total noob about to jump off a cliff ;)

[Shredhead]

hello,
i'm trying to take product photos, the look kinda discolored and the background is not white.

I have an entry level canon rebel
a sigma 35mm art lens
i have 3 strobe - 2 umbrellas on the side and a big ass box thing on top of product
a light tent

here are couple of pic i took with different light setting, they are 100% stainless steel, so should be silver. i've been trying different settings on the camera, moving the lights, making them brighter and darker all kinds of stuff... feels like i am going in a circle... any tips would be great

 

[Shredhead]

my exact setting are

1/200
F8.0
ISO 100
standard 'image effect'
lighting setting - flash
auto correct brightness standard
single shooting spot metering in the center of product is where it is set

 

[robbins.photo]

If your shooting this in RAW you should be able to adjust the white balance after the shot is taken. In this case it looks like your background (assuming it's supposed to be white) is too blue. So adjust the WB till the background appears white.

You could also set a custom white balance on your camera but of course it would only work well if you did so for a specific lighting setup, so I'd probably start by shooting in RAW and adjusting after the shot was taken.

 

[Designer]

Some reading material for you:

Search Results for Query: product photography | Photography Forum

 

[TheLibrarian]

Way back in the day I processed wedding albums in a dark room when I was 16. No education or training other than what the guy said. One thing he said was the brides dress should most always be white so I normally tried to do that. Now we know there are different shades of white and can be a lot pickier in general. Adjusting WB or other colors is fine but in the 1st pic the tablecloth is white and the back is a grey-blue. In the 2nd both are a grey bluish color so simply adjusting the colors there might be ok. For the first you're either going to be needing the same material and proper lighting on both features, or adjust the color separately in post of tablecloth and background, or add that white background in post as some separate layer.

Note: IDK what standard fixes are in the industry and 2 are you afraid people won't buy your pipe flange because the background color is a little off? I'm sure you're more practicing good product photography than being the seller trying to take pics of his own product just to get them sold. I dont find it a big deal but I'm sure some do.

 

[fmw]

Assuming you have a white background behind the steel thing, then you need to light the background itself to keep it white. Most of us use light tents for this kind of shot but what you are using should work. Aim two of your strobes without any diffusers at the background and then light the steel thing with the third strobe with the soft box attached (or not depending on the effect you want.) In other words you are backlighting the subject. Expose for the subject and the background will go completely white. If the background is blue, then you aren't going to make it white without blowing out the subject.

 

[ronlane]

I'd suggest the book Light Science and Magic . It's a great how to for product photography and using light.

 

[DGMPhotography]

These photos aren't bad. I like the second one. And I honestly kind of like the blue as well. But if you want to get rid of it, that should be an easy job in post.

 

[Shredhead]

Wow thank you guys for all the replies...lots to read and think about. I tried to light the background more to get it more white as suggested and read about, i'm trying something i never even thought of..heh..

yes, I am using a lightbox that someone had up here at work before me, it is white all around but there is not top, not sure if that matters, here is the latest photo i took, i didn't do anything to it in PS except crop and reduce the size a little, i notice it kinda has a white hue over the top of it, is that from the background bleeding over you think?

again thanks you for all the help

Someone asked if i sell these, I'm the IT guy at work and I am redoing our web-site and have literally about 500 parts to photograph, so i'm trying to nail it the best I can and do as little PS as i can


***edit: i did put it in monochrome on the camera***

 

[Braineack]

I like the background in the first two.

you need to add more light on the BG only to get it closer to white.

 

[Dave442]

That last shot does look like some bleed of the backlight onto the object. May just be too much light on the background, usually two stops extra will make the background white. The distance from the object to the background should be as far as reasonably possible.

 

[Shredhead]

ok i moved it away from the background, it was about 3in from the back now it is as far as i can get it...about 20in, that seemed to help some but i still get that white wash over the object, and kinda grey color background, i am down as low as i can go on my rear strobe pointed at the background from behind. it is pointed straight in the background. here is another sample in monochrome on the camera, mostly because im to stupid to figure out why it gets a blue-ish or pink-ish tone...hehe...

 

[Shredhead]

oh yeah im on f16 on the sigma lens....its as far as it can go...

 

[Designer]

.. im to stupid to figure out why it gets a blue-ish or pink-ish tone...hehe...

Relax, this is simply a by-product of the light color and the white balance setting of the camera. What type and extent of post-capture editing do you do? The WB can be adjusted, but it's going to be a regular PITA for a run of 500 pieces, especially if you have to do each one separately.

 

[Designer]

oh yeah im on f16 on the sigma lens....its as far as it can go...

This is another variable that may introduce yet another type of aberration, namely; color aberration (CA) which will show up as a thin fringe of strange color on the edges of your subject. Go in close (zoom in) to see if it's there.