Product Photography Beginner Set

[kundalini]

I might add that for somebody to think that having a few gadgets and a digital camera makes you a professional photographer,...

I have a few gadgets and a digital camers......... and I DO NOT think that makes me a professional. But after reading through this thread I thought I'd take a whipping from Pete or whoever as well.

Here's my shot. Mind you, I didn't bother to clean the boots other than the last time I was tromping through the woods. I didn't have the little do-dads to get the boots at the precise angles that was needed, however, I did modify a couple pieces of styrofoam to get some angles I was after.

Here's the shot I was trying to emulate that REI uses on their website.
Asolo FSN 95 GTX Hiking Boots - Men's at REI.com​

How'd I do with my few gadgets and digital camera?


Hmmm..... after posting, I can see some greying in the foreground. A bit of lighting adjustments needed.​

 

[epatsellis]

Do you ever browse around Ken Rockwells site? Interesting reads on there for sure, one that I read a while ago covering this very topic was rather interesting and gave me some facts I didn't know previously.

Here is the piece I am speaking of: How to Become a Professional Photographer

Some quotes I found interesting.
"[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Photography is not a profession. Anyone can call themselves a professional photographer. There are no licenses and not even a college degree required. See my page on Why Photography is Not a Profession."

"[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]There are tens of millions of photographers. Photographs don't usually earn a business much money. Therefore there isn't much money there to employ photographers, and when there is, there are so many photographers who often will work for free that employers don't need to pay very much to fill the spot."

"[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]If you want to make money in photography, it's probably not by doing photography."

"[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]It's exactly like golf or surfing. Golf is fun, and it's almost impossible to get people to pay you to do it. Only one guy in ten million makes lots of money in surfing, photography or acting. Everyone else who makes the money does it in something allied to the field, like making or selling product or the dream."

"[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]According to Education Portal in 2002, the average annual salary of people employed as photographers was $24,040."[/FONT]
[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]
"[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]If you want to photograph professionally you'll make less money, have to shoot the boring stuff in crappy locations for which you're hired, shoot it the way the client wants, and probably have to shoot everything as if it's some big emergency every time. You'll probably only be able to afford beat up old gear that's "good enough.""



While I do like your description, I do think it is a bit much. I think you were describing a production company.

[/FONT]

Ever see this on KR's about page?
"I offer no warrantees of any kind, except that there are many deliberate gaffes, practical jokes and downright foolish and made-up things lurking. While this site is mostly accurate, it is neither legally binding nor guaranteed. The only thing I do guarantee is that there is plenty of stuff I simply make up out of thin air, as does The Onion."
While I like some of Ken's writings, his over the top lack of objectivity makes it seem rather banal and pointless. $24k a year, not likely unless you really screw the pooch, I make more than that in a depressed, rural environment, and I have interviewed for positions that start at $45k as a studio shooter. All you have to sell is knowledge and solutions, having both in surplus helps. Experience to know how to handle those "so and so couldn't do this" issues, as well as using stylists for food and MUA's for talent is a given in today's market, doing any less is cheating your client, and yourself.

There are many, many successful photographers, making a good living shooting, and surprisingly, enjoying their work. Yes, in commercial work you shoot lots of crappy stuff in a way you would have done differently, but as long as the client doesn't know that and pays the bill on time, who cares.

When I started as a professional commercial shooter, I paid my dues, worked in a studio (for more than $10 an hour, in the early/mid 80's) learned everything I could and went out on my own. Honestly, if you think that one person can run a commercial studio by themselves, you've never been to one. When I had my studio, I had one person that did nothing but processing (today that person would be doing post work), another that handled the incoming and outgoing product and built sets, and 4 shooters full time, as well as an office staff.

During the April/May Christmas rush (yes, you read that right), we would expand to 7 full time shooters. So we varied from anywhere from 10 to 13 people, plus myself. And we were one of the smaller shooting houses, though we did have a pile of huge companies (Spalding Sporting Goods, Danaher Tool Group, American Bosch, S&W, Moore Drop Forge (made Craftsman tools), to name a few of the larger ones, as well as hundreds of other, smaller clients. Even having only a few larger clients, you need at the very least somebody to handle scheduling and AP/AR issues, as you should never, ever interrupt a shoot to answer a phone or questions, you are on the client's dime and they expect (and deserve) 120%.

