Good/Best lenses for product photography?

I have a Nikon D3200 with the 18-55 kit lens. I've been doing okay taking photos for selling my chandeliers and other antique related items online. But I feel it's time to upgrade my lens. Most times I'm in my basement 'studio' for shoots. I use soft boxes good backdrops, but the kit lens is not really up to the task with big items like crystal chandeliers, etc.

What would be a good lens choice for product photography, keeping in mind that some items I shoot are multi-arm chandeliers and furniture, and you can see the back parts the same as the front. You can see some of my online items here, and it will give you a good idea of what I'm up against. I also clip the backgrounds from most items I sell, so clarity/focus are important.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

- Rob

Welcome Rob.

What about the 18-55mm isn't working well for bigger items?

Are you looking to go wider than 18mm? Doing so will likely distort the image.

Welcome to the forum

Hi Joe,

Thanks for the quick reply. What I'm seeing now is a lack of clarity, mainly. Also, with the clipping, it's important to have a good depth of field, which I also feel could be better.

- Rob

Thanks Mike, appreciate the welcome....

I think that your 18-55 is good for what you are looking for. Maybe invest in a good tripod and use smaller aperture combined with a good post processing program where you could improve the clarity, contrast and overall look. Since you're only using on-line jpegs, I don't think getting a better lens would make that much difference.

Welcome.

I agree with @Marcel the current lens is fine for the images you are producing.

For very large products then perhaps consider a slightly wider lens. The Nikon SAF-S DX 12-24mm f/4 would give you that but they are not cheap.
Or the
Tamron 10-24mm f3.5-4.5 Di II LD which is half the price of the Nikon version. I haven't tried them personally but they will give you the wider field of view.



You need to be careful of the distortion you get at close range, but that can be fixed in software like Lightroom.

oldlights said:

I have a Nikon D3200 with the 18-55 kit lens. I've been doing okay taking photos for selling my chandeliers and other antique related items online. But I feel it's time to upgrade my lens. Most times I'm in my basement 'studio' for shoots. I use soft boxes good backdrops, but the kit lens is not really up to the task with big items like crystal chandeliers, etc.

What would be a good lens choice for product photography, keeping in mind that some items I shoot are multi-arm chandeliers and furniture, and you can see the back parts the same as the front. You can see some of my online items here, and it will give you a good idea of what I'm up against. I also clip the backgrounds from most items I sell, so clarity/focus are important.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

- Rob

Click to expand...

You may want to adjust the "Sharpness" setting of your D3200 in the Picture Control menu. Here's how you can do that, if you haven't already:

• Press the Menu button and go into the Shooting menu (Camera icon).
• Drop down into "Set Picture Control".
• Click right one time to open the Picture Controls; there will be several but each one will have it's own set of sub-menus.
• Drop down to the Picture Control you're using, for instance Standard, and click right one time. This will put you in the sub-menu for that Picture Control.
• You'll see a setting slider for "Sharpness"; adjust the slider to +6 or +7.
• Press "OK" to save the adjustment.
• Repeat for any other Picture Control you may want to use.

Adjusting this single setting will have a dramatic effect on the overall sharpness of your JPG photos.
.....

Welcome to the website,

what software are you using to edit your photo's,
With a few adjustments with software, it can really bring a picture to life.

Using Corel Paint Shop Pro X7 Ultimate, and I also use Photoshop CS3. I should also add that I already do a fair amount of post photography editing, including white balance, clarity, sharpness, etc., all prior to the clipping of the backgrounds. I also use a tripod and a remote shutter release - seldom do I actually hold or touch the camera during shots.

Could you post a picture on here which your not happy with,

as said before, the kit lens will produce very good photographs.

You do not need a better lens for large product shots, especially if you are not printing big (WEB or small 6x4 prints). What you need is a better set up
. Lights - diffused lighting from all around
. Sturdy Tripod
. Use F8/F11 aperture to get maximum DOF

The 18-55 is a pretty sharp lens, and the 24MP sensor is excellent. Unless you are cramped for space, desist from going for wider lenses as they distort more if you take shots at odd angle. Use the longer end of the zoom (35-55) and back up as much as you can.

Avoid shooting in jpeg, use RAW. For processing you do not need any exotic program, use the free Nikon Capture NX-D. It has all the controls required for exposure, WB, Distortion and NR. One advantage of RAW is that you can play around much more with the file and get the image exactly as you would like it to look. Pretty difficult to manipulate a jpeg to that extent.