New to Product photography

Product photography is something I’m being asked to do. I have the tools (or maybe not) Nikon Z7ii and Z MC 105 lens, a tripod, remote shutter release.

It began with a bottle of alcoholic beverage, And now I got an expensive Bourbon that requires a white clean background with no shadows for the graphic designer.

I called B&H, explained that I have the skill to capture Eagles at the Conowingo dam with a Z9 and long glass, I have a full fledge kids portrait studio, lighting softboxes, props, and everything in between. but I have never done products professionally, and I’m being asked to do so. Why say no to additional opportunities? I don’t want to use my giant soft boxes for products, I want them to stay where they are.

So the rep recommended this

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1436269-REG

I would love to learn more / read more about this genre of photography.

Any ideas? Tips? Do’s and dont’s?

Thanks 🙏

Joel, what are you doing over here in this forum? I thought I had the Z-forum for a minute or two...

I use one that is translucent nylon instead. I found that I could light the outside and it would act a a diffuser and soften the lights. Although this one looks interesting since it includes the lights, I would worry about how harsh they are on the subject. The upside is that it is not a big investment. No real tips for you, since I do very little product work.

Joel Klein wrote:

Product photography is something I’m being asked to do. I have the tools (or maybe not) Nikon Z7ii and Z MC 105 lens, a tripod, remote shutter release.

It began with a bottle of alcoholic beverage, And now I got an expensive Bourbon that requires a white clean background with no shadows for the graphic designer.

I called B&H, explained that I have the skill to capture Eagles at the Conowingo dam with a Z9 and long glass, I have a full fledge kids portrait studio, lighting softboxes, props, and everything in between. but I have never done products professionally, and I’m being asked to do so. Why say no to additional opportunities? I don’t want to use my giant soft boxes for products, I want them to stay where they are.

So the rep recommended this

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1436269-REG

I would love to learn more / read more about this genre of photography.

Any ideas? Tips? Do’s and dont’s?

Thanks 🙏

I dont know tons about product photos. Ive done a few things, but I really dont know much about it. However, I stayed around for a long convo on specifically bottles/liquor with some product photographers who were very good. What I didnt know was that its almost a genre of its own. There is a good Creative Live on photographing wine bottles.

Now that I offered the disclaimer, I can still pretty confidently say that box is NOT what you want for bottles. It demands a high level of precision and control. Effort is put into blacking out everything so the only reflections are the specific ones that are intentional using flags etc. You will find that you want a seemless white bg or a softbox as the BG probably. That will depend on the surface too. Do you need to show some surface like a wood or some kind of reflective plexi? If its supposed to be a bottle "floating" in white, I think seemless is the way to go. I will try to find the youtube video of the guys I talked with about it.

PS, I dont photograph birds all that often, but I have a lot of fun trying. I LOVE Conowingo and go there a few times every year

I just tried to find that youtube video, but cant. There are a ton of videos on photographing bottles though. You are going to need modifiers and unless they just want some mediocre product shot for like Amazon on white bg, I dont see how a light house/tent could work for a bottle of good whiskey....and even if thats all they want, depending on the drink, it feels like sacrilege to not give it justice - or at least give it the ol collegiate try.

Thank you all for the help and info.
I have white white seamless, (plus 15 more colors…) 3 AD300 pro’s. 60”, 44” soft-boxes, side lights and reflectors, and what not. Does are all set up on C stands for portraiture which is being used 2-3 times a day. I don’t want to interrupt that. So I was thinking to set up the Z7ii with that tent/box and see what I get.
The graphics designer asked for a clean photo of the bottle. No reflections or shadows. They will use the image in their graphic for a display ad in a newspaper/magazine, etc.

FedEx should be at my door in 9 hours from now. Lets see. I gotta make my feet wet.

from what I’m hearing, product photography can be done in 2 scenarios.
1) set up a full environment with props, it takes a full day to accomplish and the price is about 2K for such a setup.
2) just a single clean product. For a couple hundred bucks. Those are the kind of jobs professional product photographers are not going after. They like the first scenario. While the second scenario has a void. Let’s see. Will keep you posted.

Marlin Roberts wrote:

Joel, what are you doing over here in this forum? I thought I had the Z-forum for a minute or two...

I use one that is translucent nylon instead. I found that I could light the outside and it would act a a diffuser and soften the lights. Although this one looks interesting since it includes the lights, I would worry about how harsh they are on the subject. The upside is that it is not a big investment. No real tips for you, since I do very little product work.

Hay Marlin, You made me have a good laugh.. you’re right though.  
What’s next? I don’t know. I love exploring new things which keeps me young and fresh.

c h u n k wrote:

PS, I dont photograph birds all that often, but I have a lot of fun trying. I LOVE Conowingo and go there a few times every year

No Exif data?? Hay!!!

I love those shots. I’m waiting for my 800mm to go down again. Last time I had a very hard time with the 500pf. Not enough reach.

Joel Klein wrote:

Thank you all for the help and info.
I have white white seamless, (plus 15 more colors…) 3 AD300 pro’s. 60”, 44” soft-boxes, side lights and reflectors, and what not. Does are all set up on C stands for portraiture which is being used 2-3 times a day. I don’t want to interrupt that. So I was thinking to set up the Z7ii with that tent/box and see what I get.
The graphics designer asked for a clean photo of the bottle. No reflections or shadows. They will use the image in their graphic for a display ad in a newspaper/magazine, etc.

