How to take studio quality pics of objects at home?

Question

I need to take photos of products for a consumer website, and would like to know the best way I can do this at home with no shadow and minimal reflection on the curvature. Is there a way to do without spending $ on photography lamps and set ups? I use a Fuji Finepix S7000.

Answer 1

I'm presuming that your object is fairly small. I'm also presuming that you don't want to buy anything to make this work, except for a few simple items.

For lighting, you want diffuse light without hot spots. That means you need some material to soften and diffuse the light. You can buy some white nylon material at a fabric store for this, but even thin white paper towels/napkins/toilet paper will work to soften the light.

You need some way to make a "tent" over the object to be photographed. And now you need some light. And you need an appropriate background.

For light, that's the easy part. You can use any pair of light sources, just make sure their both the same type (i.e. both incandescennt lamps, both compact fluorsecent, both etc.). Put one on each side, whether table lamps, desk lamps, or cheap clamp reflector lamps (about $5 at Home Depot).

For the background, that's up to you. It could be a white sheet, although I find white paper works best. You can find white paper easily at Michael's craft stores.

Now, for the "tent" part. You may come up with a bunch of other ways, but a cheap way would be to use a cardboard box, cutting open the top, and large windows on three sides, leaving thin upright "posts" at the corners. Take your white thin material, or paper towels and cover the sides and top. Leave one side open so your camera can see the object.

The lights should be outside the box, on the left and right, diffusing through the material.

Now, take your digital camera and make sure it's steady. Then:
1) do a custom white balance and 2) take the photo.

You may need a tripod as the exposure may be slow.

Do not use the built-in flash on the camera....unless you happen to have strobes on the outside for light and need the built in for trigger. But it will affect the diffusion of light.

Anyway that should give you work without fancy lamps or special set ups. With a little imagination, you can improve on this basic set up with better diffusion material, a better design on the "tent" or "box", etc.

Answer 2

Go to Lowes, Home Depot, Ikea or you local home store and get some 20-30 W 5000 K compact fluorescent bulbs (~$5 each), some clamp-on gooseneck lamps ($4-$10 each), and some Portfolio Tree 3 bulb Floor lamps (~$25 each).

You need two set of forward lighting: one strong and one weak; and 1 set of back lights. The 5000 K color temperature will be a close match to sunlight and should give good color rendering, and CF lamps will give bright, but diffuse light so you won't get strong shadows. Best of all you can see what you will get on the camera, and to room won't get too hot.

Best of all since the bulbs are good for 10,000 to 20,000 hours, you have lots of lighting for you room for other uses that use very little electricity.

Some examples are listed below.

Answer 3

There are various kinds of lighting tents, generally made of white fabric which you light from outside. It's not easy to prevent _some_ reflection of the camera lens on shiny objects, unless you can position the item just right.

Answer 4

Spend the next 3 years learning proper photography or hire a photographer. This would be like me asking: "How do I do professional makeup work ... I'm a photographer and I need to do makeup work for my models." I wouldn't ask that question ... instead i would try to find a MUA to collaborate with or I'd hire one.

Answer 5

Search on ebay or amazon for 'Adventures In closeup Photography' by Lief Ericksenn & Els Sincebaugh. I've found it rather helpful.

Answer 6

use northern lighting....and use a white background..if you have to tweek a photo its really not that hard on the computer.

Answer 7

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