Taking product pictures

[David P]

Hi everyone

We are just about to start taking pictures of all our bags for our e- commerce shop and was wondering if anyone had any advice.
Our current set up is that we have made a little studio of our own with a couple of proper lamps, a piece of curved white card as the background and the camera we have is a Nikon D40.
We have taken some shots already but the problem is the time taken to take a picture of just one bag, obviously we need a lot of shots to accurately capture what the bag is like and we want them all in each colour of that style (generally 3 colour variations).
Time is being taken up by having to adjust camera settings (like flash intensity) would a light tent solve this? Ideally we want to be able just have to keep settings the same for every shot.
Also would it be possible for us to take all the pictures of one style of bag in say black and then adjust the photo on photoshop so the bag is in our other colours? Then we would have good continuity in all our shots.

Sorry for the length of this lol and thanks for any help

 

[NuBlue]

Have you tried getting the images from your suppliers?

They tend to have very high quality images of there stock for internal use (catalogues etc..) already. would save a lot of time and possibly give a better finish (not mocking your camera skills, but they tend to get photos professionaly done in a studio)

 

[David P]

Yeah we thought of that but believe it or not they are really really bad quality. Would've been a godsend if they had decent ones.

 

[Brian McIntosh]

I you search for posts on product photography on this site you'll get a few that should point you in the right direction. When you say you have proper lamps do you mean studio flash? Once you have everything set up, it should be easy to take the pictures. Nothing should change apart from maybe the focal length of the lens you are using if you want to pick out detail in the bags. I'm assuming you're using a D40 with a kit zoom lens?

As far as your Photoshop question about changing colours goes, this is entirely possible.

 

[NuBlue]

Yeah we thought of that but believe it or not they are really really bad quality. Would've been a godsend if they had decent ones.

Fair enough. Good luck with it

 

[Dawg]

Buy a Cubelite kit, with lights. Set it up where you don't have to move it, and the same with camera on tripod. Experiment until you have it exactly as you want it. Record details. Repeat shots as wanted.
Buy Photoshop and learn basics. Follow same routine as above.

This will give you the basics. You won't be shooting to pick out highlights, (special finishes, stitching, shapes etc.), which require changing light positioning and direction, focal length etc. This will come in time if you go for it.

Or hire a pro.

 

[profitxchange]

Do it yourself is best. It may take some time first time round but after that you are only doing incremental changes for new products. Good images can make a real difference to success.

 

[apexweb]

I use a white box similar to the cubelite ones but from ebay which cost around £30 (about 3ft square) you can get colour balanced lights but the 150w security lights will work if you use photoshop to colour correct your photos after. I have used "pro" lights which cost over £200 each and had very similar results to the £4.99 lights from b&q!
If you get a couple of small camera tripods for the lights and a good quality tripod for your camera and a remote shutter release, it will elimate any camera shake and should give you good quality photos.

 

Buy a Cubelite kit, with lights. Set it up where you don't have to move it, and the same with camera on tripod. Experiment until you have it exactly as you want it. Record details. Repeat shots as wanted.
Buy Photoshop and learn basics. Follow same routine as above.

This will give you the basics. You won't be shooting to pick out highlights, (special finishes, stitching, shapes etc.), which require changing light positioning and direction, focal length etc. This will come in time if you go for it.

Or hire a pro.

I have a cubelite -esque set up, ie I didn't pay the insane price cubelite charge for theirs, I got the studio lighting and cube kit for approx £150 on ebay and they are superb.

I would personally take the pics in all the colourways rather than change the colour on photoshop as unless your very skilled with the special effects you're not going to match the true nature of a naturally shot picture of the bag, instead set up a fixed display method of posing the bag so that all of your shots are taken in the same way - or look at posing the bags together in a shot so that you can take a section of colour for each and then take shots of one bag all directions and just one straightforward shot of each in the individual colour.

 

[PhilDPho]

apexweb, if you're really going for "pro" studio heads, you'll be looking at nearer £600 per head than £200.

