Product Photography- pet bowls

[jjenniebug]

Hi there,
I am new to this forum but I am excited about the opportunity to get some great advice from you members!

I need to take better product photography of my pet bowls. I have a Nikon D60, tripod, 2 umbrella lights and a white muslin backdrop. I am having problems getting rid of the shadows created by the wrinkles in my backdrop. I have adjusted the contrast levels in Photoshop but as you can see it still looks bad.

Any thoughts on what I should try?

Thanks in advance!!

Jennie

 

[redtippmann]

What type of light are you using, continuous or flash?

BTW: It looks like you are getting 2 color lights. Make sure to either turn your house lights off or gel the photography lights to match.

 

[D-B-J]

good flash heads are what you need. probably three, each with a softbox or umbrella. a more experienced person can give you better specifics than i can.

 

[AnneRiceBowl]

They seem a little OOF to me.

 

[redtippmann]

good flash heads are what you need. probably three, each with a softbox or umbrella. a more experienced person can give you better specifics than i can.

You could probably do it with one flash (with an incandescent gel). Shoot it through a 24x32" softbox. Then use a 100W (or greater) regular light for the background.

 

[Don Kondra]

A seamless paper backdrop will get rid of the wrinkles, then you can work on the lighting

Cheers, Don

 

[jjenniebug]

Wonderful- thank you all! I will try the paper backdrop first and then when I can afford more lighting props I'll look into the flashes and softbox.

Is there anything else I can do in Photoshop to minimize the shadows/ wrinkles with the pics I already have or are they toast? I have PS Elements 5.0- nothing fancy, I know :sillysmi:

Red Tippmann, I am using continuous lighting but also had the overhead light on which explains the two colors of light- you guys are good!

Jennie

 

[KmH]

I have adjusted the contrast levels in Photoshop but as you can see it still looks bad.

Any thoughts on what I should try?

Thanks in advance!!

Jennie

I used PSE7, but I selected the product with the Quick Selection tool, then at the top of the workspace clicked on Select > Inverse, so it selected the background only. Then I clicked on Layer > Newe Adjustment layer > Brightness/Contrast and increased to Brightness slider as high as it would go and clicked ok. I then reselected the background layer and then clicked on Enhance > Unsharp Mask. Then sharpen to your taste.

 

[redtippmann]

One thing you might want to do is go to Home depot and see if you can get a more powerful bulb. But not too powerful because you might melt your umbrella!

BTW: I think KMH did a nice job!

 

[KmH]

If you look close at the edges you can see where I saved time by not cleaning up the selection.

The point was to illustrate some alternative editing techniques.

It's always better to get it right in the camera.

 

[jjenniebug]

Wow KMH- that looks great! For what I need the pics for (online listings) the edges are fine as they are. At least this will let me use the pics I already have- or make them look much better.

Thanks so much

Red Tippmann- I'll try the stronger bulb- my umbrellas are not the highest quality so yes I would worry about them melting but I'll keep an eye on them! Thank to you too!

 

[gsgary]

Your white backdrop needs more light, it should be about one stop brighter than the subject, but your focusing is a bigger issue, don't rely on photoshop get it right in the studio