My Studio Product Photography

Studio Product Photography – Introduction

Welcome to my blog! In this article I will be discussing my studio photography work, including goals achievements successes and failures, with a log of my thoughts and reflections. I will evaluate my journey gaining the knowledge and experience to do exactly what it is I wish to achieve whist working though my course.

I currently use a Cannon EOS 300D (Digital Rebel) camera with a zoom lens EFS 18-55mm used for photography of automotive products that can sometimes be a bit tricky when trying to get the ultimate shot. Shooting chrome or other reflective objects especially, I know its not as visually exciting and dramatic as some of the amazing fashion or location work I have seen in other peoples projects, however with a clear and practical use for these types of studio images, I have and will produce getting the right results is essential.


My Camera:

I created a light box from white poster card, with a lighting arrangement that includes two lamps containing three Falconeyes bulbs in each unit 24w 5000k-55000k, The light box was made costing nothing at all as I used materials that were lying around, this has been used quite a lot in relation to my studio product photography at work, my goal using this equipment and set up, is simply to produce clear and detailed close up product shots that are clearly descriptive and instantly capture the nature and customer requirements of each individual item, some images alone can answer most related questions, e.g it the item is a specialist part the image could show how it will be fitted or adapted and include as much relevant information as possible, even the correct colour or example of material its made from can be beneficial, as its important for any potential customer to have a clear understanding of the product before they buy it.


My Light Box:

Understanding how to shoot seamless white backgrounds or backdrops with natural shadows and little or no need for further Photoshop editing or for the use of web and print applications, will be constantly saving time and money, freeing me up to focus on other aspects of my projects.

Clearly identified areas I need to improve have come from asking my self questions like how much control do I have over my lighting, do I have enough light, is this right equipment? Or correct set up for the environment

I know some of the images are good and others have grey tinged backgrounds that require editing before I can happily use them in print & web applications, Although I have played around with my cameras ISO settings and different modes to try to get the right balancing and exposure, I still feel the need to fully learn the use of the equipment in manual mode, I wonder if poor results are from my lack of this understanding do I simply need to use a light monitor or second flash and incorporate a soft light box of umbrellas to diffuse the light.


The use of my cannon camera and studio setup, or the college equipment will be more than adequate to allow myself the experimentation and exploration of camera features, lighting equipment variables, to produce studio shots and macro shots reflective of my research.


My Bad Examples:

In the above image of a nudge bar the image is not over exposed and has a clear detail however, the level of light and ISO setting, also the F-Stop could of been adjusted and experimented with here slightly to try to achieve the desired results, so i will further research the relationships between set lighting levels, F-Stop or aperture, and ISO.


Studio Time:


This evening i have spent some time in the college studio and have experimented with the use of set lighting levels, F-Stop or aperture, and ISO, shutter speed, I've noted for fine details in a studio usually a low ISO setting is used, because a setting above 200 tends to produce an undesirable black outline.


The image below is a result from my experiment with the studio equipment, in this image i set the F-Stop to its lowest possible setting to reveal some differences, whilst the ISO and other manufactured lighting conditions remain constant, My test shots have helped me to understand the scale of changes i could see when the F-Stop was dramatically adjusted however in these images there is nothing in the background to focus on, i understand the F-Stop/ Aperture needs to be correct and effects shutter speeds and depth of field.

• Test Shot 1 (F-Stop set to 4.0)

• Test Shot 2 (F-Stop set to 20.0)

• Test Shot 3 (F-Stop 6.0 and ISO 160)

F-Stop Research:-

Ref:- http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Combined_aperture_diagram.svg

On reflection my first studio experience was a great introduction to some of the many dynamics to consider when trying to achieve the perfect shot, such as the consideration of hard light, or lighting intensity, image composition and shutter speeds vs light levels or other aspects like the shape of the subject, flash set up, also a good studio equipment overview has helped me to understand the blend of all these elements, when i experimented with the F-Stop under my manufactured studio environment i found that the lowest setting 4.0 produced an over exposed image and a under the same conditions with the F-Stop set to 20.0 i found the image too dark, also during my experiment i adjusted the ISO range from 60 to 160 and could not see much of a difference, but have yet to balance the light levels, and gain the valuable experience in understanding the blend of the many variables required in producing desirable results.