[beerguy0]

Bounce flash with a hotshoe mounted flash is also very effective for product/tabletop photography. Experiment with white foamcore board as reflectors. It's pretty cheap, and is rigid enough to stay put.

For the background, you need a sweep table. Depending on the size of the item, this can be a sheet of white poster board taped to a wall and curving down to a table top. For larger items, look for some type of roll paper. Raising the item up in the air, away from the background, reduces shadows and makes retouching easier.

Also, use a tripod so you have control over your shooting angle and composition. It's harder to shoot these types of shots if you're shooting handheld.

 

[ghopper]

all the technical stuffs mentioned are useless unless one can compose the picture. the angle from which the picture is taken, the steadiness of the camera while the shutter is open, etc. people need to start including the feet of people when taking pictures of them. just take a step back and include the feet. either that or move in and just cut off from shoulders down. don't have the people have their legs cut off under the knees.
there are a lot of things to know about photography. the best you can do is research and practice, then you can think about iso and white balance, those can be fixed later. but you can't add on a pair of feet in a picture.
also, i disagree about using manual instead of auto. when you're just a beginner, just worry about composing the picture and let the camera take care of the technical stuff. when composing the picture becomes second nature to you, then you start fine tuning the aperture or iso or whathave you.

just to advertise for myself while i'm at it, hehe : http://ighopper.aminus3.com
aminus3 is a great free photoblog site and i recommend it to any decent photographers.

 

[jmmtn4aj]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ghopper all the technical stuffs mentioned are useless unless one can compose the picture. the angle from which the picture is taken, the steadiness of the camera while the shutter is open, etc. people need to start including the feet of people when taking pictures of them. just take a step back and include the feet. either that or move in and just cut off from shoulders down. don't have the people have their legs cut off under the knees. there are a lot of things to know about photography. the best you can do is research and practice, then you can think about iso and white balance, those can be fixed later. but you can't add on a pair of feet in a picture. also, i disagree about using manual instead of auto. when you're just a beginner, just worry about composing the picture and let the camera take care of the technical stuff. when composing the picture becomes second nature to you, then you start fine tuning the aperture or iso or whathave you. just to advertise for myself while i'm at it, hehe : http://ighopper.aminus3.com aminus3 is a great free photoblog site and i recommend it to any decent photographers.

Well he was asking about the photography of still objects, in this case audio equipment, specifically

But yeah, there's a whole lot more to learn about photography past the technical aspects. I suppose the reason why I'm not into it anymore is becasue I don't have a talent for composition. I understood the academics, rule of thirds and all that, but the shots I took never seemed to satisfy me

EDIT: by the way, you might want to use some thin white borders for your overcast pics. Site's background makes them seem too dark..

 

[meat01]

When I take photos of my gear, I use a table top tripod and set the item I am taking a picture of on my dining room table. I don't like flash, so I let the light from the large sliding glass door light my object. I use macro when I can. In my case, a tripod and available light are the key. Grados or other black objects are difficult to take pictures of.

Lightboxes with flash make for great pictures also, I just don't have a lightbox.

 

[ghopper]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmmtn4aj EDIT: by the way, you might want to use some thin white borders for your overcast pics. Site's background makes them seem too dark..

Thanks, i'll change the theme right now.

 

[kugino]

Quote:

Originally Posted by oic929 Getting an all white background is extremely easy. For a really really cheap solution just line the inside of a cardboard box with white paper. Simply grab a few lamps and shine them directly at the object you want to photograph. Just play around with the exposure until you get it correct, do remember to set correct white balance depending on what color lights you are using. Here are some photographs I took with a point and shoot. Total set up cost $3.20

you can use the white paper in the cardboard box to set your white balance if you have a manual WB setting...

 

[episiarch]

I highly recommend reading Dan's Long-Awaited Photo Tutorial-ish Thing for a pretty good understanding of the issues and some practical solutions.

Me, I've gotten relatively decent results with a well-lit conference room - take the whiteboard off the wall, put it on the conference table, and you've got a pretty nice semigloss background. If your whiteboard is clean, that is.

If you can set the white balance according to the white background, that's a plus. And if you can manually meter, or use exposure compensation to make sure the background comes out white instead of grey, that'll help significantly since repairing the exposure in PhotoShop always looks less less natural (...at least when I do it).

I think the biggest key is to be willing to take some time, and to be willing to make some repeated attempts, to get the results you want. I tend to be in too big a rush to move on to the next thing, and it shows (as you'll see if you look at the for-sale threads I'll be starting in a few days).

 

[dj_mocok]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevesurf Well you have amazing work!!! Stay out of the casinos. FYI there are some really good DSLRs right now...D80, Canon, Leica/Panasonic. With your talent you should just sell a bunch of images and afford one. Back on track, I agree with the previous posters that backgrounds are a quick way to enhance your product photography. There are some pretty good deals on used stands, umbrellas, disks, gels etc. that will also help if you have to room. I sometimes use a simple table against a wall with a curved backdrop for my product images.

With the money I lost, I could probably get a D200 and a lens. But let's not talk about it anymore, it still hurts lol.

Anyway, back on the topic, lots of good tips already posted here, but I'm not sure if the original poster already owns any post processing software. Even something simple like Photoshop elements will help a lot in this situation IMO.

If you are really into this "product photography" thing, I think they are selling a kit that you can use in order to perfectly light up your subject (it's something like an enclosure for you to put the object and it has its own lights). I can't remember the name, but some of them are quite affordable - a few hundred bucks maybe. But considering you can use it all the time and create as many nice pictures as you want, I think it's well worth it.