28 replies to this topic

[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]

otacon221, on Apr 29 2005, 05:23 AM, said:

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.

[jcall]

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.

[brushwood]

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]

brushwood, on Apr 30 2005, 08:01 PM, said:

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]

otacon221, on Apr 29 2005, 03:23 PM, said:

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.  

[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!

[jcall]

otacon221 said:

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

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

[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 ?