Beginner Product (shirts) Shoot

[brandonf22]

Hello,
I am very new to shooting indoor products, in my case t-shirts. I have two large light setups that I purchased, as well as an over head light. This is the light setup I have 9 Bulb 9' Green Backdrop Daylight Softbox Studio Lighting Kit

I am shooting with a Nikon d5200, the lenses I have are a 35mm prime and a 18-55 kit lens.
What I have been doing is laying the shirt down on a contrasting colored board, almost flat on the ground. Then, shooting around 1/5 f11 iso200. My results are seriously hit or miss, and could definitely be better. Any ideas on what is needing to accomplish this? I have attached a photo of the look that I am going for. Im just about out of ideas and getting desperate! Any help would be appreciated.

I don't have any affiliation with this company by the way, just want to match the quality shirt product pics that they have with my shirts!

Thanks

 

[robbins.photo]

1/5 seems rather slow for a shutter speed, I'm assuming your using a tripod but are you using a remote shutter? Either way I'd recommend you up the shutter speed, I'd probably start somewhere in the 1/125 range. Also since your laying the product flat you really don't need a huge depth of field here, which would allow you to reduce your Aperture to say 5.6 or something in that range.

 

[tirediron]

I would start over again. Buy a roll medium gray seamless, proper lights (4) and a shirt form. You'll also need triggers and modifiers, but that's minor. You'll also need the lighting bible. To begin, read the book cover to cover and practice the different techniques. Use two lights for the product and gel one to give you whatever colour background you need (you can turn medium gray white, black, or any colour of the rainbow with gel filters).

 

[Designer]

Very low light and massively wrinkled shirts lying on the floor. Are you sure you want to copy this method?

Why not copy something that shows the shirts to their best advantage?

If I were going to do this, I would pose the shirts better and get more light on them. You can let the ISO go higher if you need to increase exposure.

 

[brandonf22]

1/5 seems rather slow for a shutter speed, I'm assuming your using a tripod but are you using a remote shutter? Either way I'd recommend you up the shutter speed, I'd probably start somewhere in the 1/125 range. Also since your laying the product flat you really don't need a huge depth of field here, which would allow you to reduce your Aperture to say 5.6 or something in that range.

I am using a tripod with a 5 sec delay to avoid shake. I will definitely try a faster speed.

I would start over again. Buy a roll medium gray seamless, proper lights (4) and a shirt form. You'll also need triggers and modifiers, but that's minor. You'll also need the lighting bible.

Im all for purchasing more of the right gear, but is my current setup absolutely pointless for this? If so, I will send it back.
If I can get away with my current setup though, that would be the best financial option.

Can you give me some insight on flashpoint lights? What they do differently, are they right up close to the object or far out, etc.

Thank you for the replies!

 

[brandonf22]

Very low light and massively wrinkled shirts lying on the floor. Are you sure you want to copy this method?

Why not copy something that shows the shirts to their best advantage?

If I were going to do this, I would pose the shirts better and get more light on them. You can let the ISO go higher if you need to increase exposure.

Its far better than what I have now! Here is an example of one of my shirts...

I understand the more light issue. Any certain lights? With my 35mm, I had to have the camera so far back away from the item that the lights had to be far off as well so that they did not get in the frame.

 

[Designer]

Well, that's better IMO. It shows the graphic better. You can get "more light" by leaving the shutter open longer. I think even with a wide angle lens you should be able to keep the lights close to your subject. If you're concerned that the lights show in the frame, just crop them off later when you edit the shots on your computer.

 

[tirediron]

Im all for purchasing more of the right gear, but is my current setup absolutely pointless for this? If so, I will send it back.
If I can get away with my current setup though, that would be the best financial option.

Can you give me some insight on flashpoint lights? What they do differently, are they right up close to the object or far out, etc.

Thank you for the replies!

The flashpoints are strobed lights, or "flashes". They provide a very short burst of very intense light; using 2 or 3 of these would easily allow you to shoot at 1/250, f22 and ISO 100 (not that you'd want to, but you could). Your current gear will work, but as you've found out, it's not really up to the task for best results. Continuous light (what you have) produces VERY little light in comparison to strobed light, even though it may seem bright to your eye.

 

[tirediron]

I understand the more light issue. Any certain lights? With my 35mm, I had to have the camera so far back away from the item that the lights had to be far off as well so that they did not get in the frame.

You want the camera and lights close to the subject; if the lights are in the frame, then as mentioned, either crop them out (I do this frequently in my portrait work) OR move them off to the side and raise them up a bit. You should have MUCH more separation between the shirt and the background. Having the lights closer will provide a softer, more gentle light. Moving them back will create harsher light.

 

[robbins.photo]

Also for a light colored T shirt maybe a darker background for more contrast. Just a thought.

 

[brandonf22]

Also for a light colored T shirt maybe a darker background for more contrast. Just a thought.

The attached picture was already cropped out, I've been using a navy blue background for white, and white background for colored shirts.

Im all for purchasing more of the right gear, but is my current setup absolutely pointless for this? If so, I will send it back.
If I can get away with my current setup though, that would be the best financial option.

Can you give me some insight on flashpoint lights? What they do differently, are they right up close to the object or far out, etc.

Thank you for the replies!

The flashpoints are strobed lights, or "flashes". They provide a very short burst of very intense light; using 2 or 3 of these would easily allow you to shoot at 1/250, f22 and ISO 100 (not that you'd want to, but you could). Your current gear will work, but as you've found out, it's not really up to the task for best results. Continuous light (what you have) produces VERY little light in comparison to strobed light, even though it may seem bright to your eye.

This makes sense... So I take it the flashes are connected to my camera... How many should I purchase to shoot these shirts? are umbrellas necessary?

 

[tirediron]

Start by purchasing and reading the book I referenced.

The flashes are triggered by the camera, and may or may not be physically connected to the camera. They may use radio triggers, IR triggers or flash slave triggers. You will need modifiers, 'though umbrellas might not be the best choice, they will certainly allow you do the job better than you are able to now. Again, don't buy anything except the book at this point and spend a few evenings watching YouTube videos on "product photography" and "clothing/catalogue photography".

 

[Designer]

The attached picture was already cropped out, I've been using a navy blue background for white, and white background for colored shirts.

The background looks yellow to me.

When you say "cropped" to what are you referring?

I know what I mean when I say cropped, but your sentence above is confusing.

Anyway, yes, I use flash, and I trigger them with a radio-frequency (RF) trigger system.

Softboxes (such as you already own) are what most people will use to modify their flashes.

 

[Derrel]

You are right to use the self-timer's delay function on long exposures. You can get VEWRY sharp images with exposures in the 1.5 to 3 second range, at low ISO levels, and at smallish f/stoops, like f/8 to f/11, as long as the camera is on a tripod and the subject does not move at all.

The wrinkles on the shirts look bad to me. Have you heard of the ghost mannequin method of shooting shirts? It shows the label AND makes the shirt look more three-dimensional and just, well...better.

If you are doing non-living, fixed subject matter, there is not a huge advantage to strobes; the real problem is convincing so many people that a longer exposure, like 1.5 to 2.0 seconds, is often actually SHARPER than a 1/4 to 1/15 second shot. Continuous lights do not put out a lot of high-intensity light, but they do give a WYSIWYG effect, which can help beginners.

You NEED to take CONTROL over the white balance setting part of the process, however! NEVER leave it in auto white balance--always set that.

 

[manaheim]

I'm not a product pro, but I've browsed many a t-shirt site and rumpled t-shirts seem very unappealing. Especially when you typically have ridiculously cute girls modeling the shirts (as many MANY sites do).