Your Expertise Requested: Product shots

[philipotto]

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I am writing today requesting your expertise in an area I am not familiar with.

I have given myself the enviable task of taking some product shots for our business.

 

Here is where I have gotten so far:

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I have about 30 identical bottles I wish to shoot for our website.

For the above shot was taken outside against a piece of paper.

 

Here is the shot after I traced in Photoshop:

 

 

I am looking to get consistent looking shots of the different bottles, and am not great in Photoshop, so the closer I can nail the shot out of the box, the better.

 

 

What is your suggestion backdrop and lighting wise?

I currently have a SF24D and 2 Broncolour Impact 21s.

 

I have been browsing, and have come across light tents and and lights, and even how to build your own:.

I'm just not sure what the best solution is.

I'm space limited, so if I do purchase a setup, if would have to be compact.

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[Riley]

Philip i would go for a light tent, the cost of which depends on the repeat use likelihood. In that field you can use various colour backgrounds even black or reflective.

 

anyone have a link to that huge site for flash ideas ?

EDIT: this may be it

Strobist

[AlanG]

I used to share a studio with a product photographer and I taught him how to do the shooting and watched over him as he progressed in the business. Tent lighting is usually employed on reflective subjects - polished metal for instance. It will produce very flat results with your bottle unless you side light through the tent to produce a controlled highlight along one side. It would be easy to do a good job without a tent light - use one direct light low and from the side at the rear to give it some depth along with a softbox (or another light into a bounce card) for fill.

 

The example you posted shows a pretty ugly bottle with a crooked and misprinted label.

 

Can you get perfect samples?

 

If the bottle you show is representative and the rest are identical, then I suggest you shoot one bottle, clean it up and then scan or shoot the labels and position them over copies of the bottle. Maybe just scan one label and add the specific item type for each item on the computer to get it looking better. And you don't want the label to be on the seam of the bottle.

 

As for presentation on the web site, are they just planning to put up 30 pictures of identical bottles with different titles on them? That seems deadly. Maybe you could be a bit more creative and shoot them in various angles and situations that can be incorporated into the web design so that they'll have a bit more energy. Which will still be a challenge as your bottles and labels make it look like medicine rather than like refreshing juice. I know it is healthy but really... Is this part of their appeal? Kind of an anti commercial statement?

 

Why not go to Snapple.com and other sites and see how they do it?

 

Here is a pretty low end example of a better bottle and label. (Although there is nothing special about the photo.)

 

Fresh Juice Products

 

Sorry to be so hard on you but you asked. Is your dad David Otto and this is his place?

[Dantist]

I'll say only one thing : the front part on the bottle is shiny, you may avoid reflections, lightning on each side may keep the form of the plactic bottle well catched.

[psquared]

Hi Philip,

 

I'm no lighting expert, so no comments from me on that.

 

It may be better to have the particular juice poured into a nice, clear glass hiding at least part of the bottle with the label still showing. The bottle isn't the most attractive, and the color of the juice would be probably more appealing. Spraying on some water onto the bottle may help also. The picture looks too sterile as is. While you're at it how about some nice-looking carrots in this picture, and maybe one in the glass for fun?

 

I say, experiment!

 

My 2 cents.

 

Peter

[stuny]

Hammacher Schlemmer - Homepage - The Unexpected Gifts has a collapsable light tent rig that includes two lights and a table tripod. Have a look.

[Michael-IIIf]

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Can you find a bottle that has its label glued on straight?

 

After you've dealt with the shine, and added the water droplets (which I think is an excellent idea) I would be tempted to clone out the bottle's plastic seam. This is quite distracting and easily PhotoShopped out.

 

Not familiar with PhotoShop? Then visit these guys, subscribe to their podcasts and spend a few hours watching their tutorials. You'll be surprised at how quickly you can pick up some useful tips. Photoshop User TV

[rob_x2004]

Go to the canon forums and do a search on lightboxs. Members were getting right in to them about six months ago and the ingenuity and constant improvements made by the "make it at home for free" brigade was mind boggling. Some of the product shots got really swish. Through the threads covered construction, lighting options, camera settings and post processing. Really worth a squiz for anyone doing this sort of stuff.

 

And nope Im not a member over there.

