Product in focus

[iamericlarson]

I cannot get my product in sharp focus for the life of me...

Camera: Canon Rebel EOS Xsi
Lens: 55-250mm 1.1m/3.6ft 1.4-5.6 IS & 18-55mm 0.25m/0.8ft
Lights: 2 30W Daylight 2000 Lumens
Tent: 55inch

Here's my set up:


Unfocus:


How can I get a better sharper focus? I'm new to product photography. My area is in graphic design, any help would be much appreciated!

 

[Don Kondra]

Assuming you used center point focus there really isn't a lot of contrast there for the auto focus to work with...

Pick a better spot/area or try manual focus.

Considering the downsizing for web the sharpness is not bad...

Cheers, Don

 

[Derrel]

An old trick I used to use with a view camera on still-life and small product shots was to place a high-contrast "focus target" right in the scene, or right ON the product...

Take a PostIt Note and draw some letters on it. ABCDEFGHIJK is good. Stick that PostIt Note right where the active AF focus bracket is...or place two or three of them on the scene, and focus either by autofocus (AF) OR by hand, with the depth of field preview button held in (if your camera HAS a DOF preview button, and I think most Rebels do not...) and sort of 'eyeball' the focus.

With the camera firmly mounted on a tripod for product photography, using the smallish lens apertures needed for depth of field on many products, f/stops like f/8, f/9.5, f/11, or f/13, you should have plenty of depth of field for a flat-ish subject like the one shown, as long as the original focus point is pretty close to the mark.

At close distances, even small focus placement errors can "blow the shot", so if there's an issue, take different shots, moving the focusing ring very slightly. If your camera offers Live View focusing, that can be of some help.

There are some "issues" too that might not be apparent; many lenses can suffer from what's called focus shift, where the lens focus point shifts a bit when the lens stops down to shooting aperture. Secondly, lenses like the 18-55 kit lens have VERY short focus travel; these lenses tend to move through their entire focusing range in very few degrees of turn, so focusing may be "hair-trigger"...and manually setting focus using the viewfinder and focusing by "hand-and-eye" with a modern AF lens can be very tricky sometimes. This is one situation in which Live View, magnified focusing can be helpful.

 

[iamericlarson]

Assuming you used center point focus there really isn't a lot of contrast there for the auto focus to work with...

Pick a better spot/area or try manual focus.

Considering the downsizing for web the sharpness is not bad...

Cheers, Don

I am using manual focus..
f/16, 1.3 sec exposure time and ISO-100.

These are going to be for print.

Any tips? Should I be using a bigger lens and zoom in, focus the product and zoom all the way out standing 8ft back?

 

[Derrel]

Focus more carefully. Focusing is a critical, basic operation in successful commercial product shooting.

If you have issues, do a focus bracket; shoot a shot, and move the focus a teeny-tiny bit, then shoot another. Do 5,6 shots. It's free on digital, not $2.49 a shot for the film and $1.99 per sheet developing.

 

[iamericlarson]

Focus more carefully. Focusing is a critical, basic operation in successful commercial product shooting.

If you have issues, do a focus bracket; shoot a shot, and move the focus a teeny-tiny bit, then shoot another. Do 5,6 shots. It's free on digital, not $2.49 a shot for the film and $1.99 per sheet developing.

You mean in general or me standing back and zooming out isn't the right way to focus?
Thanks for your help btw.

 

[Tony S]

Looking at your camera mounted to the tripod off to the side like that and a long shutter speed of 1.3", it is very possible you are getting some camera shake when the shutter is firing off. How are you firing the shutter? If you are using your finger on the button set the timer to fire it to help eliminate any movement. If that doesn't work then get the camera on a more solid mount or use mirror lockup if it's available to you. Another option is to readjust your lighting to get more light on the bag so you can use faster shutter speeds, that looks pretty dark all hidden in the tent like that.

 

[iamericlarson]

Looking at your camera mounted to the tripod off to the side like that and a long shutter speed of 1.3", it is very possible you are getting some camera shake when the shutter is firing off. How are you firing the shutter? If you are using your finger on the button set the timer to fire it to help eliminate any movement. If that doesn't work then get the camera on a more solid mount or use mirror lockup if it's available to you. Another option is to readjust your lighting to get more light on the bag so you can use faster shutter speeds, that looks pretty dark all hidden in the tent like that.

Good point with the camera tilt. It is on a timer of around 8 seconds, so that should eliminate some shake for when my finger fires the shot.

When I add more light I can then bring down the exposure right? I think one of the man problems is that I don't understand how far or close I should be to the product..

 

[Tony S]

Start with your lights just out of the frame, then move them back from there. It's easy to deal with too much light.

 

[The_Traveler]

Out on that boom, your camera isn't on a tripod, it's on a springboard.
At 1.8 seconds there is a lot of time for camera to be moved by damn near anything, including shutter bounce.
Sit it down on the top of the legs.
If you can, use mirror lockup and shutter delay.

 

[Don Kondra]

I think one of the man problems is that I don't understand how far or close I should be to the product..

Very generally speaking, depending on the size of the object I'm shooting somewhere within a range of 40mm - 90mm.

Too wide will distort and telephoto will compress the image.

Pick a lens and mm setting and "walk" the camera up to the tent till the product fills the frame.

BTW - with continuous lights I usually shoot in Aperture mode.

Cheers, Don

 

[texkam]

Your lenses are consumer grade "kit" lenses. Shooting with an "L" prime should give you better IQ. I agree that camera shake as mentioned above, may also be a factor. Are these raw SOOC images?

 

[iamericlarson]

Your lenses are consumer grade "kit" lenses. Shooting with an "L" prime should give you better IQ. I agree that camera shake as mentioned above, may also be a factor. Are these raw SOOC images?

Yeah, they came with the camera.. I don't know if I can convince the company I work for to upgrade to a $1,500 camera lens. Any recommendations? They are raw CR2 images.

 

[Alexandtheng]

bit off topic (and i apologise), but oh god what bag is that, it looks delicious

 

[texkam]

I don't know if I can convince the company I work for to upgrade to a $1,500 camera lens. Any recommendations?

Tell your company they'll get what they pay for. The 135mm f2 sells for just over a $1000. It's a nice piece of glass, although you don't need a fast lens for the type of product photography you're doing. Address the possible camera shake problem first.

They are raw CR2 images

Do you understand SOOC raw images are going to be soft? You sharpen in post. I can't recall offhand what is recommended for print usage. Consult your printer for the sharpening specs they recommend.