I have a little sideline business that I'm starting and need to shoot Photos of the products I will be selling on the web. Given that I've never done this before I need a little advice.
This doesn't need to be elaborate in any way, but presentable. I don't wish to go out and spend a lot of money on light boxes - etc., instead opting to make something myself that will work for me. My products will be small like baseball hats - cups - etc.
Any thoughts on how to go about this? Thanks in advance.
What do you have access to and how much are you willing to spend? That will make a big difference.
I'd first look at Strobist.com. That site specializes in studio lighting done inexpensively. It is a really good place to start. They are also affiilated with Midwest Photo Exchange for the purchase of equipment. Don't worry - MIdwest Photo is an honest company. They are probably the leading company in the US specializing in used large format gear, which is probably why you have never heard of them.
Once you get past Strobist.com, a really cheap setup is two flashes and a white, translucent shower curtain. Place the shower curtain as a dome over the object and the flash units to the left and right of the object to be photographed, outside of the shower curtain, and shoot. You may need to fiddle with the placement of the lights a bit, but it works. You can even shoot this way outdoors in bright sun. You'll probably have to play with the white balance a little bit but you shouldn't be off by that much.
Even cheaper is one powerful flash unit bounced off of a bunch of white surfaces. Don't point the flash towards the object - avoiding the results of that is why you posted in the first place. Bounce, bounce, bounce A box made of white foamcore works.
There are a lot of cheap and good DYI approaches to creating a lightbox you can find with a Google search. One I have to assemble comprises Tyvek house wrapping and spare white plumbing pipe to serve as the frame. A carpenter friend gave me a rollend of the Tyvek and I found the pipe in my storage shed.
For lighting there are a lot of ways to do it. I favor a ring flash, but have used color corrected bulbs set up outside the box. Depending on the product, you may have to provide additional front lighting. Sometimes I'll use the on-camera flash to provide minor fill while having it wirelessly trigger a separate flash. It's easy to experiment. As Dan says, strobist is a great site.
Since the purpose of this approach is to photograph a product, consider whether you want your lighting to be sharp and accurate (which my jewelry clients require) or have a slight tint to make the product "attractive" like they do with produce at most supermarkets.
Check out your local crafts store or a Michaels. You will find all sorts of reflecting items that will help you. They have big interesting sheets of different tinted boards (like you would use in a school science project that you can wrap around the product with a little skill. This would give you a smooth shadow effect behind your product. As stated before, strobist.com is a great place!!! (they even have some of my snoot samples! hahah shameless plug plug!)
Troup
Strobist is a good recommendation. Look for techniques for single strobe (if that's all you have) and bounce. I'd be inclined to put more light on the background than on the subject so you don't have to fight shadows, even if that means using the strobe to light only the background and ambient light (with bounce fills) for your subject. Best would be to get you background far back to remain out of your DOF, implying that you'll need an off-camera cable or some other means of moving the strobe beyond your subject, or at least using a gobo to keep strobe light off the subject while lighting the background from a strobe position close to the camera. An incident light meter capable of measuring strobes would be ideal, but without that you can still use your camera's LCD for critical light decisions.
Discussion
6 repliesThis doesn't need to be elaborate in any way, but presentable. I don't wish to go out and spend a lot of money on light boxes - etc., instead opting to make something myself that will work for me. My products will be small like baseball hats - cups - etc.
Any thoughts on how to go about this? Thanks in advance.
Greg
Nevada
I'd first look at Strobist.com. That site specializes in studio lighting done inexpensively. It is a really good place to start. They are also affiilated with Midwest Photo Exchange for the purchase of equipment. Don't worry - MIdwest Photo is an honest company. They are probably the leading company in the US specializing in used large format gear, which is probably why you have never heard of them.
Once you get past Strobist.com, a really cheap setup is two flashes and a white, translucent shower curtain. Place the shower curtain as a dome over the object and the flash units to the left and right of the object to be photographed, outside of the shower curtain, and shoot. You may need to fiddle with the placement of the lights a bit, but it works. You can even shoot this way outdoors in bright sun. You'll probably have to play with the white balance a little bit but you shouldn't be off by that much.
Even cheaper is one powerful flash unit bounced off of a bunch of white surfaces. Don't point the flash towards the object - avoiding the results of that is why you posted in the first place. Bounce
For lighting there are a lot of ways to do it. I favor a ring flash, but have used color corrected bulbs set up outside the box. Depending on the product, you may have to provide additional front lighting. Sometimes I'll use the on-camera flash to provide minor fill while having it wirelessly trigger a separate flash. It's easy to experiment. As Dan says, strobist is a great site.
Since the purpose of this approach is to photograph a product, consider whether you want your lighting to be sharp and accurate (which my jewelry clients require) or have a slight tint to make the product "attractive" like they do with produce at most supermarkets.
ME
Troup
Greg
Nevada