Product Photo

[drdan]

I kind of had an odd situation where a magazine called me for a stock photo of one of the sleep machines I carry on my website. There was a possibility of getting my site mentioned in the article so I wanted to get them a good picture. I pulled out the CD with the manufacturers stock photos and the "professional" shot of the one I needed was awful, most of it was badly out of focus. That was all they had available anywhere. So, anyway I had to shoot one myself. I'd never done a product photo before except for my own site. I got some light blue cheap cloth from the store and draped it on a couch. There was strong but muted (somewhat cloudy) light coming in a picture window, a couple regular household lamps on and a low level flash from the Sony 717 built in flash.

Any critique would be helpful, especially if it includes suggestions on how to do it better. I don't do many of these but I take most of my own product photos for my site and want any suggestions while this is fresh in my mind. The one I sent to them was a much bigger 300dpi version of course.

 

[elsapo]

Honestly, I don't do enough (any, these days) commercial/ad photo work to help much. I don't think there's anything actually "wrong" with this picture, but it looks vaugely like it was shot in the 1960s.

If you have time and resources, consider trying to do more of an "on location" photo -- sleeping figure in bed, hilights/emphasis on the machine (what does this thing do?)... I'm unsure of how this will be used or how large it will be, so an image that doesn't have 80% of the focus on the product may or may not work...

If nothing else, consider playing with different lighting. Maybe a blue gel to give it a nighttime/sleep quality.

Like I said, the photo is servicable but seems to have been shot decades ago and is sort of boring.

Sorry I can't be of more help...

 

[drdan]

Yes, now that you mention it, there is a 60's look to it. I just didn't have any good location (bedside) to shoot from, that is what I would have preferred also.

 

[Big Mike]

I think it looks pretty good, although it might be a bit better if the angle were a bit higher & closer so that we could easily read the small text on the buttons & lights.

 

[craig]

The product has a nice shape. Classic lighting set up. The highlights are a little strong. All together you did a good job.

A couch presents limited lighting situations. You can not put the lights in the exact location because of it's size. Plus larger products tend to sink into the background. That is a definite no no. I would go with a small table and something to hold the background up. Consider the tungsten lights with the daylight with the flash. Three colour temps can get tricky.