FedEx should be at my door in 9 hours from now. Lets see. I gotta make my feet wet.

from what I’m hearing, product photography can be done in 2 scenarios.
1) set up a full environment with props, it takes a full day to accomplish and the price is about 2K for such a setup.
2) just a single clean product. For a couple hundred bucks. Those are the kind of jobs professional product photographers are not going after. They like the first scenario. While the second scenario has a void. Let’s see. Will keep you posted.

This is pretty in line with what Ive seen done for bottles. Def not a full day thing, but there is setup and you would have to move your lights. Hope the tent is adequate. Easy couple hundred if so.

https://youtu.be/WIQsiD5C0ag

Joel Klein wrote:

c h u n k wrote:

PS, I dont photograph birds all that often, but I have a lot of fun trying. I LOVE Conowingo and go there a few times every year

No Exif data?? Hay!!!

I love those shots. I’m waiting for my 800mm to go down again. Last time I had a very hard time with the 500pf. Not enough reach.

Weird. Dont know why there wouldnt be exif. I took them from my flickr acct on my phone. Exif is def in the ones in my flickr but I guess shed it when I downloaded from there.

Its all Tamron 150-600mm, and 1st two are R7. Last one is 80D I believe.

Oh, and 500mm on an apsc would be okay there. Always want more, but just gotta be patient for them to come a little closer. I need to send in my lens for update to the RF mount. It focused right through a couple close shots. Very annoying, but I know the update fixes it.

c h u n k wrote:

Joel Klein wrote:

Thank you all for the help and info.
I have white white seamless, (plus 15 more colors…) 3 AD300 pro’s. 60”, 44” soft-boxes, side lights and reflectors, and what not. Does are all set up on C stands for portraiture which is being used 2-3 times a day. I don’t want to interrupt that. So I was thinking to set up the Z7ii with that tent/box and see what I get.
The graphics designer asked for a clean photo of the bottle. No reflections or shadows. They will use the image in their graphic for a display ad in a newspaper/magazine, etc.

FedEx should be at my door in 9 hours from now. Lets see. I gotta make my feet wet.

from what I’m hearing, product photography can be done in 2 scenarios.
1) set up a full environment with props, it takes a full day to accomplish and the price is about 2K for such a setup.
2) just a single clean product. For a couple hundred bucks. Those are the kind of jobs professional product photographers are not going after. They like the first scenario. While the second scenario has a void. Let’s see. Will keep you posted.

This is pretty in line with what Ive seen done for bottles. Def not a full day thing, but there is setup and you would have to move your lights. Hope the tent is adequate. Easy couple hundred if so.

https://youtu.be/WIQsiD5C0ag

Thanks 🙏

c h u n k wrote:

Oh, and 500mm on an apsc would be okay there. Always want more, but just gotta be patient for them to come a little closer. I need to send in my lens for update to the RF mount. It focused right through a couple close shots. Very annoying, but I know the update fixes it.

That wait could be a full day I didn’t have yet. Last time I drove out on a Sunday, 3.5 hours drive, spent 4 hours and drove back.  Perhaps I should Hotel over somewhere closer. The older photographers I saw there, had 600/4 glass with TC’s. Bringing it to the 800mm range. So clearly 500mm is possible but not so often.  Which made me think of waiting out the 800mm pf

Rodger in Edmonton wrote:

Joel Klein wrote:

Product photography is something I’m being asked to do. I have the tools (or maybe not) Nikon Z7ii and Z MC 105 lens, a tripod, remote shutter release.

It began with a bottle of alcoholic beverage, And now I got an expensive Bourbon that requires a white clean background with no shadows for the graphic designer.

I called B&H, explained that I have the skill to capture Eagles at the Conowingo dam with a Z9 and long glass, I have a full fledge kids portrait studio, lighting softboxes, props, and everything in between. but I have never done products professionally, and I’m being asked to do so. Why say no to additional opportunities? I don’t want to use my giant soft boxes for products, I want them to stay where they are.

So the rep recommended this

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1436269-REG

I would love to learn more / read more about this genre of photography.

Any ideas? Tips? Do’s and dont’s?

Thanks 🙏

This book is the source you need , it has entire chapters dedicated to form & specific substances like metal, glass, reflective metal etc etc...it teaches how to choose and use the proper tools and lighting scheme depending the size, substance , topography, reflectivity and dimensions of the object before us ie light interact with glass, meta and wood differently.

A glass bottle can be portrayed as translucent, darkened with a rim light, backlit for structure etc

It teaches the Family of Angle sand how to apply them effectively for your purpose etc,

This edition is from a few years back

Thanks 🙏

This is specifically for products?

Got it. Thank you.  
Now I’m glad a human face isn’t made out of glass or metals…

Hi,

I have a light-box and it is sometimes useful for small products, but anything over the size of a camera is going to be a pain, if not impossible, to shoot. Also, you have virtually no control over the light.

I think you would be much better served with the following:

Good sized inexpensive soft box - I use this one https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DJ4TGF7?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

A flash (and a wireless transmitter if you intend spending much time doing this)

A shutter release

A Tripod with a horizontal arm

Large poster boards, white, black and whatever, to serve as a backgrounds, surfaces and reflectors - $7 from Office Depot

Any backgrounds and surfaces you can think of - perhaps your kitchen table, or ceramic tiles. The possibilities are endless.

Roger.