good advice, thanks folks. The products are candles etc, some will be in gift baskets so a light tent (which we already have) would be a bit too small.

So, if I'm understanding all this, 3 lights, one either side and one for blowing out the background and the reflector in front? Does it matter if the reflector is handheld even with longer exposures?

thanks again.
 
Paper rolls so far seem seriously expensive, I must be looking in the wrong place. I've seen some backdrops complete with tripod/frame for about £30 in various places so I might be better off with that.

I'll still be using reasonably hi-res photos, probably down to 6mp from 24. (along with the smaller ones for ecommerce use), should I still be using F16 for that? Thanks :)
 
Just wanted to pop back in and thank you guys for your help, 50mm arrived today, got a hold of my reflectors and some 5.3k halogen bulbs and the difference is night and day, helps that I've asked the missus to let me take photos without the cellophane wrapping too, serious reflection problems.
 
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