How do you take your product pictures?

[otacon221]

What is the best way to take product pictures? I have a real good camera and some extra lights but still the pictures come out vivid and lack color and brightness. And i can't edit all in photoshop.

 

How do you do yours to make it look professional?

[wheeloftime]

What is the best way to take product pictures? I have a real good camera and some extra lights but still the pictures come out vivid and lack color and brightness. And i can't edit all in photoshop.

 

How do you do yours to make it look professional?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I have an Olympus C-2100 Ultra Zoom and while definitely not the newest digital camera it does a good job. BUT it took me some while to learn which settings for the camera would give me the most optimal pictures. If you have a good camera and even extra lighting, which I don't and it makes it hard sometimes to get good enough pictures, there should be no reason to get pictures with lack of color and brightness unless your camera isn't as good as you think. Even if the light condition was good I always edit all my pictures with Paintshop Pro which takes some time but is not so bad as the things I do are mostly the same; crop to a reasonable size always and where needed adjust the brightness and sometimes the sharpness. Almost never I have to adjust the colors and I certainly never use the one step photo fix.

Keep in mind also the display of a picture also highly depends on the monitor and the display settings used by someone. I had pictures which looked very good on my monitor but not on others.

[Guest]

Sometimes the background color seems to make a huge difference in how the camera picks up the other colors.

 

-jared

[Stevis2002]

The best background i have found is to place the items on my baby's white shawl lol

 

I use a Kodak 6440 digital camera.

[Guest]

Sony F707 and I take pics outside on bright, cloudy days. (light, but steady cloudcover). The idea is to fully light all sides of an object without too much contrast. If the image comes out a bit off, I'll work the colors, brightness and contrast with Paint Shop Pro. You could also use GIMP (free, open source).

[boxtel]

Sony F707 and I take pics outside on bright, cloudy days. (light, but steady cloudcover). The idea is to fully light all sides of an object without too much contrast. If the image comes out a bit off, I'll work the colors, brightness and contrast with Paint Shop Pro. You could also use GIMP (free, open source).

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

I started to use a Nikon coolpix 4500 since a few days now, big improvement, good macro capabilities. However, I have many different materials if which several are almost transparent. So I have to use many different backgrounds and many different camera settings.

 

Loading them into photoshop is always a little surprise party.

[mpiscopo]

If you're using artificial lighting you'll need to manually set the "white balance". This is the biggest thing affecting digitial pictures and will make the colors much more accurate.

[WiseWombat]

What is the best way to take product pictures? I have a real good camera and some extra lights but still the pictures come out vivid and lack color and brightness. And i can't edit all in photoshop.

 

How do you do yours to make it look professional?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Good lighting is the KEY, with clean light and no refections or shadows.

with a good cammera,and soft ware and a good graphics card for your pc.

 

 

The Most important I find is having Good lighting

[walkman]

If your camera is decent, the problem is probably lighting. Try shooting outdoors on an overcast day(or in the evening). The overcast will prevent strong shadows but still give a lot of good light for your camera.

 

Why can't you edit in photoshop? Fixing lighting and color is one of the easier things to do -- scan the books and B&N if you need to learn how.

 

And consider buying, "Ebay photo's that Sell". $20 on Amazon. It will help a lot with lighting and composition.

[otacon221]

Thanks all. Color balance did the trick for inside artificial lightning. I used to get the background color as yellow instead of white, but now it works :) I will try shooting outside too. Take care :)

[sawfish62]

Theres an excellent program called DCE AutoEnhance which batch processes pictures to any size and colour corrects them too. I find it invaluable, chuck all your photo's in and press go. I think theres a thirty day trial and its only $35 anyway.

 

In photoshop try:

 

Image/adjustment/auto levels. Or auto colour and auto contrast together.

[stashandstuff]

Oddly enough, the best photo advice I've received was from an oscommerce newsletter. I take pictures in my bath tub. It's a smooth white surface with bright lighting, and even with a flash my items don't catch a glare. Of course, this solution is only good if you have a clean white tub and your items are small. :thumbsup:

[otacon221]

well my items are small allright but the bathtub is a jacooze and is green(dark) and the other one is a long shower cabin which is yellow. :( lol

 

I'll check the 30 day trial of that program. thnx for the advice!

[Guest]

well my items are small allright but the bathtub is a jacooze and is green(dark) and the other one is a long shower cabin which is yellow. :

 

You could always fill the tub with bubbly soapy water (soap bubbles being white), then put the item on a little white boat, floating in the white bubbles, and _then_ take the picture . . .

