Product photography Help!

Hi everyone,
I am quite new to all this, doing a degree in design and photography is a big part and a amateur hobby of mine.
I work for a shop and have been asked to take product shots for selling online.
these photographs must be very good quality and full of detail and can be of anything from jewellery to clothing!

I have a Canon 450D just with the kit lens but want to get a better lens for product photography!

Help Please! Thanks!!

Woah, open-ended request!

I think you'll find lighting and backdrops may make as-much or more difference to the final outcome. What's the target medium? Even a kit lens can shoot a perfectly adequate shot if it's going to be reduced to 1024x768 and viewed on the web.

The size of the product will dictate the lens you want to use. Obviously I'm not going to use a super telephoto to shoot pictures of engagement rings.

edit: rereading your post I see you've got objects of all sizes to shoot. With that I think I'd lean towards a macro lens. They're sharp and don't HAVE to be used at macro distances.

I'll defer to someone with experience shooting objects whether you want a longer focal length or shorter (maybe the distortion on larger objects will not be appealing) but if you can get away with short focal lengths the EF-S 60 mm is a nice macro lens for your body's sensor size - less than $500 US.

A macro lens would be a good choice, either the EF-S 60mm f/2.8 or one of the EF 100mm f/2.8 lenses (L or non-L depending on budget). Better yet, if budget permits, a TS-E 90mm f/2.8 would be great. The advantage of a TS-E lens over a macro lens is that you can get a deeper depth of field without using an extremely narrow aperture, as discussed here.

Perhaps more important than the lens is the rest of the setup - you should have a good tripod (no need for a light one, just stable), a light tent and/or shooting table or infinity board (like this), and continuous lighting (even a set of gooseneckdesk lamps will do).

Yes, a macro lens if you need it. But the beauty of studio product shots is that shooting static subjects from a tripod, you can stop down and get as good results from your kit lens as you can get from expensive pro lenses. Likewise, under controlled circumstances a 450D's 12.2MP is plenty of resolution. I agree with Chad and neuro that a good tripod, backdrops, and lighting equipment are what will make the biggest difference.

I don't do product photograpy often, but I can say that good lighting is generally key. I have studio strobes (so rock solid stability is not necessarily a requirement, but still helps). However, you can do something similar using a solid tripod (as stated above) and using a long shutter speed and a continuous light source.

Here's a shot I took of a lens used for illustration in an Ebay auction. I used 50mm f/1.4 set to f/8, a tripod, a studio strobe (or two, I can't remember), and a sheet of typing paper.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-O...MG_1383_ps.jpg

Thanks everyone! Really useful info there, I'll be investing in some decent equipment rather than lenses! I know lighting seems to be the key to a good product shot!

Have done a lot of photos of specimens before and after testing. For smaller sizes I still use a sheet of paper. One tip is to allow it to drape down in an arc to avoid sharp corners which will, not can, reveal lighting flaws. For larger items drafting paper is quite economical as a backdrop. If on a tight budget and in need of large backdrops head down to a fabric outlet to look for unbleached muslin or something similar. Just avoid synthetic fabrics as they frequently reflect too much light creating the potential for blown out areas.

Do be mindful of mixing different types of light sources due to colour temperature variations, it can get rather nasty though some might claim artistic when key and fill lights aren't the same temperature. I do have some pictures to prove it from before managing to scrounge together a few decent light sources from the scrap piles in some of the lab areas at work.

Translucent shower curtains provide inexpensive material for light boxes, just cut sections out of a cardboard box to leave a frame for attachment.

The only limit to low budget contrivances is the imagination to recognize the basic building materials when you see them.

If looking for lenses, wide angles need to be avoided for the most part. I have to admit that some product shots look amazing with the perspective distortion, but not the same can be said for the rest.
Most of the work I do is smaller objects, for which a 100 mm macro rules. For larger objects I try to keep above 60 mm focal length as I prefer a slight compression myself. Should point out I am on full frame sensor not a cropped body.

As said, lighting is the key.
Light boxes are a good idea, you can get them in a translucent soft white fabric, or make your own (as suggested with shower curtains, or any thin white fabric). Then get a few desk lights to shine through it, doesn't have to be anything fancy.

