Product Photography Gear

[frommrstomommy]

Hi! It's been a while.. I have been doing some product photography and I am looking for a bit of advice for possibly getting myself a new lens..

Random image attached for example of what I'm referring to.. these are just my sunglasses

Most products I photograph in my box I shoot at f/8 and have no issue.. but some smaller items, like this pair of sunglasses for instance.. even shooting from further out and increasing f stop I just can't seem to get the full frame into 100% focus. Am I just being a dummy here? This images is 2 images combined.. once focused on the center bridge.. and another for the stick? idk what its called.. lol on the back side.. but the one on the front and image right still falls soft at the end.

Any advice?



Is there another lens and settings setup that might work better for me? I can merge multiple frames I guess but trying to streamline here.

 

[pixmedic]

most product shots make use of focus stacking, i think.
a technique i have not messed with yet.
you would probably need several shots of the glasses, all with different focus points, to get it all in focus for the final picture.

 

[Overread]

A few thoughts to consider

1) You're already doing one good thing which is to move back and use a smaller aperture. For product photos online you can likely go down as far as f16 and, with the right sharpening, not have much image quality loss at all. So that already gives you quite a lot of depth of field to play with. Of course sometimes you might want to have an enlargement of the photo; prints and might even want to just have higher native image quality; or the object might not fit even that wider depth of field

2) One method is a lens with a tilt-shift element in it. Tilt-shift lenses essentially allow you to tilt the plane of focus. Typically its parallel to the front of the lens, but in a tilt shift you can angle it, this means that you can create an artificially deeper depth of field along an axis. However it might not work on every product and tilt-shift lenses are not cheap either.

3) Focus stacking is the next option. For this you'd focus on a point on the subject which is closest to the camera, take a shot; then move the focus a little bit further and take another shot. Repeating this over and over so that the focus moves through the subject all the way with some depth of field overlap between each photo.

You can then use software (Zerene Stacker; Helicon Focus; Photoshop; Combine ZP - this latter one is legally free to use) to stack the photos into a single composite photo that adds up all the in focus areas. This lets you use a wider (sharper) aperture, whilst getting all of a subject in focus. You can combine photos manually, but the software makes it a lot faster, especially with more complex shapes.

Note most of the software packages have home and commercial use options - Zerene and Helicon (from memory) both have different prices for commercial use; whilst Photoshop is without such a limit (but you pay for that by default in either the one time cost for older versions or the continued monthly cost that it has now)

 

[frommrstomommy]

A few thoughts to consider

1) You're already doing one good thing which is to move back and use a smaller aperture. For product photos online you can likely go down as far as f16 and, with the right sharpening, not have much image quality loss at all. So that already gives you quite a lot of depth of field to play with. Of course sometimes you might want to have an enlargement of the photo; prints and might even want to just have higher native image quality; or the object might not fit even that wider depth of field

2) One method is a lens with a tilt-shift element in it. Tilt-shift lenses essentially allow you to tilt the plane of focus. Typically its parallel to the front of the lens, but in a tilt shift you can angle it, this means that you can create an artificially deeper depth of field along an axis. However it might not work on every product and tilt-shift lenses are not cheap either.

3) Focus stacking is the next option. For this you'd focus on a point on the subject which is closest to the camera, take a shot; then move the focus a little bit further and take another shot. Repeating this over and over so that the focus moves through the subject all the way with some depth of field overlap between each photo.

You can then use software (Zerene Stacker; Helicon Focus; Photoshop; Combine ZP - this latter one is legally free to use) to stack the photos into a single composite photo that adds up all the in focus areas. This lets you use a wider (sharper) aperture, whilst getting all of a subject in focus. You can combine photos manually, but the software makes it a lot faster, especially with more complex shapes.

Note most of the software packages have home and commercial use options - Zerene and Helicon (from memory) both have different prices for commercial use; whilst Photoshop is without such a limit (but you pay for that by default in either the one time cost for older versions or the continued monthly cost that it has now)

Super helpful! I will look into these software options I think. I think I really only need to worry about stacking for 1 or 2 images per product in my experience so far so the time spent really isn't huge but this one new client may mean a lot of work in the future and in that instance.. time is DEFINITELY money. lol

 

[Overread]

Yep - another point that I meant to make and forgot to whilst typing, is that sometimes you just have to find the golden angle.

That is to say focus stacking fixes things for any angle, but at the same time by moving the camera further; using a different aperture and changing angle of the product you might well get the depth of field to cover the object. Tricky with some shapes, but more practice would fast teach you what you'd need for the future.

And if if fails or starts taking too long you've got focus stacking to fall back on.

 

[frommrstomommy]

Yep - another point that I meant to make and forgot to whilst typing, is that sometimes you just have to find the golden angle.

That is to say focus stacking fixes things for any angle, but at the same time by moving the camera further; using a different aperture and changing angle of the product you might well get the depth of field to cover the object. Tricky with some shapes, but more practice would fast teach you what you'd need for the future.

And if if fails or starts taking too long you've got focus stacking to fall back on.

Yes.. been trying another lens over here and playing around with settings.. seems no matter what I will have to stack at least 2 images to make it pass for what I need, at least for the main product image.

I think I will save time for this project by just going ahead and stacking instead of playing anymore and wasting time lol

2 images below.. need a 3rd to get that right side in focus I think ;\

 

[FotosbyMike]

Yeah focus stacking is the best way to get the whole product in focus with a good aperture setting. I have used Helicon Focus and love it, 1. Creates all the masking externally well, 2. If you shot tethered to Helicon you tell it the camera, lens, starting focus point, farthest point and it chooses the number of shots needed to stack.
Mike Constable on Instagram: “Love using #heliconremote it is so easy to set a start and stop points and it auto shoots all the frames.”
Mike Constable on Instagram: “And some #heliconfocus action it is so much more precise then PS.”