Taking photo of your products from you e-commerce store

Toni · Mar 2, 2008

Okay you have your store ready and now you want to add all your products.

I have about 200 products that I need to take a photo of the only problem is how do I do it?

I have bought a mini studio which when placed on a bed you can take images and it give the appearance of white background and no edges. This is great but when put on my website the white background is not white enough.

Will I have to manually take 200 pics extract products in photoshop and then put them on a white background then re-size?

The most important part I need to know is how to get the whitebackground quickly.

BTW - the products are Vodka bottles.

Thank You

Toni

Steve2507 · Mar 2, 2008

Toni said:
Will I have to manually take 200 pics extract products in photoshop and then put them on a white background then re-size?

Yes, but you may be able to do it if you have a decent digital camera and play wth the settings.

A cheaper alternative is to ask your suppliers. They should have images available and if they haven't are there oter suppliers you can buy from who do have images available.

Kent Accountant · Mar 2, 2008

Toni said:
BTW - the products are Vodka bottles.

If you want to send me a dozen bottles, I don't mind taking some snaps for you. Suspect it will be much easier to get a white background if I open them first

Toni · Mar 2, 2008

....its good to know you are a big drinker Mr Bob.

Will definetaly be sending you the first promotion I do. How about a bottle of Laurent Perrier Rose for £32.60 a bottle all inclusive? Do you like the sound of that?

Or Moet NV 75cl for £22 all inclusive?

Or since you are an Accountant, to celebrate your success why not opt for a bottle of Louis Roederer Cristal 1999 for £164.50 inc VAT.

If anyone wants these or other introuctory hot and sexy deals just PM me and when we go live, I will sort you guys out with exclusive promotion prices.

For the ladies we will be having top quality seductive rose champagnes that I know you will even want to bathe yourself in - but the price on these is a premium and I am sure will not mind paying for the drinking experience.

One for UK business forum too.

eweshop · Mar 3, 2008

I have used a sheepskin rug as a background, quite effective.

Dawg · Mar 3, 2008

eweshop said:
I have used a sheepskin rug as a background, quite effective.

This will show through the vodka and look dirty. Don't do it.
If the bottles are clear glass, and you are shooting in your light tent try using two bits of black card, 5cmx30cm, on each side of the bottle, and slightly behind, standing upright. Remove them in photoshop afterwards. They will give a thin black line down the edge of the bottle to define the shape, otherwise you could have a fairly white-on-white picture, depending on the brand and label.

Uncle Buck · Mar 4, 2008

We use a reflective photo 'tent' and a digital SLR camera.

Get very good, clean hi res results. Suitable for any of our publications and websites.

We also have a couple of lights to get the right angle for the shadows so there is minimal photoshop needed.

Any Jessops should be able to help

Uncle Buck · Mar 4, 2008

Toni said:
Okay you have your store ready and now you want to add all your products.

I have about 200 products that I need to take a photo of the only problem is how do I do it?

I have bought a mini studio which when placed on a bed you can take images and it give the appearance of white background and no edges. This is great but when put on my website the white background is not white enough.

Will I have to manually take 200 pics extract products in photoshop and then put them on a white background then re-size?

The most important part I need to know is how to get the whitebackground quickly.

BTW - the products are Vodka bottles.

Thank You

Toni

You will need to resize the pics. Always good to use a part code as a naming convention so they can be easily found. We have thousands of images. Some from manufacturers and others we take ourselves.

Jonesy · Mar 4, 2008

I spent a long time perfecting the technique as it's really important to what we sell (jewellery). We do all our shots in house. I actually used a "continuous" 800W bulb (power of the sun from China via eBay!) and a lightbox, but still had to use Photoshop extensively to get the shots up to standard.

I've since invested in a much better box with internal lighting from www.techlamps.co.uk. You could probably get the biggest one they've got and that should do you. Perfect white backgrounds every time at last!

FYI I'm using a Nikon D40X with Macro lens.

PM me if you need more information. Check out my sites to see the kind of results I get.

Sue F · Mar 4, 2008

I've spent hours waffing around trying to get the perfect photos of products.

Luckily most of our suppliers send discs with images on or allow you to copy them from their web sites.

I've got an A4 light box that I use for craft projects which I stand items on and this works well.

