Product Photography

[Justin]

OK, it;'s official, I'm useless at photography but I have to learn the basics. Having been quoted silly money to take photos of my products I'm having another go myself.

I have a decent SLR camera (wasted on me right now, auto mode rules) I used to have a small photo tent but got rid. Is it worth getting something again? I see the cheapo ones on eBay with led built in, are the any good?

It's just for small items but ideally I need to remove the background and/or stage the shot.....that's the next issue!

Appreciate any advice, please keep it basic!

[pisquee]

We gave up using tents, and got big soft box/umbrella type strobe flashes, with a wireless link to the camera, couples with the camera on a tripod and remote shutter release.
Most of our shots aren't white background and are more lifestyle/staged, but the kit easily copes with both situations.
Got on Ebay used for about £150 two softboxes, lights, and tripods
like this one ... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Interfit-Ste ... SweRlasDCi

[Customprintwales]

Amazon do a really nice photo tent. It's a little more pricey than some of the cheap ones but is much more robust and a lot more solid when put up.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/AmazonBasics-5 ... 01GPY5EL4/

[UK Printed Mugs]

Hi Justin. We use an original Foldio light tent which is super for smallish items (mugs...). There is a version 2 which is bigger. It is rather pricey but the build quality is very good. I've noticed that since this came out about 3 years ago then there are LOTS of Chinese copies on the market so not sure how good these are:
http://orangemonkie.com/foldio2/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=bl_dp_s_ ... ch-type=ss

[pisquee]

E2A - we ditched the tents we'd had in the past once buying in the big lights as we get much better results with using these than we had with the photo tents and little lights. We use the little lights still if we need to fill in a bit of light in a shadowy area, or really highlight a product in a scene.
We've used them for small close-up products like jewellery, but also full set scenes with furniture, along with model shoots - they are so much more versatile than a little tent.

[GoonerGary]

How much do you want to spend on each product shot?
What do you need to learn?

[webtrekker]

Are there any real advantages to doing your own product shots as opposed to mockups, considering the cost of all the time and equipment?

[GoonerGary]

Are there any real advantages to doing your own product shots as opposed to mockups, considering the cost of all the time and equipment?

Some online venues prohibit mock ups. Sometimes mockups only provide one single view and are not available for bespoke products.

[pisquee]

We have some mockups on online sites that prohibit them - if your mockup is done well it is very hard to tell it isn't real. We have mockup templates for most of our product lines, which do work well, especially if we've launched a new design/range and don't have time time to do a proper shoot to get it listed for sale, in the catalogue, out to PR etc

[Justin]

How much do you want to spend on each product shot?
What do you need to learn?

Nothing! lol. Tried to get local people to do staged shots and they wanted to charge a small fortune. I only need the basics to get good shots of our phone cases mainly.

I know there are companies online that we can send items to but really need to take quick shots in house as stuff is produced.