Toggle sidebar

Camera for Product Photography

Sort by date Sort by votes
L

littlebusiness

Free Member
Jul 20, 2008
11
1
Hi! All,

I'm tring to start a export-import business. I got some response too. But every wants to see the products photo (fashion and crafts related).

I have camera in my mobile. :p :(

But I'm thinking of buying a camera which can take good picture of any products.

Do you think its necessary?

Do you have any suggestion on what type of camera I should buy?

Thanks in advance.
 
You do generally get what you pay. I have found that you are better of with specialist camera brands and the likes of Samsung etc are poorer copies. Also, megapixels aren't everything. The camera needs to be actually able to process the information as well.
 
Upvote 0
Im a photogrpaher for London Fashion show and have had an exhibition in Tate britain October 2008, and trust me camera price has NOTHING to do with it.

Im not name dropping BTW, i am just showing that this is what i do for a living.

An expensive camera is only pushed by salesmen at Jessops telling you what you NEED and have to have. In the same way as PCs are pushed by salesmen at PC World. If all you do is browse the internet and use MSN Messenger, an old recycled Pentium 4 will be more than you need, but they still push for some quad core system wih about 8GB of ram, something in comparison to what Nasa will use to launch a rocket.

Even if you bought the second best 35mm camera you can get, the "Canon 5D mk2" for £2400, You will have almost the largest sensor, the best options and incredible image resolution, but your then still going to reduce down the images to 800 x 600 pixels or so to fit on your website.

if your using it only to make web images, get onto ebay and find a good second hand Canon SLR like the 10D or 20D camera with the standard 18-55mm lens. They are dirt cheep and 3 - 7 yrs ago were counted as professional, so if the images were good enough then, why will they not be a few years later???

(Note - SLR is the type of camera where you can chnage the lens on the front)

I wouldnt pay anymore than £150-£200 for one, as a new Canon 1000D (The most recent entry level canon SLR camera) is only about £399.
http://www.jacobsdigital.co.uk/index.php?target=products&product_id=10818

But...
The main bit of photography that makes things look good is lighting, there are loads of home kits to help with this.

Lighting
Light Tent
Jewelery Photography

These are a little expensive, mainly because i just spent 3 mins looking, but if you read through the text in the adverts it will give you a good idea of how it all works and what to look for.

But honestly, you could take the images with a simple compact camera, its the lighting that makes all the difference. Just make sure the camera has full controls such as manual shutter speed and aperture, as auto settings are for idiots and usually dont give the best results.

So for about £50 - £150 for a new compact camera or second hand SLR and £100 for lighting, you will have a semi pro setup.

Hope this helps
Ian
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Comspec, stugster, sirearl and 10 others
Upvote 0
Also just to add
The Fuji 9600 is good, but its not a true SLR, you cant change the lens and extras are limited and rare second hand.

Anything for the Canon or Nikon Cameras are common and most extras lenses, flashes, remote shutters, battery grips etc from over the decades will fit them.

For the same money i see the Fuji being sold for (about £150 - £200), you can get a true SLR camera second hand and it usually comes with loads of bits they collected over the time like memory cards, lenses, tripods etc.

The beauty of photography is that most people that get into it, listen to jessops sales men, buy all the top stuff and gadgets like cases, flash heads, cards, lenses, remote shutters etc and come out with over £1000 worth of bits they never needed or will use.

"Have you seen my new camera it has a 24 mega pixel sensor and a 55mm lens and i have taken pictures of all the birds in my garden, but look at the quality of that sparrow!!!"

So 12 months later they bang it on eBay and then people who need them like us can pick them up nice and cheep :)
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: stugster and vvaannmmaann
Upvote 0
da8iwr - "trust me camera price has NOTHING to do with it."

Can't say I agree with that and especially from what you continue to say. Buying a second hand one that would have cost £500 instead of a new camera for £150 kind of backs the opposite argument. The better ones are more expensive in general but you can obviously end up buying a piece of rubbish for a similar price if you are not careful. Buying a second hand one would be a good option for the OP. I don't think the OP is looking for high end from first impressions anyway.
 
