Portable Photo Studio - I am impressed

[Jamillah]

Also, if you want to spend about 10 bucks, you can buy some reflective acrylic. It gives you a clean mirrored look that really makes photos look professional. It comes in black or white, both give an amazing effect. It's really easy to keep clean and it doesn't crease, so you don't have to do a lot of editing.

This is a photo I took on the black, with very little editing done after.

 

[Vigilante]

Over the last 18 months, we have spent a lot on getting professional product images taken. $10 per image is what we have been paying for professional product shots. We should have done even more photography. Photography sells products. We should be putting several images up on each listing.

So... I found a cheap photo box on eBay, and thought it would be fun to take some photos with my iPhone 5 and see what happens. Total investment? $30.99

This lighting kit including the following

(1) Studio Photo Tent 16" X 16"

(4) Backgrounds (Red, Black, Blue, White)

(2) Studio Light Stand w/ Photo Bulb

(1) Mini Tripod

So... consider that this kit will pay for itself if I use just THREE images from it.

Here's the listing on eBay. Julius Studio Table Top Photo Box Tent Kit Photography Lighting Kit Mini Tripod | eBay

I was amazed and surprised. Since I have nothing else to do (!) I set it up in the office today, and was taking a few test photos. Absolutely serviceable. Maybe not perfect, but for our purposes this will work perfectly.

It's very rare that a product meets my expectations, much less exceeds it. For those of you who attended B&P, I talked about "ruthless expense reduction." Using this, I think we will take significant costs out. If we use 500 images from this in the next 12 months, I just pocketed $5k in savings.

Note that the height of the photo box is about 16"... works great for smaller products. There are professional photographers on the forum that are probably going to bar-b-que me for this, but for anyone from the casual hobbyist to the start-up eCommerce importer... this is a viable solution for small scale operations and small product images.



(Note that I did not have the lights on in the image... thus the shadows.)

 

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[nitrousflame]

Here's one product shot: [pic removed]
My color is a little off. No post picture editing has been done

Not bad, but the backdrop is super annoying IMO. All those lines are very distracting from the actual product. Are you heavily cropping these?

Also, I'd suggest moving the product/subject as far from the backdrop as possible in attempt to get the backdrop out of focus, which will help blur the lines and imperfections in the backdrop.

Actually, if you just grabbed a cheap white poster board from office max and bent it against the wall, you'd have a pretty sweet backdrop with zero creases. Then all you'd need to do is get some sort of shoot-through diffusers for your lights and you could position them right out of the frame.

Like this:

Wax paper works pretty well for a cheap shoot-through diffuser in a pinch. Even plain old white printer paper would do the trick.

 

[DavidofMN]

So I changed my camera settings, lighting and used a white paper background.


Setup:
Necklace on right was first attempt, necklace on left with white paper.
Earrings on left first attempt, earrings on right with white paper.
Still need to adjust a few little things but definitely. much better looking.
How do they look?

 

[1PercentStreet]

Have you thought about creating a product out of this? (Re-branded or white-label)
Selling for $49.95 with a guide on how to alter your camera settings to take better photos.

 

[biophase]

Here's one product shot: View attachment 4748
My color is a little off. No post picture editing has been done

David,

Replace that cloth on the background with white paper. Get yourself a long sheet and lay it the exact same way as your cloth background.

You need to up the lighting. Get more lights shooting in from the sides.

In your photos the background should be all white with no lines. You can post process that by increasing brightness and contrast.

 

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[Amail]

Bayco 150-Watt Incandescent Clamp Light-CE-300PDQ at The Home Depot

Feit Electric 42-Watt (200W) Daylight Twist CFL Light Bulb-ESL40TN/D at The Home Depot

 

[JAJT]

Here are 4 photos from my first shots on my DIY ghetto-setup.

The yellow ones are how they first came out. The whiter, better ones are when I adjusted the white balance on my camera to tungsten (indoor) lighting.

Used a Nikon D5000 with no photo retouching. I need to work on the lighting to eliminate some of the shadows but this was after literally 3 minutes of work.

