Novice requesting helpful advice for product photography :)

[Ninjab]

Nah not going to dragon image. Way over priced and I reckon the gear would be the same from the image melbourne and fotogenics for half the price. I think I can spend $400-500 on decent softbox setup according to both of the owners of those two companies.

AND I just realised too....those lamp with clamps on them I think they have a MAX amount of wattage they output too! So in the end it wasnt really worth buying the more expensive higher power globes that I bought heh. I think I value my frustration, time more than a few hundred dollars. Though I started out wanting to buy a cam for $700-800 and ended up getting a $2100 cam for $1500 and now was going to spend $300 on lighting etc and seems it will go to $700. Nearly $2500 worth when a pro photograpgher would do me each se of 5-6 products for $500. I am hoping my investment pays off. Oh and I also prob need to get the Tamron lens which is another $350

That new light tent from fotogenics I am waiting for him to send me some pics he was going to do for me on a notebook bag. I think will do as mickmac said and go for softbox first and just clip the paths out, I need to do that anyway even in white background.

How do I put it as a my photos are ok to edit?

 

[tyler_h]

"Settings" (near the top)
"Edit Profile" (on the left) then scroll towards the bottom.

And certainly is an expensive hobby haha

 

[Ninjab]

Heh well it wasnt set out as a hobby but I like learning things...and creating things.

No wonder why i couldnt find it, I was looking in Flickr

 

[Ninjab]

I cant seem to get white to look like white. It must be the way I am setting up the custom white balance or something else. I have basically finished reading that Light Science Magic book and it has given me more knowledge but hasnt helped me at all. Was up till 5am to finish reading it and even read the white on white part.

I think the goal at the moment is to get my white paper to look like white on PC first but I cant even do that!

 

[mickmac]

Ok Ninjab. You're probably not going to like this response, but I think it is the best option. You need to contact the customer while they still have time to organise something and be honest with them. Tell them that at the moment you are not set up to do the job for them. it may piss them off a little, but it is much better than having them pay you for a job that isnt up to standard. its nothing to be embarrassed about. You cant expect to be creating professional shots when you simply dont have enough experience. Practice a lot and when you are ready, find work.


EDIT: For some reason, I thought you were trying to do this for a customer. I just went back and read your original post so ignore me (o:

 

[Ninjab]

Heh well you are right in a sense that it is for a customer but the customer in the end is everyone....its for my own catalogue. So bad or good words I still value anyone who bothers to spend the time typing to me here when its contstructive, when you have been

I am just concerned though if I do go out and buy a soft box setup for $500-700 and a macro lens that my results will still be average. But its hard to base it from the insufficient lighting setup that I have here and no use of a tripod (but I am not trying to go for detail at the moment but keep trying to improve the lighting in my shots, and/or exposure.) I think we my lighting is not strong enough I am overexposing some of the shots to try and make up for the lack of at this moment. Or at least I think so anyway.

I wanted to get my catalogue flyer done with nice shots to go out to print to help push my products but just getting a good camera I realised thereafter purchasing was only a small piece of the puzzle. So going from a $1500 budget is now expanding into a lot larger than antipicated. The pro photograpgher was going to charge me $550 to get the products that I do have now done, and now I am thinking maybe it was the better way to go since if I times that by 5 times if I ever need them done by the money I am spending (if you dont count what i will use the camera for personal use) then it was rather a silly idea since I dont need to take pictures of a lot of products. But I do have the flexibility to do more or if I get 1-3 new products I can do them more easily and wont get charged (since its not more about the amout of products he would be shooting but mroe the setting it up to take the shots as you would know I am sure).

I guess at this stage it is hard to determine if my investment is worth it since I dont have the proper setup, or am I simply blaming the improper setup due to the lack of experience. It is an art no doubt about that but I dont exactly call myself stupid and I do have a good eye for artistic design (I do my own packaging too which does get good feedback).

Just hard on a shoestrong budget!

 

[Ninjab]

Just looking at your white products in your flickr. If I got results like that i would be more than happy, you are very good!

 

[Helen B]

Continuous lights work well for most product shots as long as they are all the same CCT (Correlated Colour Temperature) and tint; and preferably very high CRI (Colou Rendering Index) fluorescents or, better, they are incandescents - even nomal household lamps.

I do almost all of my product shots with one softbox and some silver card reflectors. I use normal household incandescent lamps in the softbox (they are the modelling lights) for shots that do not need to be balanced with a continuous daylight colour balance source (eg when photographing LED flashlights) or when the exposure with the continuous lights would be too long. Only then do I use flash. I find that using continuous light suits the way we work now - tethered camera with live view on a computer screen for composing, focusing and lighting the shot.

Most or the work I do is on a small set, but occasionally we do secondary product shots on white as well, just for blogs etc that might prefer that look. I use a backdrop that is close to a true white (not all 'white' papers are white) which helps with getting correct colour and also hides most small errors if I mask out the background or blend the original shadow around the product back into the picture. (We sometimes leave the background light grey.)

Looftlighter-26F0103-W2 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Best,
Helen

 

[Ninjab]

Thanks for sharing your collection of pictures Helen and your advice. Good photos you have there!

I was quite disappointed that the only way to tether the 60d was to connect a mini HDMI cable to the camera to do this....but the disappointed comes because it was not included in the camera pack. You spend a couple of k on the camera and they cant provide a $5-10 cable yet provide a USB cable and a composite video cable (like who buys a 60d and would use that anyway????). I did have one somewhere that I had of a sample but seems I cant find it.

If the 60d does infact let me thether live view on my PC it will make my life a lot easier because having to take the SD card out and stick it in the PC and back again is very tiring especially when I cannot achieve or do what I am trying to do. It makes it hard to practice as micmack suggests above. What I see the pics on my camera LCD after taking the pics look like they might be alright only to put on PC and nothing like how I thought so thethering is going to help.

 

[Ninjab]

Ok I have bought a mini HDMI cable and a wireless remote trigger (interested to see how the cheapie ones work) and now to get the tripod, two softr boxes and going to go out and buy a acrylic opal colour sheet today.

 

[mickmac]

Do you have a light meter Ninjab?
This is an important piece of equipment that can help you to adjust each light to make sure you are getting even lighting across your product.
Thanks for the comments on my pics by the way. I am far from being an expert on product photography, but after 8 years I know the basics (o:

 

[Ninjab]

Hah nah very good work. All good detail and lighting in your shots. What kind of lens do you use for your pictures?

I nearly bought one (light meter) used off Ebay on the weekend but I missed out. brand new one from HK = $159 vs the 2nd hand one from Aus at $132...so I lost interest. I plan to get one though as I think for a novice like me it will be very helpful.

By the way this is the way I want my setup to look like. The guy at the photo light shop said I should add a boom light to it too, but not sure?

 

[mickmac]

I shoot with a Nikon D700
The two main lenses I use are Nikon 50mm f/1.8D and Nikon Micro 105mm f/2.8
I use a lighting setup very similar to the one you are showing. I also use a tripod. It is vital for product photography.

 

[Ninjab]

hah yes I am ordering a tripod too. Wont be able to do it without it.

macro lens will be on the cards if I cant get the DOF's and sharpness I need I guess. Or alternatively do what Tyler suggested and focus stack.

 

[Ninjab]

Should I be buying a 50 x 70cm soft box (2 of them) on the setup above or 1 60x90cm and 1 50x70cm? I worked out the distance to the subject if given the size of the 60x90cm soft box, will be around 70-80cm. Is this overkill, should I be buying the 50x70cm ones instead?

The kit I was going to buy comes with a overhead boom as well. Thanks.