Upvote 0
ADW said:
Can't say I agree with that and especially from what you continue to say. Buying a second hand one that would have cost £500 instead of a new camera for £150 kind of backs the opposite argument.
Click to expand...

Where did i say a second hand one will be £500??

I said a second hand one will cost between £150 and £200, which is the same price bracket he posted as the Fuji camera sells for the same sort of prices.

da8iwr said:
I wouldnt pay anymore than £150-£200 for one, as a new Canon 1000D (The most recent entry level canon SLR camera) is only about £399.
http://www.jacobsdigital.co.uk/index.php?target=products&product_id=10818
Click to expand...

Everything you buy on eBay is insured through PayPal, so if it doesn't work he sends it back and receives a refund or his money back anyway through the paypal guarantee, if the item is proven to be faulty and was advertised as working OK.

Of course you could buy from a second hand photography dealer, which you will find in the back of most good photographic magazines. That way you can test before you buy. But with eBay if the camera is close, you could drive over and pick it up after testing it but still pay through paypal on the sellers computer, so you have the insurance, i have done that before.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0
i've been considering a camera for some time tbh - and I'll be following your advice dawi8r...cheers :)
 
Upvote 0
Nikon D40 is pretty good entry level SLR, they are being phased out, but they are still about. They can support different lenses too, as well as having a hot shoe for external flash and have the ability for a wireless slave flash mode. Not bad for about £250-£289 and from a decent maker.

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/recommended-cameras.htm is a site telling you of its merits, he's even written a decent downloadable user manual for this camera, he asks for a donation of $5, which is peanuts for the quality of advice you'll get. As with any camera, its practice that gets the results you want by design, but this manual is a great place to start. :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: da8iwr
Upvote 0
Alan that's great advice mate, the thing with photography is it usually ends up as a Nikon Vs Canon argument, i personally prefer Canon, but my business partner prefers Nikon and we have spent many hours arguing about which is better over a drink.

Being realistic though, neither is better or worse, they both do the same job, are very close to equal in quality, the main difference is the menu. I think once you have gotten used to one of them, it is very hard to switch to the other, so you find it confusing and then don't like it.

So if your going for a camera, don't let anybody tell you that one is better than the other, as it isn't true, they are both equally as good, its just personal preference.
 
Upvote 0
da8iwr said:
Im a photogrpaher for London Fashion show and have had an exhibition in Tate britain October 2008, and trust me camera price has NOTHING to do with it.

Im not name dropping BTW, i am just showing that this is what i do for a living.

An expensive camera is only pushed by salesmen at Jessops telling you what you NEED and have to have. In the same way as PCs are pushed by salesmen at PC World. If all you do is browse the internet and use MSN Messenger, an old recycled Pentium 4 will be more than you need, but they still push for some quad core system wih about 8GB of ram, something in comparison to what Nasa will use to launch a rocket.

Even if you bought the second best 35mm camera you can get, the "Canon 5D mk2" for £2400, You will have almost the largest sensor, the best options and incredible image resolution, but your then still going to reduce down the images to 800 x 600 pixels or so to fit on your website.

if your using it only to make web images, get onto ebay and find a good second hand Canon SLR like the 10D or 20D camera with the standard 18-55mm lens. They are dirt cheep and 3 - 7 yrs ago were counted as professional, so if the images were good enough then, why will they not be a few years later???

(Note - SLR is the type of camera where you can chnage the lens on the front)

I wouldnt pay anymore than £150-£200 for one, as a new Canon 1000D (The most recent entry level canon SLR camera) is only about £399.
http://www.jacobsdigital.co.uk/index.php?target=products&product_id=10818

But...
The main bit of photography that makes things look good is lighting, there are loads of home kits to help with this.

Lighting
Light Tent
Jewelery Photography

These are a little expensive, mainly because i just spent 3 mins looking, but if you read through the text in the adverts it will give you a good idea of how it all works and what to look for.

But honestly, you could take the images with a simple compact camera, its the lighting that makes all the difference. Just make sure the camera has full controls such as manual shutter speed and aperture, as auto settings are for idiots and usually dont give the best results.

