Beginner with product photography - Tips needed!

[Adam Khan]

As the title says, I'm looking to dip my toes in some product photography. Any tips on where to get started?

 

[Asher Kelman]

As the title says, I'm looking to dip my toes in some product photography. Any tips on where to get started?

What is the product?

There are very different needs for.$25,000 watch, a used car or a $45 dress sold online!

I think that if you can shoot any of portraits appearing on your website, product photography would be a no brained.

However, first one has to decided what one is going to photograph. Nicolas Claris, a co-founder here in OPF, has a chase helicopter and speed boat for shooting luxury yachts and drones for vineyards and his Pentax MF for everything including the best cakes chefs can deliver!

But each represents a homing of special skills.

For example he knows boats: design, fabrication, sails, engines and can captain a vessel on the ocean!

Vineyards: he knows the grapes, soul, architecture and vintners and their family and world.

Let’s switch to junior miss dresses: you need a safe place for models, make up artist perhaps, lighting setup, backdrops and a standard of 3-5 poses and be prepared to shoot all day to get a collection of 10 to 50 dresses.

By contrast for jewelry you need a light tent, flexible highlight lights and fabric as required by store or manudacturers. Or you may also need a studio setup for a model or portable lighting and an assistant to shoot on location.

It all starts with your product and it’s market as THESE define how your picture is being used and the expectations.

Asher

 

[Asher Kelman]

If you get to one first goal, folk will try to contribute guidance!

One fellow here started making careful copies for art galleries of their paintings. Be imaginative and find out what might be open to you and focus on that!

Obviously you are not going to do a photographic insurance inventory of Buckingham Palace as your first project!

Good luck!

Asher

 

[Deleted member 55]

Simple tip, simple is better!

 

[Unnamed Photographer]

For good product photography Pay attention to the lighting. Proper lighting can make a huge difference in the quality of your product photos. Avoid using direct, harsh light that creates shadows or washes out the product.

 

[Brooke Cagle]

Many online tips and resources can help you get started with product photography. Here are some of the common ones:

• Have the proper equipment, including lighting and a tripod.
  
  
• Set up your studio with backgrounds, props, and lights that suit your product and audience.
  
  
• Use manual settings on your camera to control exposure, focus, and white balance.
  
  
• Try continuous and strobe lighting to see what works best for your product.
  
  
• Take a class or online course on photo editing to enhance your images.
  
  
• Don’t add props that may distract from your product or confuse your message.
  
  
• Use a sweep or portrait mode to emphasize the product and create a clean background.
  
  
• Pick the correct aperture for your image to control the depth of field and sharpness.

I hope these tips are helpful to you. You can check the web search results below for more details or examples.

 

[Asif Khan]

When starting with product photography, it's important to have the right equipment, including a camera with a macro lens, lighting equipment, and a tripod. It's also important to consider the composition of the photo, including the background and angle of the shot. Experiment with different setups and lighting techniques to find what works best for your product. Finally, post-production is an important part of the process, so learn how to edit your photos using software like Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom.

 

[Roahads]

Thanks for the helpful tips on product photography! Looking forward to trying out these techniques and improving my skills. If anyone has more tips, please share!

 

[Tim Dolan (Longwatcher)]

My main tip for product photography, I do adult type items (such as collars), is to remember if you have someone modeling the product, the focus of the shot is to make the product look good, not necessarily the model, although usually if the model also looks good it is even better.

For the products by themselves, if they are going to be sold on Amazon they need to be a boring white clean background. Etsy and most other sales sites are not as strict with the background, in which case use what ever makes the product look best.

Always make sure the product is as dust and defect free as possible, if you have to post edit something, make sure it is not noticeable. Customers do not want to see something that has been photoshopped.

And other than lighting which is again to make the product look good; that completes, my small contribution to product photography.

 

[Abu Sufian Nilove]

What are some essential tips for beginner product photographers, considering factors like equipment, lighting, composition, and post-production?

 

[Asher Kelman]

What are some essential tips for beginner product photographers, considering factors like equipment, lighting, composition, and post-production?

Reread Tim Dolan’s advice above?

Is there anything missing?

