table top still product shots against white background

[robfilms]

i have a longterm client that asked if i can shoot stills of their table top product shots against a white background.

i have done the firm's vid work for years.

they are now moving more into multimedia including an amazon type store.

that online store needs stills of seven items, front and back, all against a white infinite backdrop.

anyone have any suggestions how-to perform the above.

window light?

two soft boxes at 90 degrees to each other and 45 degrees to the product?

off load to a firm that specializes in this work and act as "producer"?

thanks in advance.

thumbs up.

rob
smalltalk/nyc

 

[firehawk]

How large are these products?

 

[robfilms]

small cosmetic items-a tin of creme, talc powder in a plastic canister, a tube of creme.

there are three plastic shake type canisters.

there are four cremes-2 tubes/2 tins.

the four cremes reside in boxes.

the largest box is 6" long x 2" wide x 2" tall.

any and all thoughts are appreciated.

thumbs up.

rob
smalltalk/nyc

 

[David W. Jones]

A small plexi sweep table should work for small products like this.

You could probably find one inexpensively on eBay.

 

[puredrifting]

Light Tent off of Amazon for shooting product shots for Ebay. They're cheap, simple and effective.

 

[markfpv]

There's a whole section of products for this type of work as well on B&H:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/Tents-Domes-Blinds/ci/1410/N/4037060764

But you can also DIY this with just a roll of white paper, stands, small table & perhaps a small room or studio space.

 

[roxics]

I've shot lots of products like this.

Photos and video. Here is one done in video.

BTS

Video:

 

[robfilms]

bought a light tent from b&h.

set up daylight balanced lights on four sides-each side-overhead with a slight 45 degree angle above camera, and from behind to really get the light tent to glow.

i shot in raw.

iso was 200.

i used a panasonic g7 with a panasonic 42.5.

f/8 and beyond.

shots came out well but the background is not as white as i hoped.

i probably should have used a color checker or a grey card ;-(

i'm not a photoshop pro but will now attempt to lift the exposure without blowing out the highlights.

stills in many ways are SO MUCH EASIER than motion.

any and all thoughts are appreciated.

rob
smalltalk productions/nyc

 

[bill totolo]

I'm a bit late to the conversation.
I was going to offer this spot I recently shot as a sample:







I went with the opposite approach. I wanted a chiaroscuro effect of light to dark, light to dark and super shallow DOF with close focus diopters.

 

[cyvideo]

Doing 5 x 4 stills many years back for ad agency product pack shots I used to use back lit glass table tops. Rather than try to explain the setup have a look at the following video. Another setup that I prefer for some pack shots is still working with a glass tble top but having the white paper or white foam flekky or a large white reflector on the floor with a couple of variable output soft lights bouncing of the white paper, foam, reflector whatever and up through the glass. I normally light my subject from the top to get my optimum exposure and modeling then start to bring up the under glass bounce lights until I have a shadowless floating image. I choose the method that works best for product. I still use these techniques when shooting video pack shots. Generally the floor bounce method gives less halation around the product edges. Soft items I usually use a similar method to that shown in the video. Hard edged objects seem to look better with the floor bounce lighting. Your choice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQNUQDAma_M

Chris Young.

 

[legrevedotcom]

OP sounds like you overlit it... and light tents tend to flatten everything out so shapes get washed out. We have a pretty simple setup that we use for packshots like that.

For overhead we always use a softbox or hazylight, never hard light (unless ofcourse you want to communicate a specific light... but often does not look good with an unsofted light in a white packshot.)

 

[morgan_moore]

A couple of pointers..

White products on white are a challenge.

Usually Im using black card negative fill to sculpt the product - usually these are so close that they have to be removed in post.

You will be aware of the darkened sides in the bottle pic.

Also such an image is created using many layers in photoshop, as there was a lighting setup for the liquid and a light setup for the label.

On light tents.. one can light a light tent unevenly.. in the last shot of this yazoo video the glass is shot in a light tent but there is a fresnel beaming through it to give the backlight shadow..
Yazoo https://www.facebook.com/Yazoo/videos/2248496388497834/

bottle..

http://framedogs.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/thatchers_studio_pint1200px.jpg

 

[d90123]

People think a lot of soft light is "good". It can be, but walk outside on a very cloudy day and look at stuff and tell me how "good" you think the light is. It is probably boring and flat, and that is what a light tent does.

This is an entire rabbit hole perhaps not meant for this thread, but to really do a good job you need to be compositing. Experiment with lighting, don't move anything, and put all the best pieces together in post.