 

Ok, maybe not. :)

 

-jared

[walkman]

For small items you can also bend a sheet of white construction paper to create a seamless background. For larger items you can purchase seamless background paper in 60" or 105" width rolls for less than $50 at professional photography stores.

 

Also, consider using your business need as justificaiton to buy one of the new Canon Rebel XT cameras. Awsome DSLR camera for under $1000 with a telephoto lens. It is very fast, allows for manual focus, full camera control, RAW format, remote control capability, and locked mirror. All of which will improve your product photos, not to mention all your other photos as well.

[stashandstuff]

For larger items, I have a large white plastic cutting board - and I do mean large! This is an industrial-size cutting surface - 4' x 8' - and is flexible so I can bend it a bid to make the perfect background. I ordered direct from a cutting board manufacturer. It cost me about $40 and has been invaluable!

[otacon221]

I did get a new camera using the business as an excuse :P

 

http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP....oDigitalCameras

 

:P

[mjm]

Get a light box and two or three of the same lights. Then set the exposure & white balance and shoot away! Just finished up about 20 hats for a client and they turned out great.

 

A little investment in equipment can go along way.

 

I use (and recommend):

Photek Digital Lighthouse

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller...u=301878&is=REG

 

Smith-Victor 1200W Quartz

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller...u=157948&is=REG

 

Canon 300D

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller...u=297500&is=REG

 

and several Canon lenses (depends on what I am shooting).

 

You obviously don't need all that equipment for products (I also do models for Future of Style). The lightbox and a camera with manual settings would work very well... Getting your settings correct is the biggest hurdle...

[otacon221]

Wow...a bit expensive.

 

For the light house no extra light is required right? Just the flash?

[sinryder]

hey guys whats better and easy program for pictures, paint shop pro or photo shop ?

[otacon221]

I'd say photoshop.

[sinryder]

good i got photo shop 8 but dont know how to use it.

how can i fix the colors of the picture and make the background ulta white.

Also is their a way to fix more then one picture at a time. Like select all the picture and it can automatcially do the rest itself.

 

 

thankx

[mpiscopo]

Haider,

The trick to getting the background to be white (given that it is actually white) is to set the white balance in your camera. Read through the manual for the camera and see if you can manually set the white balance. To do so on my Canon I take a picture of the white background and tell the camera that this should be white. Then on subsequent pictures the camera will automatically change the settings so you will get a true depiction of the colors (including the white background). Then you won't need to adjust colors in Photoshop, only the brightness and contrast.

[GraphicsGuy]

good i got photo shop 8 but dont know how to use it.

how can i fix the colors of the picture and make the background ulta white.

Also is their a way to fix more then one picture at a time. Like select all the picture and it can automatcially do the rest itself.

thankx

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Assuming that the photo was taken on a white background and with reasonable lighting, you can do the following in Photoshop:

 

>Image>Adjustments>Auto Levels

 

If that doesn't get the look you want, then undo it and then do:

 

>Image>Adjustment>Levels

Then on the lower right of the popup you will see three eye droppers. Hovering over them will identify them. The right most should be for white point. click it and then click on the brightest part of the white background. You can also play around with the other controls in that window to further tweak the image.

 

You can perform identical changes to a large batch of photos by creating an action and then using the File>Automate feature. To do this:

• * using My Computer or Windows Explorer create a destination folder for the adjusted images
  * in Photoshop, activate the Actions Pallete
  * open one of the images
  * click the record button on the actions pallete
  * make all your changes to the photo (including adjustments and sizing)
  * click stop on the actions pallete and name the action
  * close the image without saving
  * go to File>Automate
  * select the action you just created (should already be selected)
  * select the source and destination folders
  * set the file naming elements
  * start the batch and enjoy the show
  

Keep in mind, only batch process photos that were taken with identical background, lighting and camera settings.

 

Of course as pointed out, it is best to start with photos that don't need color adjustment, but the action/automate technique is useful for all kinds of adjustments and sizing on large numbers of images.

[Guest]

Haider,

The trick to getting the background to be white (given that it is actually white) is to set the white balance in your camera.  Read through the manual for the camera and see if you can manually set the white balance.  To do so on my Canon I take a picture of the white background and tell the camera that this should be white.  Then on subsequent pictures the camera will automatically change the settings so you will get a true depiction of the colors (including the white background).  Then you won't need to adjust colors in Photoshop, only the brightness and contrast.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Let me add: don't change the lighting between setting the white balance and taking the product pictures. If there's a window in the room, reset the white balance if the outside light changes due to clouds, sun position, etc. And of course, reset the white balance on subsequent photo shoots.

 

ed