{"id":1040,"date":"2011-06-08T17:30:19","date_gmt":"2011-06-08T22:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/siskinphoto.com\/blog\/?p=1040"},"modified":"2012-04-13T09:19:09","modified_gmt":"2012-04-13T14:19:09","slug":"more-product-photography","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siskinphoto.com\/blog\/?p=1040","title":{"rendered":"More Product Photography"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Big news here in the land of self promotion! My next book, Lighting for Architectural Photography<\/a>, is now listed on Amazon. Of course you can’t get a copy yet, but you can order. And there was great rejoicing!\u00a0 If you would rather order something you’ll get right away try my first book Understanding and Controlling Strobe Lighting: A Guide for Digital Photographers<\/a>\"\" which is at Amazon.com and other places. You can get a Kindle version or a Nook version also. I have no idea what they look like. Here is a sample chapter<\/a> from the book. There has been nothing but good feedback on the first book, so I would guess that you’ll like it. Of course I still hope that you will please consider purchasing my fine art book B Four<\/a>: pictures of beach, beauty, beings and buildings. Purchases of this book mean a lot to me, and it is also a fine gift for any occasion. I lowered the price a couple of weeks ago, and that has helped. As you know I teach for BetterPhoto.com. I really hope you’ll sign up my class: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting<\/a>. Remember that the books and the class keep me updating this blog. I’ll be writing about product photography again this week. This could be the topic for book three, so I would appreciate your feedback.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Any photograph may evoke a feeling or a memory, that is something photography does well. A beautiful sunset over the ocean always makes a good photograph. It will always mean more to those who remember than sunset, but it will stir memories of sunsets in other people. But, in a product shot, this kind of emotional connection is not the first goal of the photograph, sometimes, such as with a new product, it isn\u2019t possible. I think the first goal of a product shot is always to make the product real. So if the product is a toothbrush you need good detail on the bristles. You\u2019ll want to make the plastic handle look clean and shiny. You can\u2019t count on the imagination of the viewer to make your product look good. When NASA makes an artists rendering of what a rover will look like on Mars, it isn\u2019t really a lot different from a shot of a BMW taking a tight curve in Big Sur. The idea is to make the object real, and then really exciting.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The first thing is focus, and you need enough depth of field to keep the whole product sharp. I have seen a lot of fuzzy product shots on eBay, and they don\u2019t add a romantic look to a strobe or a pocket watch. Second you want the product to separate from the background, don\u2019t put a blue product on a blue background. While I think about it, it is usually bad to make the background more vibrant than the subject. If your subject is neutral color and you put it on a bright red background then all that people will see is the background. Finally pick an angle that will give a sense of depth to the product. If you shoot a box of corn flakes shoot it so that you can see a little of the side and some of the top. This way you\u2019ll show a box rather than just the front. You don\u2019t want to make a shot you could get with a flat bed scanner.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The light is important. You can do a good product shot in open shade. Open shade is outside where the subject is lit by the sky, but not by the sun. This will create little or no shadowing on your product. The one problem is that open shade is that the light is blue; after all it comes from the sky not the sun. Sometimes you can get a better effect if you use the cloudy day setting on a camera or phone. Yes you can do a useable product shot on a phone. You can build better lighting in a studio. In this case you can control the shadows in a way that will help define the shape of the product. A really good product shot gives the item a sense of three-dimensionality. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/a>One other thing that can make a product jump off the page is clipping it from the background. I find this a very tiresome chore. I usually use a company called Deepetch<\/a> for this, you can also find them on Facebook. They just did a very complex job clipping parts of a house for me. It turned out great.
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I did an article that discusses how to control reflection, very important in product shots. You can download it here (www.siskinphoto.com\/magazine\/zpdf\/reflections.pdf<\/a>). You can see some of my other articles here (<\/span><\/span>www.siskinphoto.com\/magazinearticles.php<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>). I hope they will make you consider buying my books or taking my class at BetterPhoto (www.betterphoto.com\/courseOverview.asp?cspID=172<\/a>). Of course I also do business consulting. Let me know if you need help.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>It looks like I will be relocating to Indianapolis in a few weeks or months. If you have any contacts, with clubs or business that you could share I would be grateful. If you would like to attend some lighting workshops in the Mid-West drop me a line at john@siskinphoto.com<\/a>. You can find me on Facebook and Linkedin, just in case you\u2019re looking. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

When I teach a class I ask people to practice. I suggest that they work with a Styrofoam wig head and cheap flood lights. The wig head is all white that makes it easy to see the shadows. The flood lights are easy to see and to manipulate. This gives you a sort of a lighting lab where<\/span><\/span> you can practice and experiment. I still use the wig head when I get a new piece of lighting gear. I know I\u2019ve said this before: musicians practice so they can play, why shouldn\u2019t photographers? If you can only practice with a live model you won\u2019t be able to take the same risks you can with a hunk of Styrofoam. Most models don\u2019t have the patience of the wig head. So, if you\u2019re thinking about a lighting class why not mine<\/a>?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"BetterPhoto.com,<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Big news here in the land of self promotion! My next book, Lighting for Architectural Photography, is now listed on Amazon. Of course you can’t get a copy yet, but you can order. And there was great rejoicing!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/siskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/siskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/siskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1040"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/siskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1058,"href":"https:\/\/siskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040\/revisions\/1058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/siskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}