[chkphoto]

The easiest and cheapest way out of this is to go buy a pure white kitchen trash bucket, its size dependent on the size of your product. Place your product on a white card or seamless. Invert the trash bucket and place it over your product. Cut a hole for lens placement considering angle to the product and focal length. Place one light outside trash bucket, over top and a little behind the product. Place a gray card where the product will be and take your meter reading. Mark product and trash bucket placement with small pieces of white tape for changing out of the products.

 

We used this shooting jewelry and highly reflective objects.

[wda]

Philip, you have been offered some good advice regarding background and lighting; also some further advice to make your product shot more interesting. I would like to add to the latter.

 

Last year I helped my daughter photograph some soap tablets for her website. We aimed to get translucency to show purity and colour. We found that including some attractive constituent, such as florets which related to the product, lifted the shot into another realm. I really think you should consider a similar approach, perhaps by carefully selecting photogenic constituents to add to your composition. It will also add general visual interest to your products.

 

I won't labour the labeling observations; but I implore you to recognize that a sloppy label is a turn-off to prospective buyers. Everything shown should look 100% professional; only then will you start to convince potential customers of your company's integrity.

 

Hope this helpful,

 

David

[earleygallery]

Philip,

 

Here's another site for ideas innocent drinks : our drinks - smoothies, thickies, really lovely juices

 

I would say its important for people to see the product, not the packaging. The idea of a glass of juice next to the bottle, with some raw ingredients scattered about is excellent.

 

You need to consider what you're selling and what the image will say to people. A dull bottle with a crooked label doesn't turn me on to want to try the contents - wonderful though I'm sure it is. You could even leave the individual bottle shots out, just take a single pack shot of maybe a group of bottles so people can see what it looks like and then have the individual products shots showing the juices in a glass as above.

 

I would also suggest looking at other examples of food photography (cook books, adverts etc) to see how other photographers make the products look as good as possible. They use plenty of tricks often substituting things like paint for the real thing! Highly saturated colours seem to be the way to go.

 

Show us some more examples as you progress with this project.

[philipotto]

Riley, Alan, Michael, Peter, Stuart, Michael, Rob, Charles, David, and James.

 

Thank you all for responses. They have all been terribly helpful. As many of you suggested, I am rethinking shooting the bottles in the first place.

 

We don't wholesale so we don't have to rely on the packaging as much to sell it.

That being said, of course you always want your product to look as good as possible.

 

Regarding the bottles themselves, we are trying to find a more sustainable bottle solution.

We are a very small family business, and being so small we are relegated to what is currently on the market packaging wise. While glass is an attractive option on my fronts, and we are still looking at glass bottles, it is not an easy transition from plastic to glass within the confines of our current operation.

 

Every label is hand stamped and placed. Most of them by me.

 

 

Time for supper now. Thank again, and please continue to share and muse. I will most assuredly keep you informed with future thoughts and results.

 

Philip

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[AlanG]

If you are going to shoot liquid in glass, try attaching a small piece of white paper or aluminum foil at the back of the glass covering the liquid. This will reflect the light and make it more luminous. (There are countless tricks in product photography.)

 

I was wondering what the point was of shooting your bottles and labels for a web site. Usually this is done to support brand identification so that a consumer will impulsively pick out a product from a shelf. If you are not trying to market the product this way then why not figure out how to visually illustrate the value and wholesomeness of the product for the website? Remember the old mantra, "In advertising you are selling the sizzle not the steak."

 

You know good product photography - especially food and drinks is not as easy as one might think. We are used to seeing very high quality examples and anything less will seem inferior. Just as home movies don't compare to Hollywood features.

 

Also, if shooting the juice in a drinking glass, consider what is the most appropriate style of glass to use.

 

After I made my diagram I found this useful link with even a simpler way to do "white line." (But not as controlable.):

 

Lighting Glass

 

Here is a diagram of one nice way to light glass:

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[johnwolf]

Phillip,

 

Since you want to keep it simple and already have monolights, why not buy or rent a medium sized softbox? They are widely used for product photography and pretty easy to use. You will also need an adapter ring and sync cord. The LA Calumet should be able to rent what you need. This will give you a lot of flexibility. Your second light could be used as fill.

 

John