Product Photos - Still not as sharp and even as I would like.

jtice · Apr 3, 2007

I have been taking "product photos" for my own personal use for quite some time.
I have had my Canon 30D for a week now, and I am really trying to get the hang of it, and work out some of the issues I have had in the past.

I have tried slave flashes, but I still get very harsh lighting and glares from them.
Overal I think that fixed constant lighting has done better for me.

I have about 1000W of Halogen Shop lighting,
with a couple 100W lamps to help if I have shadows in certain areas.

Here is the setup I typically use,
toward the end of the day, I had the light shining through the sheet more.
The shop lights are very even and smooth, but I wanted to see if lighting up the sheet would make light hit the subject from more angles.
The sheet just ends up blocking alot of the light output.

Here are a couple examples from last night.
Not horrible, but certainly not anywhere near what I am after.

They just dont seem to have that professional look.
And can be a bit soft in places. I tried to add a bit of sharpening,
but I can only add alittle before I start to see artifacts from it.

What are my main problems here?
What are these photos lacking?

Thanks for the help
~John

jtice · Apr 3, 2007

Seems by uploading to my gallery, I am loosing the EXIF data? bummer

Here is a bit more info.
Canon 30D (set to jpg at 4 sharpness)
Sigma 18-200mm F3.5-6.3

Kept the Av at 8.0 or more
100 to 300 ISO

~John

Alex_B · Apr 3, 2007

I suggest cleaning the fabric you lay the things onto first... then clean the objects: see the display of that camera).

Is it just me or do these look a bit grainy? try low iso if you did not.

as for the light.. am i right you are mixing different lightsources wich produce different colour temperature? if so, you will have a hard time getting a decent white balance.

what lens are you using?

Big Mike · Apr 3, 2007

What lens are you using? What aperture are you shooting at? What ISO?

I see that you are using a tripod, are you using a remote or the self timer as well? How about mirror lock up?

What is your post process work flow?

Alex_B · Apr 3, 2007

oh, ok, you gave more info now ... stick to iso 100, no need to go to 300 ith a tripod and a static scene.

don't know much about that lens and how sharp it is.

xfloggingkylex · Apr 3, 2007

the 18-200 lens is likely your problem. Its a very versitle lens but with that much zoom (11x) you lose image quality as a natural trade off. Thats the problem with lenses... you want something that has great zoom (meaning very wide to telephoto, max focal length divided by min focal length gets zoom X), is fast (large aperture such as 2.8 or lower) is tack sharp, and of course doesn't cost much.

Problem is, you cant have it all, and in many cases you can only have two of them.

Alex_B, he is using the Sigma 18-200 3.5-6.3. Superzooms aren't know for their sharpness.

Im willing to bet that if you purchased the 50mm 1.8 mkII lens and used that you would produce MUCH sharper images, and you'd probably need to lower your in camera sharpening.

Big Mike · Apr 3, 2007

Canon 30D (set to jpg at 4 sharpness)

The camera may be over sharpening. I suggest shooting in RAW and doing your sharpening only in Photoshop.

Big Mike · Apr 3, 2007

Im willing to bet that if you purchased the 50mm 1.8 mkII lens and used that you would produce MUCH sharper images

Agreed.

jtice · Apr 3, 2007

sorry, forgot to include some of that info in the first post, I added some in my second post.

Geez Mike, Alex, do you guys live here?

thanks, you guys are always quick to help.

Yea, I know, noticed the dirty screen after I took the pics,
and I need a better back drop, that thing is a lint Magnet !

Canon 30D (set to jpg at 4 sharpness)
10 Second Timer
NO Mirror Lock Set (does that really help for these shots?, never tried it)
Sigma 18-200mm F3.5-6.3
Kept the Av at 8.0 or more
100 to 300 ISO

not much post process,,,, as I hate PP

I know, its part of it all, and needs to be done, I just like the shots to be as good as I can get them right off the camera.
Some minor exposure adjustments, and slight sharpening done, thats it.

~John

jtice · Apr 3, 2007

Sheesh, you guys are fast, you posted as I was replying

I tried to keep the Sigma lens at about 50 to 80mm to I wasnt at any one end of its limits.
I realize its not a supre sharp lens, I got it for the versatility, as a walk around lens.
I have a Canon 50mm F1.8 on the way, think that should do better?

Camera over sharpening?
Well, I did a test, with all 7 settings,
0 to 2 look horrible to me, not sharp at all.
5 and 6 start getting artifacts from it, and 7 has too many artifacts.
So I stuck with 4

I know that over sharpening can add artifacts, as my tests showed,
but can it give an overal grainy look?

~John

jtice · Apr 3, 2007

Ah, the 50mm F1.8 MkII that you mentioned is the Canon one huh?

I won it last night

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...MEWN:IT&viewitem=&item=280098408962&rd=1&rd=1

~John

Alex_B · Apr 3, 2007

just did some processing on one of the images .. also shows that a better background will help alot.

Changed the background, varied contrast a bit and slight sharpening.

xfloggingkylex · Apr 3, 2007

jtice said:
Ah, the 50mm F1.8 MkII that you mentioned is the Canon one huh?

I won it last night
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=018&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT&viewitem=&item=280098408962&rd=1&rd=1

~John

you're going to enjoy that, I assure you. My friend has an XT and he loves his 50 1.8.

As for the sharpening, oversharpening can add a grainy look especially if it sharpens noise.

PP sharpening is easier to get what you want. While some shots may not over sharpen, if another shot does (same setting) it can ruin the picture, whereas if you shoot everything unsharpened, you can later add the sharpness that you think suits the picture, and not all pictures need to be sharp.

And yes, mirror lockup can help because the slap of the mirror flipping up can cause blurry photos due to the movement. If the mirror is locked up, then when the timer expires the onlything that moves is the shutter, no heavy mirror.

EDIT: and yes, we do live here