Need help: Suggestions for photographing fishing lures

Hi everyone,

So surpassingly enough Googling "How to photograph fishing lures" doesn't come up with much of anything. I thought you could Google nearly anything!

I'm looking for input on my setup for fishing lure photography. Through a referral, I've been connected with a fishing lure distributor that is working with a manufacturer to update all of their product photos (and boy do they need it from what I've seen!). I don't have an exact count, but it sounds like there could be anywhere from 500-1000 lures to take pictures of.

From a gear standpoint, this is what I currently have to work with:

1) Canon 5D Mark II
2) 3 580 ex ii and yongnuo triggers that give me complete control over each flash
3) Canon 100mm 2.8 Macro, 50mm 1.4, Canon 24-105, Canon 70-200 IS II, extension tubes, and a 500D close up lens (works well on long end of the 70-200.)
4) I have two 24" softboxes and a 30" umbrella, lumiquest softbox iii (about 10")
5) Plenty of deskspace, and the ability to setup a light table (soft box under glass on saw horses with some type of paper on it)
6) I plan to shoot tethered to my Mac
7) XRite Color Passport to color profile (accurate color is very important for this assignment)

It's important to not have shadows underneath/behind the lures so the light table seems like an obvious part of the mix. At the same time though, I would like there to be as much definition as possible so some light variance on the subject making it look less two dimensional is a good thing I would think.

I have a few days before I meet with the client so I can certainly try out different suggestions and post my results for you to see and provide additional feedback. I'm looking forward to the project and any input anyone provides.

Thanks in advance!

Mark

That should be interesting. Some will have metal parts where you want them to reflect like metal. Others will be painted & you won't want too many reflections from the paint.
I'd shoot them in groups of metal, non-metal, etc.

Sounds fun.

I have not tried (though I have shot some fishing flies) but the nature of lures will vary a lot. Many will have metallic blades and all have shiny hooks, so reflection can be a problem, and in general they will tend to be reflective by design.

I did some research and found some stock photo's and they look to use white background or natural wood http://www.gettyimages​.co.uk …y&phrase=fishin​g%20tackle . Also searching for fishing lures showed most shots for used by shops were against white backgrounds, although in a tackle box is also popular.

Adding to that I widened the search to fishing tackle photography and found this site, which has some great promo shots of lures.
http://www.bassfishin.​com/photography/

I would look at the light tent concept to control where the light comes from and how much hits the subject and from where, the light tent can help reduce some unwanted reflections of the room as well as diffusing light. One thing that seems common is the use of continuous lights for product photography.


It seems to me that using some jewellery photography techniques could work well, the controlled lights for reflections and shaping shadows.

Could you post up a few shots so those who know more about this game can give you a better answer.
As its okay to say you are doing this or that but they need to see how to fix it by looking at a shot.
Though I could be wrong and I have been many times, but I do think this will help.

Guessing it would be very similar to photographing jewellery.
Brian v.

Here's a simple setup to get you started. Two sawhorses spanned by a sheet of 1/4" clear lexan/plexi with white board on the floor underneath. Hit the board with a light and adjust until you just start to get your highlight warning in the hot spot. (using a very flat tone curve in your picture style helps here). Then you can set a hard light at a low angle across the subject to bring out texture, set the light about a stop or so below your key light. Then you can bounce the third light off of a reflector board above the subject to work as a soft key light. I would either use the 100 macro or the 70-200 with an extension tube. The longer focal length will have a much narrower angle of view which will make shooting reflective subjects easier. The narrower angle of view means fewer areas around the set that need to be filled to avoid unwanted reflections.

It's also a good idea to try and keep your set lighting about 4 stops up from the ambient. 4 stops down from middle gray renders black, so if you can keep that 4 stop difference you don't have to worry about odd shapes and things ending up in your reflections.

Granted without seeing the subjects this is all quite generic, but it should be enough to get you by, or at least give you a starting point.

Thanks everyone for your input, but especially Scatterbrained. I hadn't seen your reply when i worked in my setup last night. This is what I've come up with so far and I'm getting close I think. I'll post some pictures of my setup and results this evening I hope if time permits.