So for about £50 - £150 for a new compact camera or second hand SLR and £100 for lighting, you will have a semi pro setup.

Hope this helps
Ian
Click to expand...
I dispagree a little, if the OP would have said they only have £100-£150, then they aint gunna get a DSLR, and the number of features will be releavent depending on the place / setup of taking the pictures, if it is a well lit natural light area the camera won't matter as much or if they also intend to buy some lighting equipment and studio type setup, but if the conditions are low light or rubbush the camera will matter more.
 
Upvote 0
da8iwr said:
Alan that's great advice mate, the thing with photography is it usually ends up as a Nikon Vs Canon argument, i personally prefer Canon, but my business partner prefers Nikon and we have spent many hours arguing about which is better over a drink.

Being realistic though, neither is better or worse, they both do the same job, are very close to equal in quality, the main difference is the menu. I think once you have gotten used to one of them, it is very hard to switch to the other, so you find it confusing and then don't like it.

So if your going for a camera, don't let anybody tell you that one is better than the other, as it isn't true, they are both equally as good, its just personal preference.
Click to expand...
We al looking to get a DSLR and after reading endless reviews I decided I wanted a Sony A350 would be happy with a second hand one but I cannot find one, so now I have started to look a Nikon D60 which again looks good but judging by your information your saying it does make a lot of difference, so if you have a budget of £300 which DSLR would you recommend?

I will point out that it will mainly be used for photographing clothes and sports equipment but we do want to play with in and use it for sports action shots and other bits and pieces.
 
Upvote 0
da8iwr - I probably didn't make myself clear enough. I said "Would have cost about £500" and not will cost £500. You will pay £100-£150 now but it "would" have been a more expensive price new hence the £500. That is the point I was trying to make on the comment price has NOTHING to do with it. Rather then buy a new one for £150 buy a better more expensive second hand one for the same price. I agree with the thought behind it though.

I am in the Nikon camp over Canon but both makes are very good.
 
Upvote 0
The Nikon D60 is almost identical to the D40, the quality of the image is a tad better than the D40, but not to the point of paying an extra £100 for it. I know this from doing a college course when wanting to get a better understanding of photography (and to network) and I had the opportunity of swapping cameras for the night. The manual I mentioned in an early post on this thread, applies to about 95% to the D60.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0
A little off topic but another idea I just read in a magazine a few days ago when taking pics - If you are selling small items you can get rotating pads online that correspond with certain cameras so you can take pictures at a few different angles of the items
 
Upvote 0
For product photography I'd buy the cheaper Fuji 5700 or equivalent. You don't need a facility for other lenses or any other do-dahs, except possibly a hotshoe/external flash sync., (easy enough to bodge up anyway). Just over £100 with a full guarantee. You don't need the build quality of Nikon or Canon, (which you aren't really getting in entry level cameras anyway), and the lighting is going to be far more important than the camera anyway.
So, personally it would be a cheapo Fuji and any money saved put towards lights.
 
Upvote 0
Dawg said:
So, personally it would be a cheapo Fuji and any money saved put towards lights.
Click to expand...
Interestingthread this, can someone recommed a lighting setting for the this to help the OP budget. (OK i have an interest as well:p)
 
Upvote 0
I've been using a Panasonic TZ3 compact for a lot of stuff recently, and the results are stunning considering the size and price of the camera. Nice lens and far more MP than anyone could possibly need for normal home use. I wish that the compact manufacturers would spend more on the lens and less on MP wars which add nothing to usable picture quality. But too many punters buy on MP. Witness the ridiculous phones with 8MP sensors.:rolleyes:

Lighting does make a massive difference though. If shooting outdoors with that compact the results are vastly superior on a bright day with the sun out. I'll confess that I don't bother with the manual settings. The TZ3 comes with a choice of a zillion automatic modes and picking the correct one (ie not just the general auto mode) usually gets great results.
 
Upvote 0
I agree with Tom. I love my TZ3. Best little digi I have had by far, and it's my seventh. Top bit of kit.
 
