Novice requesting helpful advice for product photography :)

[Ninjab]

Hi there, I bought a 60D not long ago and am trying to do product photos. Unfortunately for me was I silly enough to think it was going to be that easy just because I bought a decent camera. I have been studying over the last few days lighting with product photography and the videos on profoto life were quite informative.

So my first step was to try and get crisp clear pictures coming from my 60D and then work on the lighting but cannot seem to get crisp sharp clear pictures. I am a novice on SLR but am working in manual mode but still struggling for crisp pictures so I can then work on lighting (as I need to buy equipment).

The settings I was using last night was in manual mode 100 ISO, 250 shutter, f/30 but no luck. I had fiddled with the ISO and aperture but results didnt vary so much. Also using the inbuilt flash, two fluro lights but the photos seem over contrasted, but as expected due to improper lighting setup but as mentioned above I am trying to get them to look sharp and detailed first.

So I am trying to work out what exactly I am doing wrong, or am I thinking that maybe they should be sharper than I think they should be? I figured if using a high aperture like f/30 most of the focused image should not be blurred at all but the prodict I am practicing on (a mouse) seems to have some blurr on the outer end of the mouse.

As I said I am a novice so feel free to have a crack at me

I know to get my product photos looking good I need to have good lighting setup, so any recommendations on what i should buy would be great. I see those softbox kits but am a bit weary on them.

Thanks a lot ​

 

[Ninjab]

I am very interested in product photography not for a business perspective but because it generally interests me. I dont know why exactly but I just have a general interest in products of all types and the artform of design and manufacturing to start to final product.

I bought the twin lens kit but the lens I am using is the one that comes with it which is the 18-55mm.

The reason why I set it at F30 because I was using this video as inspiration at YouTube - ‪Photograph a Rolex watch, product photography lighting techniques‬‏ . Although this guy is a pro photographer, even if I got the same result as his first pic of the watch I would be happy enough. He was using a high aperture (or is it low, I get it mixed up). I am not learning that I need to have a much slower shutter speed to be able to capture the light, the way I capture the light in the pics was as I had the flash on, hence mixing with the fluoro lights made it over composed...especially since it was like 50cm away from the mouse. (computer mouse, yes you are correct haha).

My other type of inspiration came from Jim's video at prophotolife dot com Andrew Gibson: creating a career and pursuing goals in photography | pro photo life the images he took in steps are here: vid episode 17 product photography - a set on Flickr which he makes it seem simple taking these great shots. But there is no detail on what kind of settings he used. Though most of the products I intend to picture will need white backgrounds but I think when I improve and want to market the products better taking them fake environments would be nice as I appreciate the artform that pro photograpghers achieve and would feel good about myself being able to do the artwork they do, at least even half as good.

If my images looked like this in white background I would be happy enough (the image at the bottom) LightStudio photography and studio lighting blog: Product Photo: White Background for Eshop


Putting it on timer when I get a tripod is ok for me.

 

[Kerbouchard]

At f/30, lens diffraction will start to rob your image of sharpness. In general, your lens is sharpest about two stops down from it's max aperture. f/8 to f/16 is generally the sweet spot.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

Get the book "Light, Science, Magic" for product photography.

 

[Kerbouchard]

Get the book "Light, Science, Magic" for product photography.

I will second that. For photos where you have complete control of the lighting and subject, the book is worth it's weight in gold.

 

[Ninjab]

Thanks I will check the book out.

However I think I also need to know how to get sharp images first and then work on lighting so the advice on aperture F stops was good info above too.

However I think lens I may be using is not good enough for sharpness maybe? Should I post my images here from Flickr?

 

[tyler_h]

If you post a couple of images we can comment more specifically.

On pixel packed sensors like the 550D the diffraction limit is ~f/11.3. If you have looked at MTF charts you'll see that lenses tend to get sharper as you stop down, but drop off from ~f/8 onwards.