I've also got some huge pieces of white mulberry paper that I also use for craft (which is basically white tissue paper) and this works quite well if it's taped to a window with full sun behind it and the item standing in front. This is usually the most effective method for me ... but it does depend on the weather ... not good when you live in the grim North :redface:

Non of my products are see through though and as Dawg says in your case you need to avoid your back ground showing through the glass of the bottle.

Best of luck

AdvantageMedia · Mar 4, 2008

The light tent approach worked for me when taking pictures of branded Champagne glasses, and the tip with the black card works too...it really a case of lots of trial and error. Good Luck.....the better the pictures the more the sales! ;-)

Regards

Darren

Toni · Mar 4, 2008

.... am trying to pull this off using a sony cybershot P120 5.1 megapixels - don't know if is good ebnough .... but I guess it is good enough to get the ball rolling.

BTW - when you guys buy wine, what would appeal in making you buy the wine out of a shot of the bottle or a shot of the label?

coultog · Mar 4, 2008

A shot of a full glass?

MH1 · Mar 5, 2008

Or perhaps a shot of a part drunk glass

Beneddie1112 · Mar 5, 2008

Feel free to dismiss this idea, but how about shooting the pictures of the vodka bottles with the base in sand? This would make the viewer think of the vodka advert currently being shown on television and may help to increase your sales conversion rate a bit? It's sort of like they're advertising for you

Take care,
Ben

Chris Ashdown · Mar 5, 2008

Try making the images .gif which will enable you to have transparant backgrounds, els but photoshop elements and use the magic wand to remove the background

Toni · Mar 5, 2008

Chris 1000 products is a lot. Might take a month to do - I guess it is the only way since you cannot do a batch job unless photoshop can do object recognition and work out how to cut the image backgounds on different images.

PhilDPho · Mar 5, 2008

You need to over-expose the background, while correctly exposing the item.

Careful, and accurate lighting is needed.

It would be best imo, to get a photographer to do the job. However if you PM me, I'll send some more specific advice on product lighting.

creospace · Mar 5, 2008

My brother built a photographers scoop for us to take photos of my wife's products, we have a small one for jewellery and a large one for larger products such as her bags and wotnot. Uses a white hardboard plate as the background and we have another one sprayed black should we need it.

The scoops gives a seamless background because it's curved. To get the pure white you have to play with eh light settings on a decent digital camera (we use cannon EOS400) and then you can get great photos (although we're still learning and improving).

My brother was even on about making these scoops to sell as they can be like kits to put together.

Astaroth · Mar 6, 2008

Glass tends to be more difficult to photograph than other items.... really it needs experimenting with but the first attempt would be:

Use a large mat brilliant white sheet and put it under the bottle/ glass and bent it up gently to verticle behind the item so you get a smooth curve.

Have two lights, one bright one that you shine onto tthe white backing and a second slightly less bright to shine on the object itself, ideally defuse the light by putting it through white material/ tracing paper or such (be careful of the fire risk) onto the item itself. This will help over expose the background to give the pure white.

Now the glass trick, at the sides of the item but out of shot, put a black object, this will help define the edges of the bottle/ glass and prevent it disappearing into the background... you may need to play with their distance etc to get the effect correct.

On the camera, you need to change the settings, if you can, to get the camera to meter off the smallest point you can. If you have something like the canon 400D then you can use center weighted or if you have the model up of the 40D then it allows spot metering which is even better.

PhilDPho · Mar 7, 2008

Glass tables can also be useful if you can light them from underneath.

If you want to make them a little more interesting and the liquid isn't clear.

WalktheWeb · Mar 7, 2008

Rather than extracting images in Photoshop to stick them on a white background (which may be time consuming if the images do not copy out easily) you might find that you can quickly produce the necessary shade of white by making quite slight adjustments to contrast, brightness or levels, without significantly changing the way the product itself looks. I have done this with some success in the past.

This is probably very obvious, but if you need to cut out the images and paste onto a totally white background, you can often do this quickly by selecting all of the white background and then either simply deleting it or using ctrl-i to select the inverse of it (i.e. the product).

But do first try Steve's idea of playing around with the settings on your digital camera. You may be able to find a white balance setting which gives you the result you need without having to use Photoshop (although you are presumably going to need to resize and produce web friendly jpegs anyway).

David

Toni · Mar 10, 2008

Just a practice shot, obviously real one will be full bottle, what do you reckon?

http://picasaweb.google.com/CherryPimp/DRinkShots/photo#5175896500497299714

Do you think the shot is sexy enough to buy?

