Having a hard time taking straight pose pictures

Joechen350 · Mar 25, 2014

Hello,
I'm having a hard time taking straight pose pictures of my items, I mean I can take them straight, but not fully, like it can be slightly, very slightly slanted either towards the left or right, but if you're viewng at this image below, they also have a bunch more, and it is always so straight, you don't see a slant, it must be some angle or some typical type of skill. I am wanting to learn how can i do that, and avoid taking slant pictures even after aiming so straight.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61Ygm-bpeWL._SL1500_.jpg

Also my next question is, if you look at the image, it looks so bright, clean and everything. My camera is a canon EOS Rebel t5i, i have pretty much all the accessories that is required for taking pictures. The pure white sheet of background, 2 light, 1 at the left and 1 at the right shining right towards the item. My camera will be mounted on a tripod to take picture for clear shots, i have my item line up as straight as possible, and camera facing right towards the item. And I will always deal with error like the image below. Mine might look straight, but once look closely, clear out the background, you will see slanted either too much to left or right, and the item looks very ugly, its not as clean as clear as the first image. I do understand photoshop can make item look brightness, and many more, but I've tried it, they don't do much, i believe what cause the first image to look so clean and bright is just so photoshop editing, mostly skills shots and that's what I want to learn about from it.

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTA2NlgxNjAw/z/ntAAAOxy2FZSO4tn/$T2eC16d,!zEFIeoC8,36BSO4tn,N6g~~60_57.JPG

weepete · Mar 25, 2014

Ok, well the angles you posted in these shots are totally different. The first product shot is looking straight down on the phone, your shot is way off to one side. Also note the lack of shadows on the 1st product shot (the bottom shadows look like they were put in PP), and the totally white background.

I'd try and seperate the background more by raising the phone accessories off the background and using some lights to blow the background out, then consider the lighting on the phone. Mibbie someone else can advise a bit more on lighting this the way you want.....

Gavjenks · Mar 25, 2014

1) Take a photo sort of straight
2) Load it up in photoshop, pull down a ruler, zoom in, and then ctrl-A, ctrl-T, grab a corner and rotate until it lines up with the ruler.
3) Profit! Not even any question marks!

If you do not have photoshop, then you could maybe use gimp, it probably has similar abilities. Or build a little physical bracket that holds your camera square, or get a bubble level for your hotshoe + tripod.

enzodm · Mar 25, 2014

The best would be to take the picture straight from the beginning, of course. It is slanted because you did not accurately align the camera with the objects at first:since it is digital and objects are static, is not so difficult. Working with a tripod should make things easier, and in any case you can always check the result on the live view until grossly aligned (camera should be parallel to the objects! so it doesn't work to have the tripod vertical and the objects horizontal, because you always picture them on an angle). The fine detail can be then set with any software - in Lightroom you can indirectly adjust these issues with a couple of sliders in the lens distortion panel.
Other issues are coming from lighting, some are above mentioned. Plus, the pink accessory is blown out, maybe recoverable from RAW but not from JPEG. Taking pictures of reflective objects might be tricky ("Light: Science and magic" is an excellent book on these topics, worth to read and practice).

astroNikon · Mar 25, 2014

From a learning newbie
You have to be much more creative in the way you setup your photos. Think it through more and spend more time setting it up.

As mentioned, just using a tripod and putting 2 objects on a flat board isn't going to be comparable to the 2nd photo you showed of a nicely setup shot.

It takes time.
Think it though.
For instance, you first have to get a straight line shot of the objects. Either the objects have to be angled towards the camera, or the camera has to be above the objects.
For instance, I have this, which allows the camera to point down to objects.
http://www.promaster.com/products.asp?product=8005

But you can easily mimic this by putting the camera above the objects and having it point straight down
or have the camera on a tripod, though legs folded up, and laying on a table (put weight on the legs so it doesn't fall) so the camera points straight down to the whiteboard on the ground.
This will give you a straight on perspective.

Then raise the object off the ground to give some separation from the background.

Then you have to work on your lighting. Angled lights to eliminate reflection, etc. The book mentioned above is fantastic - I've read it and there is alot to learn and practice.

Just keep taking shots and try to think of how to improve to get a better photo.
The above might be kinda of a hack compared to a pro setup, but it works for the home setup and would be much improved on your first photo.