Product Photography Advice

Two sheets of poster board (I use foamcore) will work if you don't mind seeing the juncture of two boards at the rear. One of those shots is pretty good, but I didn't grab it out of the lineup for reference. Probably the only thing it needs is a little carful editing.

I'll run through the series again to see if I can grab it out.

This one is my pick:

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It needs straightening, and maybe a little touchup, but at least there is no shadow, and a reflection instead. I like it.

For the health of it, here is an example of a shot using foamcore. You can easily see the joint, but for what this project was, I and the owner didn't care.

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This project has over two hundred objects d'art that didn't look real great until I did some editing. My editing usually went like this; straighten (not needed for this), exposure, white balance, curves, crop.
 
Thanks for the feedback! Your image is vivid and really pops. You chose the first shot taken on the plexi curve? That's my original setup. I did run out and buy the foamcore board (what I meant when I said "the boards kids use for science fair projects," didn't know the name). All of my other shots are token on that foam core material.

I'm really focused on trying to emulate what Herbivore achieved with the same product. In other words, they have a distinct shadow, nice color pop, crisp look, shimmer without excess glare, etc. We have a similar line of products (same industry etc) and if it's worked for them (they are a very successful company) then my reasoning is that it should work for us.

My plan is to try a few more shots tonight when the sun is down and I have full light control (the room I shoot in is full of windows on three walls). I'm going to try to use a single point source and see how that looks.

I did a little touch up work to one of the previous images (attached here). I basically followed this guide: 3 Easy Steps Using Photoshop to Making your Images POP

I wouldn't say it's a huge improvement but it's a little better.

I also attached another one of their shots. It's bright and airy but the blue pops, you get a sense of shadow and light refraction - all effects I'd like to achieve.
 

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I don't think shadows help in all cases. The well-defined shadows from the other website look rather amateurish to me, and I prefer no shadows at all if you can do it.

IMO, for product photography, the most important parts are focus, white balance, and exposure. Whether there is a shadow or not is not terribly important.

Focus, white balance, and exposure. That's what will inform your customers about the product.

To some degree, scale is kind of important, but for a bottle of fluid that has the volume measurement, maybe less so. For some products, scale is very important.
 
Thanks again for your input. I agree that in a sense they do look amateur. Certainly compared to well manicured images on AliBaba they are - at least per conventional wisdom. Nevertheless, these images garner sales. Is it because a less manicured image looks more trustworthy? Is it because shadows add drama? Is it because direct light adds texture? I have no clue. I just know that in this product category they are selling product.

What I really want to do is learn to emulate them as a starting point, and then improve from there. At least at that point I will know that I am improving off something that already sells product in this category. From there I will be in a position to A/B test different kinds of images.

I will work on focus, light balance, and exposure as best as I can. White balance seems to be my biggest challenge (if I understand the meaning properly). My background should be perfect white in this case. The label should as well. I shot another round, this time with a single light bulb. Please let me know if you think any of them are superior to the others (I've done no editing yet).

Things I know I need to improve on: reflections off the cap are in odd colors. I need to move my shoot location or cover objects with a black sheet. Also, the shadow is fuzzy, so I need to move the light source back. This one taken with the light approximately two feet from the object.
 

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You now need to start reading about flags. the reflections on the lid aren't great in any shot.
 
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Your camera lens is getting some flaring from all the light bouncing around at close range...your lens front is being struck by a lot of scattered light,and the lowered contrast is killing your so-called " color pop ". THis is pretty common in setups like the one you have: the lens front MUST have a very,very good shielding from stray light! A compendium lens shade, or a cardboard with a ghole cut out for the lens to peep through, and the card suspended or propped in front of the lens is a good idea.

Overall, you've made a big improvement I think. If you WANT a crtisp shadow, you need a crisper light! Those softboxes you have a BIG, compared to the small bottles, so the light is "soft", anbd the shadowing is fairly controlled, yet, I think it's okay...
 
A compendium lens shade, or a cardboard with a ghole cut out for the lens to peep through, and the card suspended or propped in front of the lens is a good idea.

Great idea! I hadn't considered that. I need to see what I can make at low cost. I'll try to get creative!

Overall, you've made a big improvement I think. If you WANT a crtisp shadow, you need a crisper light! Those softboxes you have a BIG, compared to the small bottles, so the light is "soft", anbd the shadowing is fairly controlled, yet, I think it's okay...

Thanks! I took the cover off the softbox so now it's just one bare bulb. I think that's why it's not too bad. But I will try to move the light back more to see if I can get crisper light as a result. Two feet is probably too close.
 