Upvote 0
TotallySport said:
Interestingthread this, can someone recommed a lighting setting for the this to help the OP budget. (OK i have an interest as well:p)
Click to expand...


We used this guy to buy all our lighting stuff, although didn't buy through ebay, we called him first for advice then oaid via credit card, couldn't have been more helpful.

The different lighting does make a huge difference, I know nothing about cameras, we use a Canon 300D, but to be honest get the same quality pics from a Konika Dimage x50. Only using it indoors though.
 
Upvote 0
ServersandSpares said:
We used this guy to buy all our lighting stuff, although didn't buy through ebay, we called him first for advice then oaid via credit card, couldn't have been more helpful.

The different lighting does make a huge difference, I know nothing about cameras, we use a Canon 300D, but to be honest get the same quality pics from a Konika Dimage x50. Only using it indoors though.
Click to expand...
Did i miss the bit where the company names was?:|
 
Upvote 0
Oh my lord where do i start replying to these lol

TotallySport said:
I dispagree a little, if the OP would have said they only have £100-£150, then they aint gunna get a DSLR, and the number of features will be releavent depending on the place / setup of taking the pictures, if it is a well lit natural light area the camera won't matter as much or if they also intend to buy some lighting equipment and studio type setup, but if the conditions are low light or rubbush the camera will matter more.
Click to expand...

The OP specified a make and type of camera which i looked for on eBay and found to be about £150 - £200, and then thought if i was to buy a camera for a friend with that budget who needs it to give good results that represents products and has expandable possibilities, i thought instantly about DSLR (Digital SLR) cameras, as this way you can swap and change the lens to get different effects of depth of field (make the background blurry whilst the foreground/product is pin sharp), complete aperture and shutter speed, and what you see through the view finder is exactly what you take pictures of.

Also you say low light etc will need a better camera, that's not true, i have an old compact Olympus 2.1 mega pixel camera, which i used to take a long exposure photograph that won an international competition.
http://www.quicktimevirtualreality.com/bridge/
So as long as you have full manual control (Shutter speed and aperture) you can get similar if not as good effects as a DSLR, the main difference is the option of lens changes as your photography needs grows.

TotallySport said:
so if you have a budget of £300 which DSLR would you recommend?
Click to expand...

I would try and find a good canon 450D or 1000D. If you can expand your budget by about £50, you will be able to get a new 1000D which uses the exact same sensors as the more expensive 450D.
http://www.newworlddesigns.co.uk/portfolio/tate-britain-bullet-time-exhibition.html
The images i took here used 16 cameras, 8 were my 450D cameras and 8 were 1000D cameras, you can see there is no difference in the image quality at all.

Fuzzy said:
Fuzzy uses a Sony Cybershot;)
Click to expand...
They are an excellent camera, i started out with one of them years ago. They just cant be added to, so lenses, and other accessories means a whole new camera.

inin said:
A little off topic but another idea I just read in a magazine a few days ago when taking pics - If you are selling small items you can get rotating pads online that correspond with certain cameras so you can take pictures at a few different angles of the items
Click to expand...

I take a special kind of rotational photography used to display products.
http://www.quicktimevirtualreality.com/qtvr/objects/flashgun-multi-med.html
(You need Quick time to see it)
I used a "Lazy Susan" from ikea for this particular shoot, they cost £5.47
http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/search/?query=lazy+susan
Just paint it white and saves you thousands of pounds in designed for the job products like this :)
http://www.kaidan.com/Detail.bok?no=98
or even this!!
http://www.kaidan.com/Detail.bok?no=10
Fair enough sometimes you need more than a £5 turntable, but not to start of with you don't.

TotallySport said:
Interesting Thread this, can someone recommed a lighting setting for the this to help the OP budget. (OK i have an interest as well:p)
Click to expand...

In product photography, you need to remove external light bounce (called radiosity) That means if you have a red carpet, a small part of the red will be picked up in the image, especially if it has a shiny surface like a mobile phone or jewellery. So you use a light tent, it is a white semi transparent box you put the product in and then shine lights through it. If you are just looking for jewellery and mobile phone size, you can get a good 24" tent for about £50 on eBay, and 2 continuous lighting lamps (make sure they are 5400K which is daylight colour) for about £75. Have a look around on eBay there are LOADS of these, some from hong kong etc but it depends on the size of your products to how much it will cost.

