A Step-By-Step Guide to Shooting Your First Product Photograph - Tuts+ Photography Tutorial

6/2/14 1:11 PMA Step-By-Step Guide to Shooting Your First Product Photograph - Tuts+ Photography Tutorial

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LIGHTING

A Step-By-Step Guide toShooting Your FirstProduct Photographby Jennifer Carrigan 5 Dec 2011 6 Comments

Today, we'll be taking a walkthrough simple product shoot. This type of photography isin some demand on stock photography sites and is perfect for showcasing an item inorder to sell it on Ebay or Etsy. As reported our recent still life article, once you'vemastered this type of photography, it can be personally rewarding and pay very well.

The most basic form of product photography is an object in front of a white or solidcolored seamless background. This is often utilized in retail catalogs when they want todisplay their products without distractions. These are sometimes called cutoutsbecause its easy to cut out and insert into another image.

Many photographers can successfully shoot product photographs at home with littletrouble. Ideally, you would have at least three or four lights to work with, but it ispossible to do it with just two. Well explore that in this tutorial.

You will need



At least two good light sources, more the betterA 18% gray card (optional)A clean, bright white poster paper or similarA light box (optional)Translucent paper white tissue paper, tracing paper, wax paper, or whiteumbrellasA table or workspaceImage editing program such as Photoshop, Lightroom or Gimp

Lights, Camera... ActionFor this tutorial, I use only a pair of flashes. While I could, as I describe below, uselamps or other light sources, I prefer my flashes because they are easy to repositionand are fairly powerful.

If you dont have flashes or speedlights, incandescent lightbulbs, florescent bulbs ortubes, whatever you have handy, are all suitable. If possible, purchase a number ofsame-brand, same wattage bulbs. The bulbs hues can vary from brand to brand, andwhile your eyes may not detect the slight dierence, your camera can. Lamps,especially the type with bendy arms, are great for this sort of product photography.

There is another light option: daylight. Preferably a nice, overcast day. However,daylights intensity can be unpredictable, depending on the weather and the time of theday. Relying on daylight isnt always feasible, and if youre limited to shooting inevenings when it gets dark early. This is where artificial light comes in handy - it's aconsistent, steady light source that give you the confidence that the light levels will notchange from one moment to the next.

Whichever light source you opt for, use multiples of the same light sources is because itcan be dicult to compensate for mixed lights. For example, florescent bulbs tend toemit green- or orange-tinted light. Most incandescents cast a yellowish hue. Andtungsten is orange.

While it is possible to compensate for the mixed tint in-camera or in the post-processing, it is easier, especially if youre just starting to explore this genre ofphotography, to use a consistent light source because its one less step to futz with.



Don't forget to use a manual white balance setting that's appropriate for your lightsource.

Gray CardA 18% gray card is very handy for fine-tuning the white balance, especially importantwhen youre photographing something with a white background. Color casts from yourlights or even the light reflecting o your object will be apparent on the white backdrop.

Some newer dSLRs have a customizable WB setting. If yours does, photograph thecard and it will help you determine the proper white balance. For further details on how,check your cameras manual.

If your camera does not have customizable WB setting, you can still use this card todetermine and alter the white balance in post-processing.

Your camera doesnt have this custom feature or you lack a 18% gray card? Afteryouve set your table up, set the WB to whichever light mode youre using, take a fewphotographs of the white poster paper and fine-tune the WB the best you can.

The Set-upThere are a number of dierent ways you can set up your table. You can purchase oneor make your own DIY lightbox.



Photo by D'Arcy NormanOr go the lazy route and tape your paper poster up to a wall.



Getting the Lights RightEven lighting is important. One of the main requirements of this type of productphotography is that its easy to cut out the object; and in order to do so, its importantthat the outlines of the object are crisp and clear and the shadow on the backdrop isminimal.



The Object Du JourFor this tutorial, I have chosen a toy thats not reflective (well explore reflective objectsanother time). I suspended the toy on strings for a couple reasons. First, because of thelimited number of light sources available, this will help minimize the shadow underneathit. Second, the backdrop wasnt large enough for this object. When the toy was on theground, the edge of the backdrop intersected with its feet. While that wasnt a hugeissue its easily fixed in photoshop, certainly I prefer to rely on post-processing aslittle as possible. The strings are more easily cloned out and it will be less destructive tothe image quality to repair in the post-process stage.

Single LightWith only one light placed at about three o'clock (with the dragon in center of theclock), it casts too strong of a shadow. It makes no dierence how I place it; there is acrisp shadow.



When I place an umbrella in between the flash and the toy, it helps soften the shadow.However, both the body of this toy and the left side of the backdrop are in shadow, itneeds some light from the left side.



Note: If youre using a DIY lightbox and feel that the shadow is too strong, add a layerof your translucent paper one at a time until its soft enough.

Two lightsThis is with no umbrellas to diuse the light; the right light is still at three o'clock, theleft at about eight o'clock, and now we have two harsh shadows. Unacceptable.



