Product Photography Advice

[Jessica332]

Greetings everyone! I'm in need of some product photography advice and I hope that this is a good place to ask. I'm not a total "beginner," although I don't do paid shoots either... this sub-forum seemed to be the best fit.

I work in a small business, and we are trying to get some of our products online so that we can sell product in e-commerce direct to consumer. Of course images sell products online, so that's where we are stuck right now. We have an Olympus E-M10 Mark II camera with a M.Zuiko ED 30mm f3.5 macro lens, and a tripod. Not the best, but it's what we have to work with. We also have three Andoer light diffusers and a small plastic infinity curve.

We are trying to get images that are similar to these: Lapis Facial Oil

You can look over product images there to get an idea of what I mean. They are nice, striking images often with pronounced shadow and apparently direct lighting (possibly direct and diffuse both). They are well lit and seem to shimmer a bit, although without excessive glare.

Meanwhile, it seems that product images that we take in house just feel...well, dull. We take our shots on a tripod, manual settings at F22, ISO low, and adjust the shutter speed for lighting. We've tried varying the shutter speed up and down for brightness, and a little brightness does help some.

We've tried placing two of our light diffusers in the front (45 degrees left and right) and the third coming up through a plastic infinity curve to give a backlight effect. Still not really vibrant in the sense as the ones linked above.

Should we be shooting in sunlight? Any tips you can offer would be greatly appreciated!

 

[tirediron]

Your examples look pretty straight-forward and simple to replicate. Some examples of your current images as well as a photo of your set-up and details of the gear would help greatly.

 

[Jessica332]

I guess my main question is: what are they doing to get their lighting effect? It looks bright like daylight, and clearly isn't coming from a diffuser. Every one of their products has this effect, with the shadow essentially in the same place.

They also have an interesting backdrop. It's not a curve, but rather a 90 degree corner. I don't know how they constructed it...

I don't have access to a photo at this moment but when I can I'll post.

 

[Derrel]

Do not use two lights each at 45 degrees.

 

[Jessica332]

Sorry I meant each was 45 degrees from the "front." So a total of 90 degrees (maybe more). Is that still bad?

I'm beginning to conclude that the lighting is the culprit all along. We have diffuse lighting but I think direct would work better. The thing is I have no idea how to work with direct lighting. How do I get it? The sun isn't reliable enough where I am...

 

[Jessica332]

I found this: https://www.amazon.com/NEEWER-Studio-Flash-Strobe-Modeling/dp/B0043GZQOC/ref=pd_lpo_vtph_421_bs_t_1

Would using it instead of the diffusers do a better job of creating the desired effect?

 

[Cody'sCaptures]

I'm confused on your gear. Is this a constant light source or speedlite or strobe with this "Andoer light diffuser"? The main photos look pretty straight forward with one light off axis to right and above camera. Some of the other product shots look like composites or were at least cut out in Photoshop. I dont know a whole lot about micro 4/3 (or product photography) but f22 sounds high. The high aperture could be causing diffraction thus less sharp and/or saturated. Like TiredIron has said some samples would help to diagnose the issues at hand

 

[Derrel]

Two lights can create either competing shadows, or create almost shadowless lighting. You don't want either, but you want one shadow, and that means one light. Period.

 

[KmH]

If the product you are wanting to make photos of is like the example you linked to open the lens aperture to f/8, because the camera you are using has a small 4/3 image sensor and you're likley losing focus sharpness because of diffraction at f/22.
Diffraction Limited Photography: Pixel Size, Aperture and Airy Disks

 

[Designer]

Meanwhile, it seems that product images that we take in house just feel...well, dull.

Please post an example of what you are getting now. Include as much information as you can. At least one shot of your product, and a shot of the overall setup. (can be made with a mobile phone camera)

No, sunlight is not the answer.

I'm guessing that your lights are continuously on, and are simply not producing the amount of light you need. Also, editing is part of the process.

Besides the angle of view, the frame, and the focus, of course, the lighting type, staging, background, and editing are all important.

 

[Jessica332]

Thanks for the responses! I'll get a sample product shot and a shot of our setup up later today. The lighting is continuous.

Here are the lightboxes: Buy Products Online from China Wholesalers at Aliexpress.com

And the curve: Buy Products Online from China Wholesalers at Aliexpress.com

 

[Designer]

O.K., it looks like you should have plenty of light, so there is something else that is happening. I'll be waiting for the example.

 

[Jessica332]

It occurred to me that a better 1:1 comparison would come from a shot of one of their products. Since we have them, that's what I did - not sure why I never thought of this before. I attempted to emulate something like this: Orchid Facial Oil Roller only with our setup. I included two images of our setup. For the setup, the lightbox under the curve only has two of the four bulbs on, while the two front boxes have all four bulbs on.

I'm starting to think that both the curve and the indirect lighting are the primary culprits. I was thinking of running to the store and picking up a foldable poster board (one of the ones kids use at the science fair) and putting it on its side, setting the product on one flap and using it to get a nice white 90 degree angle. Could that work?

The second issue is lighting...I have no experience with direct lighting since I was always told product photography is almost exclusively diffuse light. I wouldn't know what kind of light to get, what temperature bulb, etc. Any advice? We're on a budget, but we would spend money to create a setup that produces decent product shots.

For this product shot I used F22, ISO Low, and 1/2.5 shutter speed. This resulted in a "+1.3" on the light sensor. I could have gone to even longer shutter speeds and brightened it up even more, which would have washed out the imperfections you can see on the curve and made it feel more like a continuous "light" effect, but I'm confident this would not have benefited the look of the product much. Also, I have photoshop, but I'm trying to get as close as I can without using it.

It was suggested that I use f/8, which I will have to try. I was led to believe elsewhere that f/22 was always the best thing for product shots. Any other advice is very much appreciated!

 

[Jessica332]

I continued to experiment. I went out and purchased a posterboard and I seem to have improvement - at least it feels like I'm going in the right direction

Also I know the cap is scratched up, try to ignore that if you can. I meant to use a newer one but forgot to do it.

I'm attaching my recent shots with the posterboard. I shot two with ambient indirect daylight (just what's leaking in through the windows, didn't attempt to direct the shadow or anything yet), two with one Andoer lamp with the scatter shade removed and all four bulbs on, and three with the Andoer lamp, shade off, but with a 250W incandescence in place of the other four bulbs (they turned out really yellow).

I've named the files with the settings. F22 = f/22, F8 = f/8, 4s = 4 second exposure, 1,6s = 1.6 second exposure, Andoer = Andoer with shade and 4 bulbs, 250 W = Andoer with single 250W bulb, etc.

Feedback is welcome. Thank you!

 

[Jessica332]

I took another set (ambient daylight only) and I'm attaching the best shot of that set. It was shot at f/14 on 5 sec, ISO 100. (This one has a clean cap.)

However it still doesn't "pop" the way the product shot does at their website. At this point I'm not really sure what to do next. None of my shots really have a nice color pop. Which brings me full circle to my original post...