Issues with still photography (clothing)

The WB is on Preset Manual. Isn't taht the same thing? How would you suggest changing the exposure? I want it to be bright enought to flash out the background, but low enought not to distort the colors. Regardless of the flash, I can't seem to get lighter colors right. Like the listing i posted before ( http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=130496142487 ) Even with lower flashes and higher shutter speed the color still didn't come out right.
 
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Flash photography is pretty advance stuff. It is hard because your camera metering does not see the flash output. You need an indecent light meter. If you dont have that, it is all trial and error.

Since you do this in a studio, continous lighting will be a lot easier to work with than strobes.
 
Would continous lighting be able to white out the background? I notice certain ebay sellers (for example NEW NWT CALVIN KLEIN Solid Black Wool Suit 50R 50 R - eBay (item 200591863878 end time Apr-04-11 12:43:34 PDT) ) don't seem to have a background. How do you suppose they do that?

Also, do you mean incandescent light meter? They seem to be very expensive $400 was the cheapest I saw. Any suggestions where I can get a cheap one? With continous lighting is ther a particular one I should use? Should I just go to hope depot and by lighting :) ? Excuse my ingnorance.
 
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Yup, a lot of people use construction light. Ill stop giving you advice cause I dont know jack about studio or product photography :)
 
Thx for all ur help! I'll look into the construction lights. Might be a good alternative and might end up cheaper than purhcasing more flashes.
 
not to highjack this thread or anything, i am trying to get into photography and started taking pictures of clothes for my brother.

I was wondering if calibrating my nikon d5000 and monitor will help the color. (not sure if its my settings or just the screens im looking at) I can never get the exact color no matter what settings (wb, picture color, exposure comp, etc...) The red is never the red im seeing or the blue is never the same blue its always lighter and darker. I tried saturation +/- and it never matches the shirt im looking at on LCD or computer.

What kind of tips do you guys have to get the right color?

Also to OP, i find that setting manual WB to preset gets it right. For me, i thought setting it to PRE and taking a picture sets it, but you actually have to hold the set button and then it'll blink and then take a picture to actually set it. I found out after i read the manual and started getting correct white backgrounds. Or you can set AUTO ISO and AUTO WB that works great too.

Thanks!
 
Hi Mobobs

There is no such thing as flashing out the background. At least, there shouldn’t be. Theoretically, there is probably a way to get your background close to white, when seen on a bad computer screen, but the object itself would lose color, contrast and depth.
White background is achieved ONLY in post production. Your lighting should be solely focused on the object to achieve the best contrast and highlight of details, and enough light would spill over to the background to make things easier to cut it out in the post production. In all of the clothing photos on our website – background is taken out during the post production - http://www.fotoproduct.com/product-photography-samples/clothing.html


home_slide1.jpg



I personally believe you have two alternatives – start using Photoshop (which is very important for color and contrast correction even if you don’t want to create masks and cut out the background); or consider including the background in the overall style of composition. White, grey or color backdrops create a style used by many large brands. It saves significant effort in post production especially in high volume environments and lets you create a personalized style. We have some examples of seamless color backgrounds in Footwear and Bags&Purses section.


services_slide2.jpg





Best of luck!
_________________
www.fotoproduct.com
 
Well, you can blow out the background completely to white quite easily without using photoshop, You just have to throw a lot of light at it. If you have three flashes, try using two on the product and one onto the white background behind it at high power.

Regarding your white balance issues - you may be having problems because your flash colour temperature is going to be quite different from the ambient light and at shutter speed of 1/50s you're probably going to pick up a bit of ambient light, throwing the colours off slightly (usually in the form of a green or purple tint). This can't be corrected for in post-production or by setting a custom white balance, you would have to put coloured gels over your flashes. Easier is to just set your shutter to 1/250 (or whatever your max sync speed is for your camera) to cut out as much ambient light as possible.
 
Hi Mobobs

There is no such thing as flashing out the background. At least, there shouldn’t be. Theoretically, there is probably a way to get your background close to white, when seen on a bad computer screen, but the object itself would lose color, contrast and depth.
White background is achieved ONLY in post production. Your lighting should be solely focused on the object to achieve the best contrast and highlight of details, and enough light would spill over to the background to make things easier to cut it out in the post production. In all of the clothing photos on our website – background is taken out during the post production - http://www.fotoproduct.com/product-photography-samples/clothing.html



I personally believe you have two alternatives – start using Photoshop (which is very important for color and contrast correction even if you don’t want to create masks and cut out the background); or consider including the background in the overall style of composition. White, grey or color backdrops create a style used by many large brands. It saves significant effort in post production especially in high volume environments and lets you create a personalized style. We have some examples of seamless color backgrounds in Footwear and Bags&Purses section.






Best of luck!
_________________
www.fotoproduct.com

So this is all an illusion?
zarias.com :: The blog of editorial photographer Zack Arias » White Seamless Tutorial :: Part 1 :: Gear & Space
 

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