(Please note these are one of my son's toys, not something I am selling, although I do admit a car that turns into a dinosaur kicks a$$)

 

[JAJT]

FYI for anyone using a DSLR and are new to photography:

If you are having issues with the back of your product being out of focus (see the far horn of my child's toy, or the far end of Dave's earring) this may be a result of the aperture (f-stop) being too open. A super wide-open aperture will obviously let more light in but it also shortens the depth of field.

Being super-close to your object is also a factor.

For example, an easy way to get this effect would be to get as close as possible to the child and open your aperture as wide as it can go.

If you are having focus issues, try closing up the aperture a bit. If brightness is an issue (as in, closing the aperture has made your subject darker than you'd like) you can use a tripod and lengthen exposure time (shutter speed) or perhaps increase your ISO number to make the camera more sensitive to light (generally speaking though, you want the lowest ISO number when possible - image noise increases as that number increases)

 

[Vigilante]

Jason... I will post a few as we take them over the next several days.

 

[Milkanic]

Along with whatt JAJT mentioned, I'd experiment with setting your camera to aperture priory mode (the A on the settings wheel) with and f-stop of around 11 to get everything in focus. To get a blury background effect, set it as low as possible (f/2).

David, on your earning photographs, lock the focus on the large blue portion and re-position the shot to fill the frame.

Using Focus Lock on Your Autofocus Camera - For Dummies
Aperture Priority and Shutter Priority: Exposure Lesson #1
How to Take Better Product Photographs for Free: 17 steps

 

[GPM]

One note I would like to add to all the tips. If you are specifically looking to blur out the background but do not have a lens that can go below say f4, there are other ways to get the same “portrait” look. Back away from your subject and zoom in more, that will force the background to blur while your subject remains sharp.

For instance, I have a lens that only goes to F4 across the range of zoom, in order to get good portrait shots I have to back up an additional 5-10 feet from the subject than I normally would and I zoom in to have the subject fill the lens. While this does not let in the additional light that using a lower F stop number would give you, it does create the same effect.

 

[JAJT]

Looks very similar to my quick DIY setup (which cost basically the exact same amount!)

I was taking amazing shots with my similar setup in just seconds after setting it up. It makes anyone look like a pro!

 

[JasonR]

Vig/Dave - I've used the HDR mode on the iPhone 5, but not for product shots. If you have GOOD lighting, I don't see why you wouldn't be able to take good photos with the iPHone as long as you have a tripod (or stand of some sort).

If you want to take a couple, and shoot them over to me, I'll see if I can work some PS magic to limit your post process time.

DavidofMN: What's your end/web-ready photo look like?

Edit: $10 per shot isn't bad, especially if there is some sort of post processing work done. If you don't have a lot of products to shoot, dropping the coin on a high dollar set up doesn't make much sense.

 

[Amail]

I have the same kit, but I also bought three clip on lights and some daylight bulbs. The lights you have there I found to be a bit anemic.

Definitely worth the money.

 

[JAJT]

Wax paper works pretty well for a cheap shoot-through diffuser in a pinch.

Great, great tip. Trying this as soon as I can.

 

[GPM]

Gotta love Canada - that Bayco clip on lamp costs $8.47 at the .com store, $15.88 at the .ca store.

I have to head to the Post Office to ship out about 8 packages tonight, I am going to be stopping at some hardware stores as well to build a nice little photo set-up. I will post some pictures of the finished product.

Ps. you guys are great!

 

[GPM]

You guys that are using your phone cameras are crazy. You can get an old used Canon 40D with a lens for about $500 that will take absolutely stunning pictures. That was my old camera and you would not believe the pictures it takes.

Go to an older 30D and you can get that with a lens for probably $250-300 easily now.

A dSLR camera will take infinitely nicer pictures than point-and-shoot or cellphone ever will.

 

[JasonR]

Yes - it's all about the lighting. The iPhone can capture some amazing shots with the right lighting. And it's more than hi-res enough to use for web.

Now if I can only get strobes to flash with the iPhone shutter....haha.

 

[Talisman]

Ended up making my own as a little saturday project, with my daughter (she's 6), and she seems to have taken over.

