Product Photography – On a Budget
In this tutorial, you will learn how to take product photography at home on a budget. Let’s face it, most people do not have the finance and equipment the big global companies have to take those high-end photos you see in magazines. But that doesn’t mean you still can’t take great product photography.
We’ve put together the best product photography tips to help you take your own product photos at home or in your office. We will look at easy lighting techniques and use low-cost equipment. In time at all you’ll be taking great product photography using just a window, a cheap second-hand camera and a piece of polystyrene!
If you’re a small business looking to take pictures of your products, or you just want to try something new, this tutorial is for you!
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What is Product Photography?
Product photography is a form of business-related photography that has the goal of displaying the product in the best possible photographic representation. The purpose of Product Photography is to lead prospective customers from initial awareness of the product, all the way through to becoming a customer and making a purchase.
Example of Product Photography
Theme and Feeling
The first thing you need is a theme or feeling you want to achieve. Try not to go in blind, what mood would suit the things you want to photograph? Is it a dark moody scene of metallic products or a bright fresh theme for makeup?
Having a feeling you want to achieve is a crucial part of the process. How do you want customers to feel when they see your product?
What you choose to photograph will also dictate the feeling of the shot. If it’s for your business or restaurant then clearly what you sell will be the focus but if doing it for yourself try to choose something that’s personal to you or something you have a passion for.
Credit - @jjnuttall unsplash.com
Credit - @curology unsplash.com
Best lighting for product photography
All photographs need light and product photography is no different. The normal rule here is the more light the better. So, let’s talk about different types of light and how you can control it.
Hard light is created by a strong light source which comes straight from the source and hits your subject (i.e. the sun on a clear day). This creates contrast and shadows.
Soft light is created when light travels through something (i.e. sunlight travelling through clouds).
Credit - @aaina unsplash.com
Product photography with soft light
Use a big window for your main light source. If you want the effect of hard light make sure you shoot on a day with bright sun light and little or no clouds in the sky.
If you want the look of soft light, you can simply put net curtains or chiffon fabric onto the window which will diffuse the light, making it soft.
Using chiffon fabric on window to soften the light
Then you need to use a reflector to fill in any shadows or dark areas. In my example, I simply use a piece of white polystyrene (a white piece of card will also work) and a silver reflector to bounce back the light and fill in the shadow areas.
Using white polystyrene as a reflector for product photography
To learn more about lighting in photography, click here.
Equipment for product photography
You don’t need masses of expensive camera equipment to get a decent shot – Knowledge is power! In my shot here is used the following:
Second-hand DSLR camera and standard kit lens. Valued at £100.
A big window for lighting.
A piece of polystyrene for a reflector.
A piece of card for reflective effects.
To learn more about photographic equipment, click here.
Second Hand DSLR Camera
A big window for lighting
Polystyrene for reflector
Camera Settings for Product Photography
You also don’t need to know the ins and outs of photography for this type of shot - just knowing a couple of things will do the job.
Set your camera to the following:
Camera mode – Av or A (Shutter Speed Priority).
Set the Aperture to its lowest number your camera has available. Usually around f4.
Put your ISO on 100.
Put your lenses focal length to 30-35mm, an ‘as your eye sees’ focal length. This can be different on some cameras with different sensor sizes and to find out the exact as your eye sees focal length on different camera click here.
Make sure you have plenty of light.
Put your camera on a tripod and use your 2-second timer. This will avoid any camera shake.
Set the camera to its largest image quality or if you know how to use post-processing programs, set the camera to shoot in Raw.
To get more in-depth knowledge on photography click here.
Post Processing
Lastly, you will need to do some post-processing on the image. This could be as simple as cropping and adding contrast using a phone or free PC apps. If you want a more professional look, you can take the pictures in Raw format and post-process them in a program Lightroom or Photoshop. To learn how to use Lightroom properly click here.
Raw picture
With lightroom post processing
Lightroom Presets Free Download
To learn more about post processing your photography, click here.
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