First product shots with D40

[seeyalater]

I recently purchased a Nikon D40 so we can take product pictures for our website and brochures. We already had a small photo cube tent with 3 cf bulbs (sides + top) that we previously used with a point-and-shoot camera.

I also pickup up the book Understanding Exposure which helped a lot with understanding the basics.

Now, armed with all the above I went ahead and took about 100 shots while changing ISO, Aperture and Exposure. Out of those 100 these I think were the best, but I still think they are not acceptable.

Any input would be appreciated.

ISO 200, 55mm, F/14, 1/15 Sec (Adjusted B/C in Photoshop)

ISO 200, 52mm, F/29, 1/3 Sec (Adjusted B/C in Photoshop)

ISO 200, 48mm, F/29, 0.6Sec

 

[CanonSnob]

The first one looks the best exposure wise, the second looks the job color wise. I would say balance the first one as you have the second. Also clean the stains dripping off the pole you have it mounted to. And do something about those obvious black gaps in the plastic. Makes it look like rubbish that's about to fall apart. What are those things anyhow? some sort of light?

 

[laxb0rder]

I think that #2 is the best of the 3. Good luck with your new camera.

 

[seeyalater]

Thanks for the replies. Those are LED lights used on yachts that we sell.

When shooting white products, do people usually use a white background or a colored background?

I find that a blue background for example tends to "bleed" on the edges of the white background. But using a white background makes it more difficult to extract the product from it's background in Photoshop.

 

[Mike_E]

Hi Seeya, here is a really quick polish with PS. It's just a WB and tweak in levels (compress the left and right sliders and tweak the middle one.

One thing that comes out is that whatever you had in the front of the product wasn't white or you had some tungsten bleed-through. You also really need to polish your chrome bar.

Any way, I've gott run but here it is...

 

[Atropine]

Is there a reason why you use that narrow aperture? Just curious. Personally I think its pretty nice with a little more shallow dof even on product shots. That chrome bar and cable for instance, it would look good if it faded out of focus while most of the light remained sharp. And it would also make the wrinkles in the black fabric bg less noticeable.