first shot at product photography

[holga girl]

i am much more of a PJ shooter. events, families, raw emotion. so this is new for me. i got hired to shoot a line of cupcakes for a local baker. let me know what you think.

 

[Sideburns]

too close, in my opinion. Move back a bit...Brighter soft lighting would help, as well.

 

[frXnz kafka]

I like the fourth, but the other ones don't quite work, I think. I agree that softer light would help. Also, maybe getting a bit lower, not so "on top" of the cupcakes. I'm also not sure about your background. They look a bit "dingy" to me.

 

[Mike Jordan]

Your depth of field is too short. At least all of the cup cakes should be in focus. Your background is too much the same tonal range of your cakes so the cup cakes don't stand out enough. I think the light is too soft as is and you need to increase contrast a bit.

Mike

 

[holga girl]

thanks for the comments. i am not into the backgrounds either..... the client provided them for me. in all, i was not too thrilled with these. i used natural light with a reflector on the side. i tried to light them with flash as well as in a light dome, but it was way to dramatic for baby cupcakes.

what lighting set up would you suggest for these?

 

[Black Magic Studio]

I'm certainly no expert on product photography, but here's my input anyway. The light seems flat and shadowy in the wrong places. I would move your light up to the front to eliminate the dark areas in the foreground. I would also add a harder light in back to add highlights on the edges of the icing.

 

[fmw]

Low contrast, underexposed, inadequate depth of field. Honestly, not billable in my opinion. I wouldn't show them to the client.

 

[Alpha]

What he said.

 

[laguano]

PP makes these photos better, try selectively coloring the photos to bring out the best, and i adjusted the levels to bring out the highlights.

i added a watermark just in case you didn't like me hosting your picture again

 

[DavidB]

When shooting food, you need to bring out the texture of the food, and create specular highlights (sheen, shine) to give the image some pop.

Simple advice: Have two lights, one to the left of the camera and one to the right, with about 1 F stop difference between them, and then have a light in the back about a stop brighter than the main. So, maybe one light at F8 (main light), one light at F 5.6 (fill light), and the back light at F11, and shoot at F8.

Example:

 

[dpolston]

David... I am looking forward to more of your posts!

 

[nossie]

When shooting food, you need to bring out the texture of the food, and create specular highlights (sheen, shine) to give the image some pop.

Simple advice: Have two lights, one to the left of the camera and one to the right, with about 1 F stop difference between them, and then have a light in the back about a stop brighter than the main. So, maybe one light at F8 (main light), one light at F 5.6 (fill light), and the back light at F11, and shoot at F8.

Example:

Hi David.
That's a great piece of input. Simple instructions for making the shot gets rid of a lot of the mystery. Thanks for that.
I've looked at and book-marked your site for mentoring.
Welcome to the forum, I hope you'll be sticking around.

Ray. :thumbup:

 

[photomath]

David B, quick questions about your set up of the lights for food--are you working with 4 lights or 2? and soff boxes or umbrellas?
Thanks
Roger

 

[DavidB]

David B, quick questions about your set up of the lights for food--are you working with 4 lights or 2? and soff boxes or umbrellas?
Thanks
Roger

As I stated above, I used three lights, which is typical for me. In most cases I use a combination of Photek Softlighters and refelectors with grids on my lights.

Christmas dinner anyone??

 

[KristinaS]

^^ That looks delicious! ...And I don't even like ham!