I'm not sure if it was mentioned in the thread, about cleaning up the pictures post-production, but I found that this picture, that she took:


Was turned into this one, by adding a New Adjustment Layer -> Levels, in photoshop, and selecting the brightest part of the picture with the third little dropper on the bottom right of the settings that pop up:

 

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[DavidofMN]

Vig - I bought and use the exact same one as that! Good for small things and easy to set-up, take down.

 

[JasonR]

Nice, let's see some product shots!

 

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[Vigilante]

And that folks is why Nitrous makes the big bucks. Good pointers. I was looking online for a "tips for working with a cheap photo box" but the pointers are lacking, because pros probably don't want to help out the little guys.

 

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[DavidofMN]

Not bad, but the backdrop is super annoying IMO. All those lines are very distracting from the actual product. Are you heavily cropping these?

Also, I'd suggest moving the product/subject as far from the backdrop as possible in attempt to get the backdrop out of focus, which will help blur the lines and imperfections in the backdrop.

Actually, if you just grabbed a cheap white poster board from office max and bent it against the wall, you'd have a pretty sweet backdrop with zero creases. Then all you'd need to do is get some sort of shoot-through diffusers for your lights and you could position them right out of the frame.

Like this:

Wax paper works pretty well for a cheap shoot-through diffuser in a pinch. Even plain old white printer paper would do the trick.

Yes have to crop them. Will move product up. Have some super white paper will try that. Thanks!

 

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[Amail]

Also, if you want to spend about 10 bucks, you can buy some reflective acrylic. It gives you a clean mirrored look that really makes photos look professional. It comes in black or white, both give an amazing effect. It's really easy to keep clean and it doesn't crease, so you don't have to do a lot of editing.

This is a photo I took on the black, with very little editing done after.

That's frickin' nice! I can see totally geeking out on product photography equipment and techniques.

Must....resist....

 

[Vigilante]

also, if you want to spend about 10 bucks, you can buy some reflective acrylic. It gives you a clean mirrored look that really makes photos look professional. It comes in black or white, both give an amazing effect. It's really easy to keep clean and it doesn't crease, so you don't have to do a lot of editing.

This is a photo i took on the black, with very little editing done after.
View attachment 4749

nice shot

 

[1step]

Yes have to crop them. Will move product up. Have some super white paper will try that. Thanks!

What about white Tshirt, cut up? I have read this is a good side diffuser

 

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[CommonCents]

the shot of the watch above, fades out to the back of the watch and the tag.

Example? You usually end up cropping out the background 90% of the time.

 

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[nzerinto]

David,

Replace that cloth on the background with white paper. Get yourself a long sheet and lay it the exact same way as your cloth background.

You need to up the lighting. Get more lights shooting in from the sides.

In your photos the background should be all white with no lines. You can post process that by increasing brightness and contrast.

If this is a standard lightbox tent, you should be able to remove the fabric that runs from the top/back of the box to the front/bottom, and give it an iron to remove the creases. If its that "plasticy" material you may need to iron it between 2 towels (to prevent it from melting), but that should get rid of any creases.

Based on that photo though, your tent is too small for the necklace display, because you need to set it much closer to the front of the tent, allowing the backdrop to "sag" from the roof of the tent.

As Biophase said, lighting is everything. You don't need fancy ones from a lighting/camera store either - just pick up standard desk lamps, but make sure you use "daylight" bulbs. They have a very "white" light that works well with product photography.

The only other key point - double check your "white balance" settings on your camera, if you have it. Can make a HUGE difference.

 

[nitrousflame]

What would be required to build a light box?

Come on man, did you read the thread? :smash:

Literally all you need for a basic setup is the following: lights, wax paper or white t-shirt cloth, poster board and cardboard.


Wiki-How: How to make an inexpensive lightbox

[video=youtube_share;EAVLO3pGNdk]http://youtu.be/EAVLO3pGNdk[/video]

[video=youtube_share;mNxBGXTbdXE]http://youtu.be/mNxBGXTbdXE[/video]

Hundreds of other ideas

 

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