But all cameras are good, it depends on if you want to choose a product that can be upgraded, all i was thinking was for the same money you can have a non upgradable or upgradable, at least then you have the option of it later on.
 
Upvote 0
Thanks for the info, my point about price was more based on under £100 cameras which have very limited light settings, at the start we had problems with a few and now have a Canon A610 which we love but isn't flexible enough plus we want to move into shooting other things to help with other areas.

One last question do you know it the 450D or 1000D have be used in Remote capture (link direct to a PC) so I have see the view finder on the PC and use it to take pictures. This is one of the reasons we are looking for a new camera as the A610 doesn't support it.
 
Upvote 0
Sorry I have another how do you get the pictures to have a pure white background without editing, like the ones from the photo places you take the kids?
 
Upvote 0
TotallySport said:
One last question do you know it the 450D or 1000D have be used in Remote capture (link direct to a PC) so I have see the view finder on the PC and use it to take pictures. This is one of the reasons we are looking for a new camera as the A610 doesn't support it.
Click to expand...

The software we had developed to run our Bullet Time Photography rig links into the cameras, we first of all bought 16 x Samsung GX1S cameras (Identical in every way to the Pentax *ist D2 cameras just with a different badge), then found it cant be controlled by computer, so we sold them and bought 16 Canon 400D cameras, then found we didn't have "Live View" as an option, where you can see on the back screen and through the computer.

This meant aligning was a nightmare as you we were using visual alignment only.

We then found the new 450D was released (at the time i was doing this) so we went out and bought 16 of them lol.

£50,000 later we now have a full trigger system that fires the cameras, software that controls the cameras from one computer, and the possibility of viewing what the camera sees on the computer screen and even completely controlling it including firing it.

Reason I'm saying all this was that feature costs me about £30,000.... so yes the 1000D and 450D cameras can do Live View lol.

TotallySport said:
Sorry I have another how do you get the pictures to have a pure white background without editing, like the ones from the photo places you take the kids?
Click to expand...

This always makes me laugh, the nob head "photographers" that you see in the shopping centres taking very white style images of families and children, over expose the image on purpose. It is a style that some people like and think looks modern and contemporary, but actually it is a very simple way of making the image look good with very little talent as the image is so burnt you cant see features in it.

So just drop the shutter speed down a little so the image is over exposed or put it through photoshop and push contrast and brightness up,if the background is white in the first place any marks or shadows will be bleached out.

In my opinion this is not photography, this is a blacksmith trying to be an watch maker.
 
Upvote 0
OK, so adjusting the shutter speed and editing in Photoshop is how *not* to get a white background, so how *do* you do it? I struggle with this myself - I use a light tent, set the white balance, and yet I still end up with dingy grey backgrounds.
 
Upvote 0
I can get a white backgound, but I can still see the material (i must admit it's not muslin), but the pro's pictures don't have these and don't seem to edit it from what you see on the TV, although I don't trust the TV lol
 
Upvote 0
da8iwr said:
So just drop the shutter speed down a little so the image is over exposed or put it through photoshop and push contrast and brightness up,if the background is white in the first place any marks or shadows will be bleached out.

In my opinion this is not photography, this is a blacksmith trying to be an watch maker.
Click to expand...
Thanks, I have played about with it, but doing this always spoils the picture of the item I have taken, I either get a perfectly whiyte background but a very light item or a perfect item (for me anyway) and I can see the background and have to edit it out.

Even the model shoots on TV all seem to have a pure white background on, without editing. I will have to keep playing I think, to gain perfection. (although I guess your saying don't put a perfect white backdrop in!)

Thanks for the other info, although 30k might be out of reach at least I know it's possible and can look into cheaper options.
 
Upvote 0
It is extremely hard* to get a pure white background in a non professional situation. This is why God made Photoshop. (But he is a vengeful God and if you just use the magic wand to do your cut-out your results will be the spawn of the devil).

