New Member – Learning Product Photography and Looking for Lighting Advice

LUMENIX

LUMENIX

New member
Hi folks,

I figured it was time to stop lurking and actually introduce myself. My name is Phil and I’ve been getting more serious about photography lately and right now I’m mainly focusing on product photography.

Most of what I’m interested in working on is small tabletop stuff. Things like guitar effects pedals, small kitchen products, various types of packaged items, that sort of thing. I’m trying to get to the point where I can consistently shoot clean commercial quality product photos. Eventually I want to start learning food photography as well.

I’m still very much in the learning phase and trying to really understand the fundamentals. Exposure, depth of field, lighting, reflections, all the things that make product shots look clean instead of amateur.

My current gear setup is:

Camera: Nikon D5300
Nikon 40mm Micro-Nikkor f/2.8
Sigma 105mm f/2.8 Macro
Nikon 18-55 kit lens

Most of my shooting right now is tripod-based tabletop setups while I experiment with lighting and camera settings.

Speaking of lighting, that’s probably the area I’m trying to improve the most right now. If anyone here has recommendations for solid but reasonably affordable lighting for product photography, I’d really love to hear what’s worked for you. Right now I’m using some cheap lighting that’s pretty amateurish that I got from Amazon.

So I’m curious - If you were starting over today and wanted a good but inexpensive lighting setup, what would you buy first?

Anyway, glad to be here and looking forward to learning from the community.

Phil
 
nikonbill

nikonbill

Senior Member
Contributor
Welcome! Glad to have you

There are members here who will give info on your questions on current lighting for your projects (I'm an outdoorsy photographer mostly).

In the meantime enjoy the site, and checkout the sub forum on flashes in regard to some possible lighting suggestions.
 
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PixlaTeam

New member
Welcome Phil. For small tabletop items, I'd start with one big soft light rather than several cheap small ones. A single LED panel or a window with a diffusion sheet in front of it, placed to one side and slightly behind the product, gives soft edges and gradual highlights. Then add a white foam board on the opposite side as a fill, so shadows aren't too dark. Shiny items like pedals or packaging show reflections, so move the light bigger and closer instead of adding more lights. Keep the camera on the tripod, stop down around f/8 to f/11 for depth, and shoot at base ISO. Once that looks clean, add a second light for a background or a rim.
 
dclock

dclock

New member
Hello. While I've no personal experience with product photography, I have been very impressed with the book Light, Science & Magic, by Hunter, Biver, and Fuqua. This covers the principles of lighting, reflection, different surfaces, angles, revealing shapes and contours, and so forth before discussing the various types of lights and strobes that can be used. It's quite thorough.

Wow. I just looked it up on Amazon. It's now in its 6th edition (I have the 3rd), and it's $73. But if you are genuinely curious about lighting, I still recommend it.
 
B

benhasajeep

New member
Welcome to the site. As for lighting you can use what you have around the house. With digital cameras you can adjust the white balance to what ever the light source you are using. Just make sure you use the same type of light if using more than one. Now sometimes you can buy used gear for even less than building something.

Many older flashes and studio lights have built in optical triggers. They can be fired by on camera flash. You just set them manually. But since your working tabletop, changes can be done quick to get the lighting balance you want. Don't have to buy the newest greatest to get extremely good results.

But for now even adding a reflector or two can increase the quality of the shots.
 
hark

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
There are at least a few ways you can go. How big are your products?
  1. Light boxes are a popular option if your products fit inside. The white ones basically act as a diffuser for your lights – you set up your light(s) outside the box and shoot through the white material. This is one I purchased several years ago. The hardest part was folding it back up! Granted there are different sizes of light boxes so you might find one that will work for your needs. A light/flash will be required and most likely a lightstand. Look up Light Box on Amazon to get an idea of the numerous types that are available. Some even have built in lighting.
  2. You can get some type of a scrim which is a white piece of fabric to diffuse your lights. But that also requires at least one stand to support it in addition to any lighting stands and lights/flashes to shoot through the scrim.
  3. Softboxes with diffusion and/or possibly a V Flat to bounce lights off of.
As far as brands, there are a couple that tend to be popular. Godox flashes integrate with their strobes, and they tend to have the biggest selection of options available. Westcott is another popular lighting company that makes flashes and strobes that work together. Neewer is a newer company that has some promising options, but the first two manufacturers I listed are widely used by both amateurs and pros.

There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to product photography because of the numerous options available out there. Hopefully you can look into different methods of lighting to help narrow down your search.
 
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