Novice requesting helpful advice for product photography :)

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If the lighting is too intense, you can buy some diffusing material and put it across the front of your soft box.
 
For product photography I would go for the largest softbox you can manage rather than two smaller ones. You can always use reflectors - smooth silver-faced card will do very well. If the source is already soft you don't generally need a diffuse reflector.

I have always found that a boom is extremely useful. I use a 4 ft x 4 ft (1.2m x 1.2 m) softbox permanently mounted on a boom.

Regards,
Helen
 
Thanks Helen.

What kind of area are you lighting with that massive boom? Sounds like a scene as opposed to a singular product? I am guessing.

The studio that I visited today which was a massive one, he had a soft box which was HUGE. Maybe around the size you mentioned but he also had a larger area. Unbelievable the setup he had as was in a medium size warehouse.

I am ordering a 50 x 70cm and a 60 x 90cm soft boxes and a boom which is 50 x 70cm too. The 60 x 90 will struggle to fit in my room but will use this as the main light with the boom, with some directional light of the smaller one from the other side.

For product photography I would go for the largest softbox you can manage rather than two smaller ones. You can always use reflectors - smooth silver-faced card will do very well. If the source is already soft you don't generally need a diffuse reflector.

I have always found that a boom is extremely useful. I use a 4 ft x 4 ft (1.2m x 1.2 m) softbox permanently mounted on a boom.

Regards,
Helen
 
Well I got my soft box kit...only setup one light. Will setup the 90x65cm and boom on the weekend. Just put the 70x50cm soft box on this one. My cam is on a tripod now and remote trigger.

Bad reflections from the metal badge and the nylon so far and the white and black are both off balance. Waiting for my HDMI cable to come so I can tether it on my notebook. Its quite over exposed too and too bright since the bag is definitely black but looks gray in the picture due to the lighting.

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Seems I am not really getting any better. Hours and hours of stuffing around and cant seem to get my lighting right. Or more so my exposures.

If I try and get my backgrounds lit white then my pictures are overexposed and colours dont look right. I cannot get black to look properly black due to this and definitely cannot get white objects to look white either. Always a very off white or gray as when cut out and put on a white background looks very awful. These new pictures are running a softbox from the sides left and right.

Stressed to the max, very tired, confused and dont know where to go from here :(

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The EXIF's etc are on my flickr at Flickr: Ninja_B's Photostream
 
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Dont know if I am getting any better but I took your advice and didnt shine those two soft boxes at the actual product. Just pointed them at the projector screen. Pointing them at the wall didnt really get any light to them as I think they might be a bit close.

I hooked up my boom and placed it a long way away near my door and stood that facing towards the corner of the room on the right in the direction of the larger soft box.

But looks like there is not enough fill light from the front? And colours dont look right and it looks dull just like all my other pictures I take :(. the Blue n on the metal badge not bright and the blacks are looking gray and purple'y. Blacks seem to look gray when I get the backgrounds white but my intention wasnt to get backgrounds white, just trying to get the bag to look full and black like the studio picture below this post.
 
Still looks a bit orangy on one side and a little grayish still. I still suck at taking exposures, either things are dull or not proper colours. Not sure where I am going wrong as I am going by the exposure meter and I sometimes take a stop or two past what it recommends being the proper exposure and still is dull.

Disregard the focus on these pictures by the way.

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Maybe I should of just left it all to a professional in the end! :( Becoming very frustrated due to the money spent and I havent really gone forward at all.
 
Here are the originals of some exposures I made late last week. Please critique my exposures so I can try and improve. There was a lot of light on these products from all angles and it was still kind of dull, if I increased to allow more light in in the exposures they would be over exposed. At this lighting, the backgrounds were not so white but the colours of the products looked near correct, just needed some levels adjustments on the pictures below these 3.
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Here are the edited images (white and black levels adjusted) in photoshop. Please let me know what you think?

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You will notice there is some inconsitency in the black levels of the first two images, I think it needs some adjustment as the 2nd image black looks better in my opinion as it looks more true black and not too much light contrast in the lighting. Let me know what you think.

I also pen tooled and cut out the badge in the first image as I had another exposure which had a better reflection on it so I copy and pasted it over the top. Also in the 3rd image I pen tooled the papers in the pocket and had it in a top layer with no colour adjustment as the papers got lost with the sampling of the white adjustment level from the background. I also pen tooled some other parts where the background was still a bit gray (since my projector screen is further back than where the product sits making the lighting on white different for exposure).

I would like to be able to not do so much editing but in the end, if I get the results consistent of the levels.

I have compared my pictures to companies like Belkin and targus with their pictures of their bags and I think my pictures are either as good or if not better, in my opinion. It is amazing now to see flaws in products since now having an eye on lighting in pictures and how they are supposed to be done, or at least my perception as to how should be done.

Thanks, will post more pictures later for critique. Let me know what you think! Thanks.
 
I want to chime in, but am about to head out for work. If I find some free time, I'll respond, otherwise I will tonight. I wanna help you out since I do product photography
 
Well I got my soft box kit...only setup one light. Will setup the 90x65cm and boom on the weekend. Just put the 70x50cm soft box on this one. My cam is on a tripod now and remote trigger.

Bad reflections from the metal badge and the nylon so far and the white and black are both off balance. Waiting for my HDMI cable to come so I can tether it on my notebook. Its quite over exposed too and too bright since the bag is definitely black but looks gray in the picture due to the lighting.

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You can shoot the badge separately, light for the bag and strip the badge in in pp.....much easier ans then you can get good lighting on the bag as that is your product
 
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