*It's not really hard but you need a bit of kit, and a fair bit of room.
 
Upvote 0
There are a few ways to get a true white background, but the best is a combination of a them all together.

1 - Light the background different to lighting the product
So you can either back light (shine the light through) the background or place the light facing the background so it makes it bright from the front. Then you use 2 or 3 other lights to light the product.

2 - Photoshop
Forget the wand it is useless, you need to use mask mode. Every now and then i have taught in the local universities and colleges, and part of the course i make them watch this You Tube video, which saves me hours and hours of time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Gb3nnwlt8Q
It explains in there exactly how to use the mask feature.

3 - Correct background material
The material we use is special paper roll which isn't that expensive at all. I think we pay about £20 per 50 meter roll. it is smooth and perfectly coloured. Of course any good paper is good, but i try to stay away from material as it folds and pleats which gives massive shadow/colour effects.

All photography you see from a studio is Photoshopped, and i mean ALL!!!.

My Business partner Enamul produced the images they use on the Canon 450D Manual, packaging and samples, you can see the full set here
http://web.mac.com/enamul/www.enamul.co.uk/Photography.html
Its the 6th row down with the guys jumping about.

Each image has about 1 or 2 hours worth of Photoshop work to the most incredible detail. We employ assistants that do this full time, going through hundreds or sometimes thousands of images per shoot to make them look perfect.

If you look carefully you can see on for example image 30 (the most left on row 6), you can see the light hitting the back of his right leg, showing that there are a lot more lights around than you realise.

But like i said its a combination of lighting, background material and photoshop not just one way.

This is a virtual tour in Quick Time of before and after photoshop work
http://www.bullettimephotography.com/temp/lily/untouched.html
http://www.bullettimephotography.com/temp/lily

There was a huge amount of preparation of work here, just to make the walk-in cylinder took 3 days, and behind the cylinder is a massive rig of cameras and 8 assistants, 2 makeup artists, a creative director and 2 3 phase lighting systems.

But to replicate this on a desktop to photograph smaller products, can be done using equipment and methods i have said in earlier posts in this thread.
 
  • Like
Reactions: groovyjon
Upvote 0
All this waffle of cameras/equipment. It's still going to take the OP a long time to get the techniques right even if they do get high-end kit.

Why not just hire a professional for now (your business takes priority here) and learn photography in your spare time? It's a long haul and producing quality product photography...

;)

...doesn't happen overnight. :)

By the way, I'm not taking-on any phot work at the moment (haven't for a long time) so this is not a plug! :)
 
Upvote 0
Well i wouldn't really call it waffle, but your right, the camera is just a tool, not a replacement for talent. That's what Ive been trying to say from my first post, that the camera itself has very little to do with the image and quality.

Pencils are free, but only a handful of people can use them to make art.

But i also understand that many people arnt working to a huge pro level, they have extremely tight margins and paying a full on photographer each time they need to do anything is sometimes not the best business solution.

look at me talking myself out of work :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Trainer Bubble
Upvote 0
Well thank you da8iwr for all your help in this post (even though I haven't contributed up until now). I have been looking into cameras and photography and your post has really helped me.
 
Upvote 0
Things i would recommend:

Good Lightbox (and lighting)
Good Camera ;)
Good tripod
Lots of practice.

If you are on a really tight budget there are lots of guides online to making your own lightbox.

(i didnt read the whole thread so this has prob been covered)
 
Upvote 0
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

J
Marketer Looking to Buy, Build or Partner in a Product-Based Business
Replies
1
Views
2K
General Business Forum
NelaKo
NelaKo
apricot
Where do I go for compliance check?
Replies
10
Views
4K
General Business Forum
apricot
apricot
T
UK Trademark Class 35 for online retailer question.
Replies
23
Views
5K
General Business Forum
Porky
Porky
armoniagems
Any Shopify apps that actually help boost sales for a niche product like gemstones?
Replies
5
Views
1K
Websites & Ecommerce
antropy
antropy
M
Experience with sourcing agents
Replies
8
Views
866
Overseas Trade
PowerForwarding
PowerForwarding

Latest Articles

Top Bottom
Back