Thrown into the Deep End -- Product Photography...your thoughts?

Wow, these are really looking a LOT better! Really useful advice and good application of new knowledge.

I'm looking at this stuff and thinking "dang, that looks pretty darned good". If you aren't thinking that yourself, perhaps you've been looking at them too long and overthinking it. I"m sure the client will be happy with what you've done.

thanks guys! I'm learning thanks to all of ya!
My client is happy...I'm just always looking to improve.

one thing that i didn't see anyone mention so far is focus stacking...if you can't get enough DOF using f8/f11 focus stacking is a good alternative to using f29...

right now the actual product looks good...just got to clean up that background...you could also use a curves adjustment and use the black eye-dropper, and select the background...cleans it up a bit, and then just burn out any remaining lint pieces

Love it . Those are some nicely crafted pieces there. I always looked when i use to go out west in CO and AZ.

Wow, what an improvement. So is the 60mm macro now used for these? I would think that would be much better than the 50mm 1.4.

thanks for the kind words!!


Yes, I switched almost exclusively to the macro.
Now, from time to time, I am shooting newer pieces that really need the 50mm, so I'll make the switch, shoot, and then change back to the 60.
Reason being is that the room is dinky, and I can only back up so far. :P

As for the back ground...I'm in a bit of a quandary.
- There's lint and crap in many (though not all) shots. It's driving me nuts.
- I can run batches for Unsharp Mask and for Freaky Details, but it seems that my only option
is to go through what is now hundreds of photos and fix them all by hand via heal/clone brush. Ideas?
- The black paper we ordered from B&H isn't very black. In fact, it's exactly like the posterboard I used for the shot below.
Yes, a .79 piece of posterboard from Wally World. The picture on B&H showed it more like tar-black roofing paper, but it's more of a gray.
- Is there anything darker for BG material, outside of roofing paper?

Once again, thank you all for the help and kind comments.

For a black background I love the velvet. It can acquire lint but a good lint brush works and good lighting should make selection for editing easy.

You've made an impressive amount of progress, nice stuff you're getting now.