Product shots (crisp white background)

Thanks for the edit DB_SamX ;) I was going to pull you up on that one as they were my piccies on the Noctua review. Tbh I took those in the evening time with poor, standard room lighting. Getting that studio look is really down to post-processing in PS. Of course, the angle and positioning is also important too as well as the focus. But with little effort you can get great results by just tinkering a few things if you have the kit there as I see you do!

Here is one of my favs I took a few weeks back:

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Aruffell said:
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.
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You're going to need lights. There's no magic formula to getting quality product shots; it's a lot of experimentation with light placements and hard work and you're concentrating on lighting the products as well as the background.

You could just snap away and cut the backgrounds out, but then your products would look completely at odds with the high-key backgrounds. it's all a matter of how professional you want the end-result to be and how much work you're willing to put in to achieve that.

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:
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That looks like a fantastic room to have at your disposal! What are the fittings on the ceiling? Lights?

Shadowness said:
And a shot I've recently taken using it:
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Most impressive. How much work has been done on it in post? And what is it?

Shadowness said:
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.
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Could you not have a light/reflector positioned overhead for that? Or perhaps move the lights so you can get one shot with a shadow and then use elements from both to make the one shot?

n1blo said:
But more importantly, you need to get rid of a camcorder for taking stills.
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I think that's the most important point here. I can't see how a camcorder has anywhere near the sort of control over the settings that's needed for product photography.

mishima said:
Getting that studio look is really down to post-processing in PS. Of course, the angle and positioning is also important too as well as the focus.
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Getting that 'studio look' should be down to getting it right in the 'studio' not having to rely on post-processing to achieve the same results - especially when you've got hundreds of images that all need work!
 
glitch said:
That looks like a fantastic room to have at your disposal! What are the fittings on the ceiling? Lights?


Most impressive. How much work has been done on it in post? And what is it?
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The fittings in the ceiling are just the lights that were there when it was a normal room.

Not much work done in post, some level adjustment in photoshop but apart from that its not far off the original.

It's a forensic light source to btw ;)
 
This was taken on my window sill on a A4 piece of paper using natural light only. Then in Photoshop raising the exposure to give the part the correct exposure also blew out the background.

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Shadowness said:
The fittings in the ceiling are just the lights that were there when it was a normal room.
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Am I being particularly short-sighted this evening or have you done something to the room itself? I can't see where the floor ends and the walls begin...

Shadowness said:
Not much work done in post, some level adjustment in photoshop but apart from that its not far off the original.
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Could I/we see the original, if that's not too much to ask?

Shadowness said:
It's a forensic light source to btw ;)
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Blimey - what does it do?!
 
I set up a small version of your studio with a bit of A4 and a conservatory and took some pics. The white balance is off, but that doesn't bother me right now- they still look professional enough for my review site. I am getting a 90cm lightbox with some backdrop cloth and I will have a fiddle with the WB then- should be good! Here is what I did earlier:

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This is with no post, so a bit of tweaking would probably make it better. Altough PS is too slow for the many photos I have to do and I used to use Windows Live Photo Gallery, but the 2011 version which I am now forced to use doesn't work!
 
It's quite easy to take usable product shots without spending a small fortune on lots of lights or light tents etc...you just need to experiment a little :)

The shot below was taken using a single cheap flash unit, a scrap piece of wood that has a glossy white surface (the plasticy veneered stuff), and a couple of bits of mounting board.

(Mounting board is also known as foam core or foam board, and it can be purchased cheaply from most art shops).

I could've spent a minute or two longer in setting up the shot a bit better as there's still a hint of secondary reflection and a little shadow that could easily be addressed (just by moving the pieces of mounting board).

...but as it's just a quick shot for the MM (Members Market) it'll do :)

The only post processing was the removal of a few dust specks.


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When shooting products especially, it's well worth familiarising yourself with the basic principle of 'the angle of incidence = the angle of reflection'...but it's worth remembering in general.

Rather than explaining it myself I've just had a quick look on youtube and found a little vid that's easy to follow:


 
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