 

[Ninjab]

Thanks will get on to that soon as I was uploading some others I took today. I think I need to work on getting the sharpness and focus right (or get another lens suited for product photos as I do want very high quality sharp images) and then work on lighting. Some of products I am trying to take pictures of are white and they are quite hard to get right for a novice like me anyway.

 

[Railphotog]

Your shutter speed of 1/250 at f/30 seems to be high, how much light are you using?

While I don't do product photography, do photograph my model railroad creations all the time. I do have incandescent and halogen lights, but for convenience and speed I often just use my desk lamp with a built in magnifying lens and circular fluorescent bulb. I've been using a Sigma 17-70mm lens on my Canon XSi for a while now, and usually shoot at f/22. Here's one of my HO scale (1/87th scale) models I shot using this setup:

The model is about 10-11" long (28cm). I lighten up the shadows with reflectors too.

 

[Ninjab]

Flickr: Ninja_B's Photostream

 

[Ninjab]

Your shutter speed of 1/250 at f/30 seems to be high, how much light are you using?

While I don't do product photography, do photograph my model railroad creations all the time. I do have incandescent and halogen lights, but for convenience and speed I often just use my desk lamp with a built in magnifying lens and circular fluorescent bulb. I've been using a Sigma 17-70mm lens on my Canon XSi for a while now, and usually shoot at f/22. Here's one of my HO scale (1/87th scale) models I shot using this setup:

The model is about 10-11" long (28cm). I lighten up the shadows with reflectors too.

Your image looks sharp all over from left to right. As to how I cannot do this with my cam I dont know. if I focus in on the mouse on one point the left or right side is not in focus, or the rear curve of the mouse is not in focus.

Maybe my 18-55 is not good for this purpose or a combo of that and my cam skills/setup.

 

[tyler_h]

I'd get rid of the onboard flash.

The 18-55 is ok for it. Sharpest around f/5.6 - 8 from memory. Consider the technique called "Focus Stacking". It counters the shallower DoF you get when focused closer.


2011_03_05_5532-5549 by tyler_s_hamilton, on Flickr
This shot is actually 18 shots with focus stacking (it is 1:1 magnification).

For smaller products you can create a DIY light tent. All you'll need is a cardboard box, some rice paper, large sheets of white paper and some tap/glue. The shot above was in one I made; don't have it anymore though or I'd give you a shot of the setup.

 

[Ninjab]

I'd get rid of the onboard flash.

The 18-55 is ok for it. Sharpest around f/5.6 - 8 from memory. Consider the technique called "Focus Stacking". It counters the shallower DoF you get when focused closer.


2011_03_05_5532-5549 by tyler_s_hamilton, on Flickr
This shot is actually 18 shots with focus stacking (it is 1:1 magnification).

For smaller products you can create a DIY light tent. All you'll need is a cardboard box, some rice paper, large sheets of white paper and some tap/glue. The shot above was in one I made; don't have it anymore though or I'd give you a shot of the setup.

What is this 1:1 magnification exactly? I have seen it in the Macro lens flyer that came with the cam on some of the lenses. Excuse my knowledge, I havent got that far yet but have been watching videos on youtube reading extensively online and started reading ebooks so that when asking for help I dont expect amateurs or pros to explain everything to me.

I was recommended a tamron lens Tamron 90mm Macro.

I also do not know this focus stacking?

i was going to invest in one of those softbox lighting kits (I think I can do without the muslin and stand and create my own environment so rather spend the momney on decent lighting) but yeh as I said I need to get the sharpness right yet and then work on the lighting.

Thanks to all for advice thus far

 

[Ninjab]

In relation to aperture and F30 not being appropriate for sharpness and detail, if you watch YouTube - ‪Photograph a Rolex watch, product photography lighting techniques‬‏ he is using f/30 for photographing that Rolex watch. For something so detailed like a watch, is there a reason why he uses f/30?

 

[tyler_h]

For the 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS:
Canon EF-S 18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6 IS review - Image resolution - Lenstip.com

f/30 will give a larger DoF to have the entire product sharp (for example the cross in the pic I posted has 8 shots to get it all in focus). Overall sharpness will take a large hit, as the graphs in the link above shows.