Also, the shadow is fuzzy, so I need to move the light source back. This one taken with the light approximately two feet from the object.
I don't understand the desire for the shadow, but if you want the shadow to be sharper, use a smaller light source. If you had a speedlight, then use just one speedlight without any diffuser. Using a CFL, you can use the ol' "hole in a cardboard" trick. Cut out a smallish hole (size of an orange, ?) in cardboard, and let the light shine through the hole. Turn off/shield all other sources of light in the room.

FWIW: I looked at the most recent 6 shots, but with all the variables in the shots and not knowing what you are going for, I won't try to select the "best" one. I saw variances in exposure and the white balance, but I don't know what will be acceptable to you.

Having that shadow right there is my problem with all of them.
 
If you had a speedlight, then use just one speedlight without any diffuser. Using a CFL, you can use the ol' "hole in a cardboard" trick. Cut out a smallish hole (size of an orange, ?) in cardboard, and let the light shine through the hole. Turn off/shield all other sources of light in the room.
...
Having that shadow right there is my problem with all of them.
I don't have a speedlight, I'm going to try to get by without one. I like your cardboard trick. We have plenty of boxes so this should be very doable. I was thinking I could take a toilet paper tube and put it in the hole to help. I have to wait for night time again to do another shoot (too much sunlight even with the shades down) but in the mean time I can construct everything I need.

On the shadow, I understand your dislike for it. This exercise is helping me to become a better product photographer, though. Without it I wouldn't have learned all of this from you guys! With everything I'm learning I will be able to apply the theory and techniques to other shots (including those without shadows).



Incredible video. That opened my eyes. I'm going to see if I can use a big box to really isolate the camera from all these flags. I'm excited to see the difference.
 
Alright, update time! I did some more shoots trying my best to use the advice I've been given. I don't have a lens hood yet (its in the mail) but I did try to apply the rest of the advice.

I took one of the softboxes and removed both the front fabric and the reflective backing, so it was just four bare lights. I then removed three bulbs. I took a small box and covered the bulb with it, and then attached a tube of two toilet paper roll cores (which I had taped together into one long tube) to the box and closed it up, cutting semi-circles in the flaps for the tube to fit through. Its job is to provide direct light. I then covered the light leaks with notecards and tape, and wrapped the whole thing in swaddling. The image shows the swaddling with a little tube poking out (I'll try to get pictures of the box and tube later when it's not swaddled but I didn't want to undo it right now). I took two pictures with that setup (one without the swaddling, one with; the one without had some indirect light due to light leaking). Both required a full 60 seconds exposure on f/14 and f/13 respectively.

I then added one softbox back into the room, facing away from the setup, with only one bulb on. You can just barely see it at the bottom of the image showing the light tube with the swaddling.

I took five more pictures at roughly the same exposure with the single-light softbox on: +1.7 according to my camera. I went with +1.7 because I found that over exposing a little helps to brighten up the shot. If I go much lower then it looks too dark (whites look very grey) and if I go much higher it looks washed out.

I've labeled all the pictures to help. I simply went down varying shutter speeds while adjusting aperture to maintain exposure. You'll notice I placed a big box next to the product. This was my attempt to reduce flagging by blocking the majority of the light coming from the direct light source (based on where I expected it to bounce). It also gave me a place to hide while the shutter was open. I also tried to address flagging objects as I discovered them (same thing with dust - which I kept having to deal with).

Please let me know what you think, if you have more suggestions, how I can keep improving etc. Thanks for all the help so far! If you have an opinion on which picture is best (or which two or three) I would really appreciate it. I haven't done any editing on these at all (aside from making the file size smaller on a couple because they were too big to upload).
 

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Of the above images, I selected "f13 with indirect" to adjust in photoshop. Please let me know if you have any feedback.

I applied a sharpening layer to help bring out the bottle texture a little, as well as two levels layers, a brightness/contrast layer, and a white point reference (levels). This is the result.

PS: There's a little dust that I didn't clean up, and it's not cropped.
 

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see how your cardboard box is reflecting back on the lid and creating a nice clean solid dark shape on the lid? look at the opposite side that's open to the room -- it's very messy.
 
You're right. I need to work on that. I may try another shoot tonight, or I might wait for the lens hood to arrive since I will want to do another one then anyway. It's hard to set up a box on the right side due to space and not wanting to block the direct light source, but I'm sure it can be done with a little effort. I also need to move the direct light source to a bit more of a head-on angle, and that will help make everything else easier.
 
Please let me know what you think, if you have more suggestions, ..
Wow! You've been busy! So much effort!

Just a thought: I know you want the shadow, and you're doing fine so far, but what if you experimented some with the location of the shadow? For instance; shadow on the table only, not on the backdrop. You will need to move the table far enough in front of the backdrop so the shadow dies on the table.

I like most of them, but the one that caught my eye is #3 with the golden shadow with figure inside of it.
 

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