I don’t think equipment and lighting are factors. Any camera can be used. Just compose so the object to be marketed looks interesting, impressive and worth one’s attention.

Look for style guidance in the arena the photos will be appearing and competing!

Asher

 

[Abu Sufian Nilove]

Reread Tim Dolan’s advice above?

Is there anything missing?

I don’t think equipment and lighting are factors. Any camera can be used. Just compose so the object to be marketed looks interesting, impressive and worth one’s attention.

Look for style guidance in the arena the photos will be appearing and competing!

Asher

Thanks for the insight! Your point about focusing on composition to make the product look interesting and impressive really resonates. I'll make sure to align with the style guidance of the target arena.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Thanks for the insight! Your point about focusing on composition to make the product look interesting and impressive really resonates. I'll make sure to align with the style guidance of the target arena.

Here’s a few ideas that might help.

Cut out a rectangle in a piece of cardboard and use this as your camera to frame a scene. Move from side to side, crouch, stand on a chair or balcony, circle around the main features to see what’s the subject to be included, from what angle and height and then whether or not it should be in current lighting or at another time.

Now with your camera brought to the scene: obviously, a fabulous character or butterfly flitting past, one shoots from where one is perhaps stretching up or crouching down. That’s the only modification possible, given the time constraints.

When you have framed picture, depending on your available pressure for speed, you may have through no fault of your own included distractions.

Some purists would argue to keep them as that’s “The Truth”. I myself don’t believe such a thing exists in a photograph, LOL! I have no hesitation to remove litter or other folk invading the frame.

However, having a non-planned person half in the frame might actually “make your picture” extraordinary out of just excellent, on occasion. So look out for serendipity blessing your work!

If you like this and it’s useful, I will share more of my approaches.

Asher

 

[Abu Sufian Nilove]

Here’s a few ideas that might help.

Cut out a rectangle in a piece of cardboard and use this as your camera to frame a scene. Move from side to side, crouch, stand on a chair or balcony, circle around the main features to see what’s the subject to be included, from what angle and height and then whether or not it should be in current lighting or at another time.

Now with your camera brought to the scene: obviously, a fabulous character or butterfly flitting past, one shoots from where one is perhaps stretching up or crouching down. That’s the only modification possible, given the time constraints.

When you have framed picture, depending on your available pressure for speed, you may have through no fault of your own included distractions.

Some purists would argue to keep them as that’s “The Truth”. I myself don’t believe such a thing exists in a photograph, LOL! I have no hesitation to remove litter or other folk invading the frame.

However, having a non-planned person half in the frame might actually “make your picture” extraordinary out of just excellent, on occasion. So look out for serendipity blessing your work!

If you like this and it’s useful, I will share more of my approaches.

Asher

Thank you for sharing these fantastic tips, Asher! The idea of using a cardboard frame to visualize shots is brilliant, and I love the reminder to embrace serendipity in photography. Your perspective on "The Truth" in photos is refreshing and practical. I’d love to hear more of your approaches!

 

[James Lemon]

Keep in mind that when companies design new products they produce pictures of the product before the product is even built for promotional purposes. It become part of the design stage where they use technology like 3d and photographers to produce pictures long before the product exists. Image a car with a beautiful model beside the car but in fact she was photographed in a chosen location and an image of the car was then photoshopped into the picture from the same system they used to design the product.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Keep in mind that when companies design new products they produce pictures of the product before the product is even built for promotional purposes. It become part of the design stage where they use technology like 3d and photographers to produce pictures long before the product exists. Image a car with a beautiful model beside the car but in fact she was photographed in a chosen location and an image of the car was then photoshopped into the picture from the same system they used to design the product.

Exactly!

Hewlett-Packard Packard, the behemoth technical equipment company started in a garage. Their entire initial work was a single catalog: a book with pictures and technical specifications of data collection systems, meters of every possible kind and combination, waveform monitors an infinitum.

The book was so formal and perfect that it didn’t occur to me that almost none of the equipment for sale had ever been built!

But they did promise that each purchase had a delay for an extensive “burn in period” to ensure little chance of electronics failure in the next decade or so!

Brilliant methodology!

Asher

 

[Asher Kelman]

The most important part of business is not making the product, it’s selling it!