Business

A First Attempt at Product Photography


April 23, 2017

***** DRAFT *****

Overview

My wife is incredibly creative.  I had no idea when I married her, but especially after we started having kids, she started getting into creating photo albums and scrapbooks, then watercolors and other paints, some pottery and mosaics, and then more recently, she’s been making stamped and cut-paper greeting cards.  The designs and color schemes are amazing.  Yesterday she asked me to take a photo of her greeting cards, so she could send it with an email to our community association, as a reminder for a mini craft show that she, and three other friends, were putting on at our house this weekend.  I wanted the photos to look nice, so I pulled out some equipment and went to work.

Lessons Learned

1.  Treat Flash Photos as Two Images

She set up her card display stands in our dining room, and I set up two flashes to illuminate them.  I wanted to attract the viewer’s attention to the cards, so I needed to make them brighter than the background.  I’ve been paying attention to all the pundits on YouTube, so I got it in my head that I had to treat the photo as two images, one of the background, and one of the subject matter, with the background exposure controlled by the camera aperture, ISO, and shutter speed, and the exposure of the subject matter controlled by the camera aperture and ISO, and the flash power. (TBR)

2.  I have the Basics I Need for Product Photography

So, besides the greeting cards, one of my wife’s friends was selling handbags of various types, so I wanted to try my hand at photographing some of those.

Below is a photo of the setup I used.  It included a backdrop assembly that that was made from two Manfrotto AutoPole 032’s, two Manfrotto Super Clamps, two TBD J-Hooks, and my PVC crossbar assembly.  On the PVC crossbar assembly I put a 53″ roll of Superior Ultra Black backdrop paper.  The Manfrotto AutoPoles can span surfaces from 82.7″ to 145.7″.  The photo shows how it fits with a 7.5′ ceiling.

In front of the backdrop, I put a 22″ x 49.5″ piece of 3/8″ thick tempered glass, supported on plastic storage boxes, for the product to sit on.  Below the glass, I put a small shop light, with a dimmer.

The photo below is the result.

 

If I was doing this for real I would have staged props inside the bags, possibly even with some interior lighting.

3.  Photo Mechanic Software is Going to Streamline My Workflow

TBD