I took it against a sheep skin as someone had suggested.

PhilDPho · Mar 10, 2008

it's ok, but you can see a reflection of the bottom surface in the bottle.

You really need a seamless background, also, try lighting underneath to make the liquid more pronounced and use black card at the sides to define the edges of the bottle against the white background.

Toni · Mar 10, 2008

That is not a reflection of the bottom, it is the labl on the back.

Will see if I can improve, this is like my third ever shot I have ever taken, so I guess I will try and have to impriove.

What do you mean seamless background?

Can you post a picture of a shot of Bacardi if possible?

PhilDPho · Mar 10, 2008

Try moving your viewpoint and eye-level, either remove the label from the back, or change viewpoint to hide it.

Toni · Mar 10, 2008

...will do it in the morning now, because that label is going to take ages to remove - or I might just shot a bottle of Stoli instead.

Astaroth · Mar 10, 2008

You will have to remove that rear label.... also the overall balance of the picture looks wrong as the front label is too dark. As per my previous post, you need the front light to be lower than the back light to get the burnt our white background but need to have the camera to set the balance based on the front light (one of the few cases where you actually want burn out).

A lot will say you can do X, Y or Z in Photoshop (or equiv) but I remain old fashioned, it is better to get it as close to perfect in the camera than to take an image at 50% and hope to get a good result by image manipulation post taking

PhilDPho · Mar 10, 2008

Ideally you want 2 lights on the background to blow it out evenly.

But, as I've said before, bottles with liquids, are best lit from underneath. It makes them kind of "glow"

Toni · Mar 10, 2008

.... this bottle is also unbalanced:

http://picasaweb.google.com/CherryPimp/DRinkShots/photo#5175907302340049234

Will take shot in the morning now.

The label is too dark here as well..... I got a light underneath and two pointed at the bottle.

May I will try pointing those lamp on the background instead.

Also I might try getting in closer instead of using the zoom.

"you need the front light to be lower than the back light to get the burnt our white background " - what do you mean lower? Lower in intensity or in position?

Thanks for your help though.... in the morning.

Astaroth · Mar 10, 2008

You can achieve good effect on bottles without a light from underneath but you really need to use dark coloured reflectors to create definition to the edge bottle/ glass... depends on the look you want and the colour of the liquid in the containet

Toni · Mar 10, 2008

....black card.

What black card placed against the bottle or jus t close to the bottle?

BTW - I have been taking the pictures without flash - hope that is correct.

Dawg · Mar 10, 2008

It really is quite good.
Remove labels with lighter fluid.
Use a long lens, (zoom).
Be careful of underlighting. It can be very effective but with clear liquids can also blow out any detail. You seem to have done very well with the Stoly tho'.
You could put white card in front (B) to bring up the gold on the label, and to put more light into the label.
Black card is near, not against the label. (A). Again you will have to play to get the right distance and angle.
Astaroth's point of doing as much as you can in camera, and as little as you can afterwards on computer is spot on: this will always give better results.

Astaroth · Mar 10, 2008

Personally would have the black reflectors further round the side initially but as you say, it is all about experimenting (and why the live feed to the PC screen is so useful

)

Toni · Mar 10, 2008

.... question before doing any more stuff today.

Do I need the flash on for the cards to reflect the light how you guys are describing or is this to bounce the existing lamp light?

Do I need a slave flash?

Thanks

Dawg · Mar 10, 2008

Start with bouncing the existing light, otherwise you may start burning areas out.
You are so close: just play with a bit of card before spending money on kit.

Toni · Mar 10, 2008

.....I think this is good enough, did not use cards though:

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/CherryPimp/DRinkShots/photo#5176091105465481618

This is a raw shot, so does anyone know how to get rid of that slight grey gradient near the top the image using photoshop?

I guess I could also buy some more lights.

Thnaks

PhilDPho · Mar 10, 2008

That's a good shot, and tbh, that light fade off doesn't look too bad, it looks quite intentional lol

Toni · Mar 10, 2008

.... about it, all I would have to do is brush it out with a white air brush.

Dawg · Mar 10, 2008

You have exposed for the liquid, and so underexposed the background and the label. Thats the grey bit.
If you expose to make the background white you will lose the edges of the bottle, which is why you should use black card.
If you lower the position of the lens and use white card reflectors you will get gold on the label not balck holes where gold should be. If the gold is burning out move the card backwards until it doesn't.

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