In a "real" commercial studio, you have at the very least an Art Director overseeing his shoot, and his word is as if handed down from God himself, as well as a stylist (for hair or food/product, depending on the shoot), the photographer and others. Even in this day and age, shooting digitally, I still have at least an AD and VP of marketing present on most product shoots I do, sometimes the Graphic Artists as well. There used to be a time where you'd have a "blue line" to shoot to, basically a rough comp of the layout with the type positioning and where the desired placement for the product should be. These days, most use a Photoshop overlay, same thing really.

There are damn few "real" commercial studios left anymore, mostly due to the friend of a friend that just got a camera syndrome.

One of the reasons I started shooting again was as a working graphic artist, I couldn't find a photographer that was worth a $hit. So I got back into shooting commercially, and I combine both skills in my creative services business. Not ideal, but considering where I'm at geographically it works. I can honestly say that any client I can get to use me never has left yet. Yes, I'm a lot more expensive, but I deliver a complete, finished product. On time, in budget and to my exceptionally high standards.

I'll let you in on a little secret, it takes far less time (and looks far more professional as well) to get it right in camera, than to spend hours of post making something look good. Intimate knowledge of lighting, capture media (film or digital, both are still used extensively) and understanding the entire offset reproduction process (as in why you have to light flatter than you would think, 4C offset can only hold 4-5 stops max and if you don't make the decision on what stays, somebody else will) Knowledge that you can't find on a website or by searching Google.

That is one of my pet peeves, everybody wants to take the easy way. Instead, go light a product, use some fill cards and flags (and/or black fill cards to kill light) and spend a day learning how each affects lighting a product. Take a class in artificial lighting and composition. Take a couple of drawing classes, learn how to reproduce a 3d object in 2d, and the role that value plays in the perception of depth and volume. Use that knowledge to light an object. Learn about warm/cool colors and how they advance/recede. Do some serious testing of your capture medium and see how many stops it can hold, where the sweet spot is when exposing to the right of the histogram, etc. Learn the sweet spot of every lens you own. Learn how to comp packaging, w used to use airbrushes and rub off lettering, now I can do the same thing with a color laser or inkjet. Go beyond that and take a class or two in print technology, understand (or at least get a hint about) 4 color offset reproduction. (you can't know how to shoot for something you don't understand)

The actual technical aspects of photography are the easy part, learning to light effectively to convey volume and depth, as well as good compositional skills and color theory isn't. It's all related, odd as it seems.

There's an old adage that to become a good photographer takes about 10,000 pictures, that may be true, but you can stack the deck in your favor.

 

[Sue Bruce]

I have been a product photographer for a while. I also take event and commercial assignments occasionally.

I will not claim to be an expert, nor claim that my photos are perfect ... but I think I do a reasonable job.

My studio set up uses 4 lights - 2 to light a paper background, a strobe with umbrella and a strobe with softbox. I also always use a tripod, always use a wired shutter button (or what ever it's called) and always spend a very long time fiddling with the layout before shooting.

Infact, I think I spend more time finding small heavy objects to prop/balance stuff and tearing off pieces of tape than anything else!!

Like many who have commented on this thread, I prefer not to photoshop. I will remove specs, improve contrast and color saturation sometimes ... but I don't like to do lots of photoshop work.

You can check out my stuff at Sue Bruce Photography

(These are some of the product shots I have done) ... feel free to wander around any look at my other work too. Would love some feedback! (although I hesitate to ask, because I know I'll take it to heart ...)

Sue

 

[Slavko Leon]

Hi all,

My company is setting up a webshop. This webshop will have a wide range of shoes (approximately 450). I've been doing some research and I was wondering what you would advice me.

At this point I'm looking at a "studiokit" from interfit. This set contains a fotocube and two daylight lamps. We are interested in a kit like this, because we don't want to modify the photos with photoshop to get an almost perfect white background.

Is this the way to go, or would you advice me something else? Any other tips regarding product photography for a beginner?

Just imagine the actual wedding day has arrived. Here is a typical sequence of events to help guide you on the wedding photography process.
At the House : If you want to take shots of the bride getting ready, you should be one of the earliest to arrive at the bride’s house, so that you can set up your positions, tripods or whatever equipment you have to use.