So far here's my setup:

1) I've setup up a large lightbox table which has a 2x2' soft box with a remote triggered 580 ex ii pointing up through a large cardboard box. I've cut a hole in the box and have an opaque piece of white plastic from a shooting table.
2) I have my camera mounted on a tripod above this with it pointed straight down.
3) I have another small 12x18" cardboard box that I've placed another 580 ex ii with a rouge flash bender in it with the front covered in parchment paper. This is placed on the table and faces the top of the lure
4) Opposite of #3, I have a 3 ring binder with a piece of poster board clamped to it. I keep this bent at about 40 degrees to reflect the light from #3
5) I've color calibrated with my passport colorchecker
6) I'm shooting tethered to my laptop and external drive which after a shooting session I'll connect to my mac for processing on a calibrated monitor

Definitely interesting to set this type of shot up. I am a little concerned about the reflective nature of some lures but I guess I'll see how that goes when i get into it.

Mark

BasAndrews,

I stumbled across the bassfishin sight as well. Very nice images they have there. I'm also going to look at light tents in the event my setup doesn't work out well. I'll post results soon. Thanks.

Mark

ScatterBrained,

Good point about the difference in ambient room lighting. I think I'm good since I'm shooting at f/22 to try to get as much in focus as possible. My flashes are working hard!

Mark

sportsimagery wrote in post #17801397
ScatterBrained,

Good point about the difference in ambient room lighting. I think I'm good since I'm shooting at f/22 to try to get as much in focus as possible. My flashes are working hard!

Mark

F22 may be overkill as you will lose some sharpness due to diffraction. How much are you willing to invest? Short or long term? A tilt shift lens would help here. Either rent or purchase depending on your willingness to commit.

you shouldn't need more than f/8 or f/11 unless you are doing macro type shots. I understand you, or more likely the client, wanting maximum resolution, but reality is that you

1) will have different size lures so unless you plan on moving in and out a lot the frame won't be full
2) even at 8x10 @ 300 ppi there is more than enough resolution
3) generally the center of the lens is sharpest with corners falling off in sharpness and sometimes vignetting.
4) will hurt sharpness with small apertures

i have a client who insists i shoot their product filling the frame on my 6D, but then they reduce them to 1200 px, it's a stupid waste of time and money.

you mentioned not wanting the lures to look flat … use some strategically placed black poster board or foam core to create dimension

sportsimagery wrote in post #17801397
ScatterBrained,

Good point about the difference in ambient room lighting. I think I'm good since I'm shooting at f/22 to try to get as much in focus as possible. My flashes are working hard!

Mark

Heya,

Shoot from farther away, and stop down only to F8~F16. Crop down. These are not for large prints obviously, so you do not need them to be maximum resolution potential. You'll get better depth of field by simply backing up distance wise and shooting at a better aperture for overall sharpness, get better light control and more working distance.

You actually may not even need a macro lens for this. Fishing lures are larger than the sensor of a 35mm camera, except for maybe some smaller flies and what not. Most lures are a bit bigger though in total. You can use a simple long lens and probably be good to go.

It also depends on the overall look.

I would want some different props to put the lures on, like poles, some pebbles, etc.

I'm interested to see what you come up with. I'm an avid angler (salt), I have a ton of lures and stuff laying around, so it has given me a bug to set something up for fun.

Very best,

gonzogolf, Left Handed Brisket, MalVeauX - Thanks for the input!

I like the suggestion about not shooting at f/22 and simply backing away. There's plenty of resolution here for the final viewing location being websites.

Backing away will also help me be able to get things setup once for most any size lure. I was a little worried about being able to get the camera mounted high enough above my light table for larger lures. I might try my 50 1.4 with a small extension tube (or nothing) and see how that works.

I plan on refining my setup, and posting pictures of it along with results. Again, I thank everyone for their input!

Mark

sportsimagery wrote in post #17801725
gonzogolf, Left Handed Brisket, MalVeauX - Thanks for the input!

I like the suggestion about not shooting at f/22 and simply backing away. There's plenty of resolution here for the final viewing location being websites.

Backing away will also help me be able to get things setup once for most any size lure. I was a little worried about being able to get the camera mounted high enough above my light table for larger lures. I might try my 50 1.4 with a small extension tube (or nothing) and see how that works.

I plan on refining my setup, and posting pictures of it along with results. Again, I thank everyone for their input!

Mark

Good candidate for the Setup And Results thread in the Flash forum, looking forward to seeing your shots!

Henry Gilbey's site might help with inspiration.

http://www.henry-gilbey.com/fishing-tackle/