Trying Out Some Product Photography

Kaotic Lazagna wrote in post #15769204
So keep my back/foreground white or black? Since I only have one speedlight, I think I'll just get three desk lamps with daylight light bulbs and place them on the three cutouts of my DIY soft box.

When you say narrower f, are you saying lower f stop for shallower DoF?

Yes. Larger numbers to increase your DOF.

Just give yourself some time to go through this thread at least partially and you will get all the you need to run very efficiently.
<<<<<< L I N K >>>>>>

samsen wrote in post #15771936
Yes. Larger numbers to increase your DOF.

Just give yourself some time to go through this thread at least partially and you will get all the you need to run very efficiently.
<<<<<< L I N K >>>>>>

Awesome, thanks. I like the "high key method" that's on that page. I'll look through that thread some more when I have more time. Thanks

tmoore323 wrote in post #15769253
Not neccesarily, I did it to get some seperation from the background and the product, you could just as easily pull them away from the wall a bit and use a kicker...

WB is def important as is being able to clearly see the products usually - I did some sharpening and dodging of the eyes, as well as the TY to make them stand out more and overll sharpened the image as well...

IMO a tighter crop also looks better as it draws you right in, rather then having so much head room with nothing but blank wall...

Cool, will try to remember to crop future product photography style pics. I never really cropped pics because either my subject takes up a lot of the frame, or I want the background in the frame, so it never came as a thought for me.

I think the question is, what kind of product shot are you going for? Do you want to just get a white seemless "drop out"/catalog shot, or more of a "beauty" shot? One important thing to remember about still life product shots is that they aren't moving, so flash isn't a necessity. If buying a new flash is out of your budget, you can get by making lighting set-ups with work lights. A halogen bulb in a cone reflector (think work light) makes a nice hard light source. You can use this down low to show texture in the product. You can place another one above the product and shine it through a sheet of tracing paper/velum to give a soft diffuse light. Then you'd just need one more light hitting some foamcore in the back and voila, a generally well lit still life product that will work a most of the time (with some adjustments) for drop shots. If you're shooting down on the subject you can do it with just two


You should hop on over to http://www.diyphotogra​phy.net/ to see what people are doing on tight budgets. You can also look into books like "minimalist lighting" by Kirk Tuck.

Scatterbrained wrote in post #15774283
I think the question is, what kind of product shot are you going for? Do you want to just get a white seemless "drop out"/catalog shot, or more of a "beauty" shot? One important thing to remember about still life product shots is that they aren't moving, so flash isn't a necessity. If buying a new flash is out of your budget, you can get by making lighting set-ups with work lights. A halogen bulb in a cone reflector (think work light) makes a nice hard light source. You can use this down low to show texture in the product. You can place another one above the product and shine it through a sheet of tracing paper/velum to give a soft diffuse light. Then you'd just need one more light hitting some foamcore in the back and voila, a generally well lit still life product that will work a most of the time (with some adjustments) for drop shots. If you're shooting down on the subject you can do it with just two


You should hop on over to http://www.diyphotogra​phy.net/ to see what people are doing on tight budgets. You can also look into books like "minimalist lighting" by Kirk Tuck.

Good question. I was just messing around. I made a three window soft box, but I still have to get some desk lamp. This won't be anything major, just to mess/play around with.

What if I'm shooting evenly, and not down at the subject? Should all three windows have a light?

I'll definitely look at the site you posted. Thanks.