With umbrellas better. Depending on your goal in this project, this might be goodenough. I feel this can be further improved upon, however.



Repositioning Lights



I moved the left light so its slightly above and left of the object. The right light has beenrepositioned it so it is aimed more downward, at the surface below the toy; the whitesurface bounces some light back up underneath the toy. I also added a small whitereflector on the left just behind the toy, directly opposite the right flash; this bouncessome fill light onto the rear of the toy. (Note for the DIY-ers: A white poster paper or wallcan be used to similar eect.)

The lighting is now more even throughout. It's not perfect, but much better.

The shadow is nearly gone and if I so desire, I can dodge it out easily without aectingthe quality too much in the post-processing stage. Having played with a few otherpositions (not shown) of the lights, Ive conceded that this is the best placement for thisobject. If this toy was reflective, however, Id choose a dierent arrangement andreplace the umbrellas with sheets of translucent paper.



Multiple LightsAs noted before, multiple lights is ideal. As you can see in all of the images, thebackdrop isn't stark white - this is in part due to the paper itself, and in part because Idon't have a third light solely for illuminating the backdrop. It's not the end of the worldif you're in the same boat, though; I've sold images that were lit by only two lights justfine.

If I had the option, I would place a third light above, with barn doors to control the lightspread, aimed at the backdrop for a brighter white background. And perhaps a fourthto minimize the shadow below the toy even further. If you have access to multiplelights, I hope this description helps you find a good setup.

Choosing the ApertureIf youre photographing an object with the intent of selling it to a stock company as acutout, you may want close down your aperture in order to maintain a crisp outline ofthe object.



In the above example, which was shot at f4, this is unusable. This toy is already fuzzyas is and probably too dicult for a graphic designer to cut out neatly.



At f8, its passable



At f18, its much better. The edges are still soft, but that's more due to the nature of thetoy itself.

This is still life; a fast shutter speed isnt necessary. Lower it as much as you need to inorder to get a good exposure, and use a remote or the self timer to avoid camerashake. Do take note that, at this aperture, the backgrounds inherent flaws - forexample, creases in the paper backdrop - may stand out too much. If you're doing thisfor fun or to sell an item of yours, the DOF isn't that crucial. Choose an aperture that



appeals to you the best.

In the end, I went with this setting: f18, ISO 200, shutter speed 1/30th of a second.

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Final ImageNow I've chosen my final image, all I have to do is clone out the strings and give theimage a slight boost to the saturation (because Pentax's dSLR cameras are set todesaturate the images in-camera, a known issue for all of the K line cameras). Voila.



Now I have to give the toy back to my dog!

Final TipsMarketing-wise: consider leaving some space on either above, left or right; adagencies, magazines and other buyers of stock images like room for text.Staging is important. Clean whatever item youre photographing dusty or dirtyobjects arent particularly attractive. In the dragon's case, I tossed it in the washbefore photographing it.



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Difficulty:BeginnerLength:LongTagged with:

Lighting Speedlights

White backdrop

About Jennifer Carrigan

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Jennifer is a freelance writerand editor residingsomewhere in Seattle, andshe occasionally moonlightsas a "lifestyle" photographer.Jennifer enjoys exploringnew techniques and is, as of



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Mrs. Mimi Akter 11 months agoAll are images wonderful. well done

Diana 2 years agoWhat type of camera did you use it? My camera is a small Olympus x-715, and Im not sure if I can achieve the same quality, how can I adjustto f18? Im trying to photoshoop a beer bottle and I have problems with

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to f18? Im trying to photoshoop a beer bottle and I have problems withthe reflections because is translucent.

Diana

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Product Photography 2 years agoThis is fantastic, would have it framed and on my wall any day

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sadeq68 2 years ago

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I use a lightbox that comes with two cool lights (diffused) on both sides.Although it is only suitable for shooting small objects, I found thefollowing worth mentioining from my experience with "product" orobject shooting :

a) A frontal light will help. In my case, apart from the two built-in lightsfrom the sides of the lightbox, I use a table lamp with the same colorglobe and illuminate the subjects from front.

b) Using custom white balance and measuring off a gray card is heapsbetter than shooting in AWB and then trying to fix it in Photoshop. 18%gray cards are $20 or less in any photo shop. You measure and set thewhite balance before you start shooting.

c) Turn the vibration reduction or image stabilization feature of the lensoff, ensure mirror lock up is enabled and use a cable release.They willsave you from blurry edges.

d) Use a high F stop and experiement with higher values. This will give

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Michelle 2 years agoThank you for the awesome tutorial. I appreciate the DIY tips for thoselike myself who are still beginning not only lighting techniques, butassortment of items on my "photography wish list"!

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Andrew Childress 2 years agoGreat tutorial Jennifer, well executed and great final image.

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A Step-By-Step Guide to Shooting Your First Product Photograph - Tuts+ Photography Tutorial