And the fact that you can get the same results as with security lights, goes to show that you really do need to know what you're doing to get the most out of equipment.

First off, the best and easiest way to do this, is get a professional in to do it.

If you're doing it yourself, and on a budget, then get the product that Dawg suggested.

Get a GOOD tripod, and get some studio lights, and a flash meter. Once it's all set up, if you're not after something special, then just get your WB set, and you should be able to rattle them off quite quickly, just replacing the bag and not touching the setup.

But, you haven't mentioned what lens you're using, but some basic knowledge of how to use lights, your camera in manual and a flash meter will be important.

Afterall, you don't want to make your product look bad.

Although if you hired a pro, the chances are it would be shot in a studio without a tent. The tent is the DIY approach to getting good light, a pro will be able to do a much better job.

 

[apexweb]

apexweb, if you're really going for "pro" studio heads, you'll be looking at nearer £600 per head than £200.

And the fact that you can get the same results as with security lights, goes to show that you really do need to know what you're doing to get the most out of equipment.

First off, the best and easiest way to do this, is get a professional in to do it.

If you're doing it yourself, and on a budget, then get the product that Dawg suggested.

Get a GOOD tripod, and get some studio lights, and a flash meter. Once it's all set up, if you're not after something special, then just get your WB set, and you should be able to rattle them off quite quickly, just replacing the bag and not touching the setup.

But, you haven't mentioned what lens you're using, but some basic knowledge of how to use lights, your camera in manual and a flash meter will be important.

Afterall, you don't want to make your product look bad.

Although if you hired a pro, the chances are it would be shot in a studio without a tent. The tent is the DIY approach to getting good light, a pro will be able to do a much better job.

The £200 lights were second hand bowens units, i think they were about £700 new but the photographer who i got them from was retiring and wanted to sell all his kit.

If you are going to take your own photos, the best way is to get a digital SLR camera and then you can have full control over the photos and always show in raw format for the best quality output.

I use a canon EOS 5D and 10D for my stock photography, you also need good quality lenses. It dosnt matter what you spend on the camera body but the quality of the lens will make a huge difference in the final photos so get the best that you can afford. A good prime lens is far better than a zoom.

 

[Logan]

Photos are the most important things on an e-commerce website

Pay some to a pro photographer, and get nice high quality photos

 

[David P]

Cheers for all your responses. We really don't want to go down the pro route mostly due to the cost but also because it will make us dependent on using a pro each time we get anything new in. The lens we use is just the one we got with the camera.

 

[Mister B]

Cheers for all your responses. We really don't want to go down the pro route mostly due to the cost but also because it will make us dependent on using a pro each time we get anything new in. The lens we use is just the one we got with the camera.

Understand where you're coming from entirely.

I shot all of my own products as well and spent so much time trying to touch them up etc that in the end, the cost of my time was outweighing the cost of using a pro Ended up using a pro after around six months as I wasn't happy with the quality of my shots. The result....doubled my sales overnight.

If you really are on a budget, try having a chat with a local college and getting a photography student to do it for you. Good practise for them and free photography for you. Happy days Obviously, they get to use the images within their portfolio for nothing.

Mister B

 

[jon.dc]

Is not easy achieving a professional result and it does take a lot of time.
If you decide to sub out the work, I do basic shots from £7.50 per item, on a white background. This includes resizing for the ideal resolution to suit your site. Or badger your suppliers to get the products professionally done. If you are interested have a look at the services I offer.
www jdphotographics co uk

 

[mcol]

you can get a white tent setup from maplins for very little indeed. Add a window with some natural light and job done.

 

[Dawg]

you can get a white tent setup from maplins for very little indeed. Add a window with some natural light and job done.

This is ideal if you want low contrast, flat and uncontrolled lighting. A bit like painting a front door with matt emulsion instead of gloss. Avoidable.

 

[PhilDPho]

Dawg is 100% spot on, Although it can be done, the flat light tent lighting isn't ideal, and a professional will give a much better result.