Photographing Table Top Items

Hi - I have been asked by a friend to take some shots of small objects for her website. I only have a 580EX flash which I guess will be 'ok' but won't really produce the quality that I am looking for.

Can anyone advise what flash set up will work best for me please? I then need to go and find a hire centre!

Thanks in advance for any advice....

If it's a still object, just have the camera on a tripod with the timer set to set off the shutter to avoid camera shake and take a long exposure.

May not give you that "pop" you are taling about, but it will get the job done.

-Mario

You can get some ideas from watching these videos:
http://www.prophotolif​e.com …em-solving-in-the-studio/
http://www.prophotolif​e.com …hy-all-done-with-mirrors/

Maybe a small soft box would work for you. It's an easy way to get even lighting if that's what your looking for.

I use the system flash on the off camera shoe cord mounted to a Manfrotto "Magic Arm" ( the four section ) and a Lumiquest soft box. the magic arm is connected to a tripod leg by a super clamp.
I first set this up to do flower closeups, but it works equally well for small table-top items.

I have tried that but there isn't a great deal of natural light and you get that nasty cast off of the lights. Thanks for the suggestion though...

http://www.prophotolif​e.com …em-solving-in-the-studio/

I like this sort of setup - what would I need to hire / buy please?

I'm intrigued! Do you get a nice light off this sort of set up?

Thanks for all your help so far guys..

Setting a custom white balance should solve the color cast issues. A light box might be in order. You can purchase them or build them. Look at what can be done with simple home-made boxes. Link Link

be careful with white balancing. If your light source is _not_ full spectrum, no white balance will fix it for you. Examples are CFL and sodium vapor.

IainUK wrote in post #8759832
I like this sort of setup - what would I need to hire / buy please?

While I am not qualified to tell you what to buy, I would encourage you to watch the videos I linked and some others in the series and then experiment.

Just for fun, I played around a bit today with a single 580 EX II to play with a similar setup as in the video.

Here's the final image (please ignore the scratched up plexi-glass - it's all I had):

I shot these in a macro box (both clickable to bigger versions).

Manfrotto 143s shoe

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …stoop/396906908​5/sizes/o/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …stoop/396906873​9/sizes/o/

Playing around with the above posted setup, you can also skip the plexi-glass and use a sheet of paper as an "endless sweep". Result:

I think you might find some very useful information in my scale car tutorial on how to shoot smaller objects with limited material.

All you basically need is a large sheet of paper (either white or black) and some soft light, you can use a few spotlights that shine through a white bed sheet (or thin paper) in fact, just don't have the lights too close to the sheet as they tend to get very hot

The main trick is to use a tripod and a long exposure, that way you will have a nice, light shot even when you don't use flashes ... as a matter of fact I never use a flash anymore for my scale car, only three daylight bulbs in Ikea holders and the car on a black sheet of paper inside a cube I've bought on eBay for peanuts ... works fine !

A few samples :
using satin black paper :

Wow - thanks guys. I really appreciate all of the comments, advice and effort you have gone to. It's really interesting to see the set ups used. I'm really grateful


The latest update is that I've managed to hire a couple of heads, stands and softboxes so I think I'm OK - If a little nervous as I have never used them before!!

As I said though it's a favour to a friend so it won't matter if I sit there scratching my head wondering what I should plug into what to make them work!!

What can possibly go wrong??!!

IainUK wrote in post #8773862
What can possibly go wrong??!!

Famous last words!

Seriously though, macro box, smoke and mirrors (for the lights) will do a lot for your photos. Especially smoke! You don't even need a smoke machine... cigars will do the trick too, but will look very yellow-ish :P
Also mind a good underground (love the plexiglass or black satin examples) and a diffuser on your flash. An umbrella, something like a lumiquest softbox or just printing paper will do nicely. Printing paper will often screw with your white balance though.

@Lambocars, that last set is amazing! very inspirational

It doesn't have to be really complicated...

Two Speedlites fired straight up and bounced off a large white card resting on white card walls. Some black card placed strategically to create some negative reflection (ie black) areas in the silverware.

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/gif'