Photographing Products-Update

Note: I just began working with a student whose main interest is in setting up a small studio to do tabletop product photography. This article is from a piece I did last April with a few updates and was inspired by Zsuzsanna Winn. Thanks, Zsuzsi.

Photographing Products-Update

By William Lulow

I am mainly a portrait photographer, but am also very experienced at shooting products as well. I spent quite a while working for a studio in NYC that photographed many products for catalogs produced by Macy’s, Famous Barr (St. Louis), Bloomingdales as well as several other, smaller companies. Making really good images of products is a completely different task than making a portrait. First, objects do not usually move. They have a habit of staying where you place them, unless you are trying to photograph something in motion, of course. This enables the photographer to concentrate fully on the lighting as well as the placement of the product in front of the camera. And, he or she would normally have time to tweak the setup, lighting, position as well as props, as necessary to arrive at just the right image.

The lighting scheme you use should be approached with the same care you would take in photographing a person. It calls for a step-by-step placement of lights that are intended to make the product really “shine.” Most of the time, you will be starting with a softbox of some kind. The size of the product will determine the size of your main light. Softboxes come in various sizes. You normally don’t want to use an umbrella for shooting products because it often produces confusing and ugly highlights on glassware and boxes.

There are a number of things to consider, however, before you begin photographing an object. Some of those are:

1. Shape of the object
2. How much of the object actually needs to be seen
3. Size of the object
4. Qualities of the object itself (reflectiveness, surfaces, writing or labels, its cleanliness, other material qualities, etc.)
5. Purpose of the photograph (to sell the object, to show it in exquisite detail, to make an abstract image, etc.)
6. Special lighting considerations such as: how are other, similar objects being shown in the same publication
7. Kind of background to be used in the shot (studio, location, special props, etc.)
8. Are any people needed to show the object?

Each, any or all of the above will determine how you photograph the object you are considering.

Here are some items you will need for your studio if you are thinking about doing product work:

1. A tabletop
2. Background paper or other background material
3. Light banks or photo soft boxes
4. White Plexiglas sheets
5. Clay or Tacki-Wax (to keep small objects in position)
6. Props (as needed)
7. Dust-off cannisters
8. Soup cans (or other heavy objects used to prop up products, when necessary)
9. Artist’s razor blades
10. Gaffer tape
11. Masking tape
12. Several 16×20″ or 20×24″ white/black cards for reflectors
13. Macro lenses designed for doing close-ups

Let’s take a few of these things one-by-one. Most products are photographed on a table top of some kind. It might even be a kitchen counter, if you plan to photograph food or food-related objects. You will most likely, need a background material, either white no-seam paper or some other material. Products are usually boxes, bottles or cups that all have some reflective qualities to them. That’s where softboxes or light banks come in. It’s better to have a rectangular highlight on a shiny object than a round one which would be produced by a photographic umbrella. So, I usually do not use umbrellas except to provide some overall extra light in the room itself. I use white Plexiglas sheets  if the subject needs to be lit from behind or underneath.

This is a rather simple shot with the product on a plain, white no seam background. It was shot with two light banks (softboxes). One from the top and another from the left side to fill-in shadows. The light bank on the top (main light) was angled a bit to light the background. Now it’s important to note that super-white background paper is never really stark white unless you light it separately. Many people forget this and then wonder why their “white” background looks gray. The reason is that electronic flash or even hotlight has a great “fall-off” factor. That is, the light travels to the surface of the paper and the distance the light travels determines whether the paper reproduces white or gray. If the light is a bit too far away, the effect will be gray. So if it’s necessary to have a plain white background, you must light it separately or use a light table.

This product was actually photographed on a light table made of Plexiglass sheets with a small light underneath and a larger one on top. (Note that it really reproduces “white” as compared to the shot above, which, even though shot on white paper, still looks a bit grayish).

Here is what the studio setup looked like. By placing the light on the floor, I can vary its intensity until I get the exact exposure for the background that I need. As a note here, today’s digital cameras are far more sensitive to light than film every was. So you can also see that I had to move the light much further away from the plexiglass in order to obtain the correct exposure.  If I had a larger product, I would have had to get a much larger piece of white Plexi to accommodate it. I might even have to have two lights from below to illuminate the plexi enough.

There are a number of other “tricks” to shooting certain objects which we will talk about as they come up.

This was a fairly intricate product shot for a catalog which was lit by two softboxes in the front as well as a round light on a boom, placed high and behind the set to create the spotlight reflection on the background, which was a piece of black Plexi with graph lines etched in it. The cover of the perfume box was animated to appear to “pop” off by mounting it on a coat hanger which was fastened with gaffer tape to the background.

The main thing about shooting products is that you want the main light to be soft so that all details can be seen easily. This means it needs to be much larger than the object you are shooting. Hence, the need for large softboxes. I have three different sized softboxes or light banks that I use. The largest is about five feet by three feet. The next is roughly 3’x 2′ and the smallest is about 24″ long by about 12″ wide. So, I can accommodate a fairly large setup of several products or a small piece of jewelry. Or, I can make a “light table” from two pieces of white Plexiglass placed over two saw horses and make a shadowless light table. Depending on what type of product it is, I have several choices of background to use.

When I shoot products, I usually use my 60mm macro lens, mainly because it is one of the sharpest lenses I have and also because I can stop it down to f/32 if needed. Many normal lenses will only stop down to f/22, which is sometimes not sufficient. I also have a special light which is called a “multi-head” which allows me to use up to four flash tubes which in turn, can be powered by up to four different power packs to produce much more light if I need to capture something in motion say, like a “pour shot” where liquid is caught pouring from a bottle, a pitcher or something else. Usually, I don’t need more than two power packs and two flash tubes in my multi-head. That gives me more than enough power to use very fast shutter speeds as well as very small lens openings.

Far from a detailed description of product photography, this was just an introductory look at the things that must be considered if you are going to do this kind of photography and do it well.