Equipment needed for Product Shots

[tie]

Hello everyone.

I own a website and need to do some product shots for a wide range of items. Everything from food to pills. Just wondering what the best setup for something like this would be. I have A Canon EOS 30d so i'm set for the camera, just wondering about lighting and background etc.

Cheers

 

[Big Mike]

Welcome to the forum.

The possibilities are endless...maybe all you need is a piece of paper and a window.

Can you point us in the direction of some examples of the type of shots you would like to produce?

 

[Christie Photo]

Check out this set-up that Fred is using.

Pete

 

[df3photo]

if the items are all relitively small, they make some cheap popup light tents that come with lights, I dont know how good the cheap ones are... but they also make nice ones that could be found at/threw most photo supply websites...

 

[Shutterbug]

Light tents work alright, but if you want any color that isn't white or black you're pretty much out of luck - any colored inserts that come with those things aren't worth much at all and I'd think twice before using them for any serious product work...

For TABLETOP product, which is what it sounds like you want to do, I'd suggest buying a 4 foot seamless (basically just a big roll of paper, comes in any color you can think of), a small boom stand or seamless stand to hang it, and you have your background.

For lighting, you have a lot of options... You could use studio flash, and that is what I'd recommend, but that can be expensive and flash can take awhile to get the hang of - OR, you could find some constant light sources, like Smith Victor lights, and use the Incandesant White Balance/Tungsten Film Balance and it would look pretty good... Most of my beginning product work was under a basic Smith Victor kit, and I didn't have any problems.

The last thing you'll really need is some way to diffuse the light so it will appear even throughout your background and won't reflect harshly on the product. With strobe flash, you can use whats called a Softbox, and that attaches directly to the light... If you go the hot light route (constant lighting) you can either make a big diffusion panel yourself with PVC pipe and some diffusion material (Do they still call it Luminex...? Anyone?) or buy something like a Photoflex P22 kit and be ready to start working out of the box.

Good luck.