Or go the flash-route, with 2-3-4 smaller flashes (like 220/330/420/430, older are cheaper and you just set them all to the same manual power anyway). With a 450D you'll need an external flash trigger, so that could get costly. Softboxes are cheap on ebay, just search for them (eg, for "430EX Softbox", pay $5, wait 2 weeks).

I've done (well, helped a workmate) in product photography, we made a reflecty box out of old card-board boxes lined with A3 printer-paper. Worked well enough, maybe the occasional seam where the paper bits overlapped, nothing that 5 minutes in photoshop can't fix.

Take a look in my sig for the link to "gear photos". I took them all last weekend with nothing but an old white towel draped over a piano stool, and a 430EX (you can sort of see the setup in the last shot). Could have been better, i'll either re-shoot next time I get a few hours to myself, or photoshop out the pills on the towel to pure white. (I boosted most of the whites to clipping when i DPP processed them).

Or this one had a curtain in the background, that I found in my mum's laundry. Again, clip the whites in DPP and well lit (I've got a better version at home, including the setup I used).

Or experiment with black backgrounds too, it will depend on what you are shooting. I took this shot with a black towel in the background, sitting on top of an external Hard Disk with nice shiny surface (i was going to PP out the reflection on the bottom right but doesn't look like I did). 430EX to the right with softbox, metal dinner-serving tray handheld on the left to reflect a bit of stray light back. High shutter-speed and higher flash power blackens out the background, then just clipped the remaining almost-blacks in DPP processing.
http://croubie.smugmug.com/photos/i-...-NMthMtq-L.jpg

For lenses, the 60mm macro would be ideal, good IQ, and macro capability, can fit in dresses and such too if you step back enough. 100 USM Macro would be nice, 100L Macro is expensive overkill for a tripod (but you'll get addicted to macro photography, the IS is invaluable for chasing bugs around the garden). Or any good lens with Extension Tubes, the gear photos were taken with my new FL 55 f/1.2, the tomato with a Takumar 50 f/1.4 ($100 on ebay), the tree with an EF 85 f/1.8.

ps, I'm not sure if it works with the 450D, but the RC-6 was the best $20 I ever spent. Of course you can use a 10-second timer for shots, but remote-control is just soooooo much more convenient.

@DrC don't 'shop out the reflection! That's the thing that makes it a picture and not a magic wand cutout from any old shot. I would darken the background a bit on the right side though.

For a black backdrop nothing beat black flocked paper such as: http://www.thorlabs.com/thorProduct.cfm?partNumber=BFP1

Use the same principles as shooting on a white piece of paper (such as bend it up in an arc). I know from personal experience that this black paper is a heck of a light trap - dealing with reflections from a 55 mJ Nd:YAG laser that been frequency doubled to 532 nm (green).

Heck, I think I paid $2 for a basic ir remote. I bought 4 figuring they wouldn't last long. I'm on my second set of batteries from my first one!

Product photography is an interesting and challenging field. I do jewelry photography for a friend and have learned much in the year or so that I have done it. I would recommend getting the 60mm Macro for your 450D. I used the 100 and it was a little long unless you plan on shooting stuff on the floor. Earings it works well, but if you want full shots of things, might be wiser to go with the shorter focal length. Your 450D should be perfectly fine for these shots and even your kit lens might work great. As stated before, it will be stopped down and the quality isn't that much different once your around f/8. I would recommend getting some continuous lights with good modifiers for your lights and getting or building a table top setup if your shooting smaller things. I say continuous lights because you can see where the reflections and shadows are much easier than with strobes. I purchased a light tent and it serves me well, but is limiting most of the time. If you get a table top, you can go to your local craft store and get some white or reflective foam board to make good reflectors for what you need. Search google for some product photography tutorials and check you tube as most are very helpful getting started but trial and error is the best way to learn. I used a 7d, 50mm f/1.4 for these first shots at f/7.1 I believe. 100 macro for the last.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-v...0_17_08765.jpg
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-i...1_22_00001.jpg


https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-U...1_17_09996.jpg

Jayson,

Wow, these are great shots! Do you have any shots showing your setup? I've been trying to get this same look with an umbrella, a reflector and 580EXIIs, and I end up blowing out the small details like the connecting links in a necklace, but the whites still aren't even white :-(

Thanks and great work.