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Archive 2014 · Product photography Light setup help

  
 
RyanGphoto
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Product photography Light setup help


So I have a client that I do other work for and they asked me to do some of their product shots for them. I can do product photography but normally it's 10 pieces in a day and the lighting is pretty nice and I get it just right and I have to move lights around to make all the things look their best.

This is a totally different thing. They want products shot en mass. They said the last guy did it with like 150 per day. So it was an assembly line really. They will be no bigger than a 5 gallon bucket (which is one of the products) and are all basically things you would find at a Home Depot (hammers, nails, sockets, bolts, etc) and they will be in a catalog at 2" x 2" so they even said the lighting doesn't need to be great.

Any thoughts on how to light things for mass production? They have to be on a white background and that's really the only stipulation.

Thoughts?

Thanks
Ryan G



Mar 31, 2014 at 09:46 AM
drive_75
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Product photography Light setup help


Once you set up your lights, 200/day could be done. I don't know what you have but two lights with soft boxes will do.


Mar 31, 2014 at 12:44 PM
Scatterbrained
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Product photography Light setup help


The thing to do is set the camera and mark the area on the table. You can use a mark for a center spot and maybe a block to set them up against (if you were shooting, for example, a series of pots). Use a simplified light set up and blast them through. Once you're lighting and camera are set up moving through the products shouldn't take too long. Grouping them by size, shape, reflectance, etc. so you can have one lighting set up for each group of product would also help.


Mar 31, 2014 at 05:25 PM
cwebster
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Product photography Light setup help


Get an assistant to keep track of what's been shot and what hasn't, it'll make your life easier if you can just focus on the photography.

Shoot tethered if you possibly can so you can see a full screen image immediately. You don't want to have to go back and reset a lighting setup if you missed critical focus (and you can't judge this based on your camera's LCD display.

Don't scrimp on background and grip gear. The good stuff makes it easy to move a light or reset a flag. Improvising grip gear works, but takes more time and energy.

<Chas>



Mar 31, 2014 at 08:24 PM
NJEric
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Product photography Light setup help


A basic setup consisting of a solid tripod, a min of 2 lights and white seamless should be enough. Try marking the spot on the paper where the product would sit and frame your camera on to that area. I'd be able to activate the shutter from in front of the camera, swap products and repeat without looking through viewfinder because the camera would autofocus and the framing is already set. Of course, this works best with smaller objects. And as scatterbrained mentioned, organizing by size etc is an excellent idea.


Apr 01, 2014 at 05:18 PM
cwebster
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Product photography Light setup help


Don't rely on autofocus. It doesn't know you want the product name sharp, not the closest or largest or most contrasty part of the product in focus.

Use a macro lens, or a similar prime that is extremely sharp.

<Chas>



Apr 02, 2014 at 01:47 PM
BigSky1
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Product photography Light setup help


I made a lightbox using pvc tubing, white sheets and standard halogen work lights. I use a roll of freezer paper for the seamless background. It works nicely and was cheap. Based on what I see here, I suck as a photographer; but, the pictures I took after I made this look "almost" professional. Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn now and then.


Apr 02, 2014 at 05:25 PM
cwebster
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Product photography Light setup help


And "almost professional" doesn't cut it if you are charging someone money for your work. Would you like your auto mechanic or plumber to be "almost professional?" Or your kid's dentist?

<Chas>



Apr 02, 2014 at 07:56 PM
BigSky1
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Product photography Light setup help


I am an amateur huckleberry who wouldn't charge someone a thank you for any picture I ever took. However, I try to do the best I can for the items I sell online. I think the right photographer would generate professional photos utilizing my simple lighting setup. My abilities are so lacking I could not. Maybe that's why I'm a professional soldier and an admitted amateur/hobbyist photographer.


Apr 02, 2014 at 10:52 PM
RyanGphoto
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Product photography Light setup help


Thanks for the advice to all. The organizing by size is a great tip. Thanks.

I have all the lights I need along with a being able to get the seamless white.

I guess what I really was looking for was.

"You should use a LARGE softbox overhead with a light shooting through a scrim on the left and another on the right and just blast it with light". or

"A super large softbox overhead with a reflector here or there".. A diagram would be awesome.

Something a bit more specific (even though it's tough because even I don't know what products specifically I am shooting).

Definitely shooting tethered (I do for all my other commercial work).

Cwebster: I would love to hear if you have specifics on grip gear.


Thanks for all the help so far.

Ryan G



Apr 03, 2014 at 09:05 PM
JakeB17
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Product photography Light setup help


You should definitely tailor your lighting to the product, but there are some general setups which sort of work well for almost anything.

Here is one I just did for a friend's 14-24 I'm putting up on the B&S boards.

http://www.jacobfilm.com/uploads/14-24-bts-2.jpg


The key here is really the white granite counter top in my kitchen. Or at least I think it is granite...I light people and things for a living, I don't build houses, so I'm not really sure, ha.

It is a solid, reflective material that not only bounces light well, but allows for a reflection to appear, so the item doesn't appear to be floating. The floating item syndrome is common when shooting on cloth, like bleached muslin, or in cheap light boxes.

Adding a sheet of glass underneath can work out even better, but this was quick and dirty.

After securing a good shooting surface the next step is lighting, which in this case I kept very simple but very soft. If you want to get really into it then get some foamcore and create both black and white cuts the size of your product that you can place right next to the object for bounce or negative fill.

The key here is lighting with a large source from high and behind, and using bounce and soft fill for the front.

The light coming from behind is a 1,200ws strobe in a 50" soft lighter, pushing through an 8x8 of 1/4 grid. The strobe is about 3-4 feet from the 8x8 1/4 grid, so it fills as much of the 8x8 as it can in my small kitchen. If I took the time to do this in my studio I would have placed the strobe another 5 feet back, because as you can see the light doesn't fully fill the 8x8 frame.

At about 1/2 power I'm getting around f/16 @ 100 iso. The beauty of this large source is that in combination with the white reflective shooting surface you hardly need any fill from the front, where your key light typically would live.

In this case I have a speed light bounced into a 40" white umbrella, and dialed way down, to almost 1/64 power. Even a 320ws strobe on minimum power was way too much here. Then out of frame on the right I have a 3ft piece of white foam core for bounce. Neither light from the front is making much of an impact, I'm letting the counter top bounce the light from the huge backlight.

http://www.jacobfilm.com/uploads/14-24-bts-1.jpg


Then here is one of the finals, almost straight out of camera. I really only needed to adjust contrast and color temp a bit in LR to taste.

And then one for fun in B&W to show off the reflection.
http://www.jacobfilm.com/uploads/14-24-bts-3.jpg




Apr 03, 2014 at 09:51 PM
RyanGphoto
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Product photography Light setup help


Any chance you have the entire setup from behind the scenes?

Thanks so much for the indepth description.

Thanks
Ryan G



Apr 05, 2014 at 08:02 AM





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