Help needed

[clarkie]

Hello I am wanting to start taking my own photos for my family business to use on our website - we sell shoes and handbags. Some people have recommended that I purchase a cubalite?or something similar?mthere seems to be loads of these available and they vary hugely in price was just wondering if anyone could offer some advice as to the best type to get or what to look for? There also seems to be a choice between tungsten and flourescent lights? Any help for a total novice is appreciated

[Phil]

Hi Clarkie and welcome to TIPF.

 

It would be helpful if we had an idea of your camera, lenses etc. and what it is you are wanting to photograph?

[Guest DaveW]

Can't find anything called a "Cubalite" on the Web, you sure they did not mean a light cube, which is a version of a light tent?

 

For your type of table top work I always recommend this site for "how to do it", but you can use your own or similar lights or flash, no need to buy theirs.

 

http://www.tabletopstudio.com/HowTo_page.html

 

You can make your own light cube or light tent:-

 

http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-make-a-inexpensive-light-tent

 

Or there are plenty on EBAY, cost varying mainly on size and what other equipment comes with them. Obviously you need one large enough to contain your biggest items with a bit of free space around it:-

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_trksid=p5197.m570.l1311.R2.TR10.TRC0&_nkw=photo+light+tent&_sacat=0&_from=R40

 

You may find these videos interesting for shoe photography and there are some more videos for the principles of product photography down the right hand side of this first link:-

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEhyOhfTldg

 

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=photographing+shoes&oq=photographing+shoes&gs_l=youtube.1.0.0.62448.65166.0.66786.6.4.0.2.2.0.140.371.3j1.4.0...0.0...1ac.1.ECdysmCp3mM

 

Also see these videos for handbags:-

 

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=photographing+handbags&oq=photographing+handbags&gs_l=youtube-reduced.1.0.0.194992.204749.0.206708.22.11.0.11.11.0.122.836.10j1.11.0...0.0...1ac.1.uhDlRi8IIkk

 

These days the digital camera usually has automatic white balance that will adjust for most lights and you can tweak the final colour balance in your photo editing software.

Edited March 29, 2013 by DaveW

[clarkie]

I would like to photograph individual shoes and the thing I had seen was by a company called lastolite? I have not even purchased the camera yet so advice on that is also welcome! I have had this seasons products photographed by a professional photographer but this is not cost effective going forward if I want the site to make any money, I also receive deliveries all the time throughout the year so would like to be able to photograph things as they come in or take extra shots for social networking etc. thanks for the suggestions of the links to look at I will do that.

[Black Pearl]

It's not quite as simple as using a light tent/cube.

 

A mate of mine shoots all the product shots for this site - http://www.soleheaven.com - and many other types of photography as well.

The sneakers are on a paper background and lit with a combination of Elincrom Quadra's & Soft Boxes, the bags are hung from the ceiling and lit with multiple heads and modifiers to get the 3D look.

 

You're going to need a DSLR with a good quality zoom and tripod to support it - some studio flash heads, a range of modifiers and a triggering system to fire it and ideally a flash meter to balance the heads correctly - a background system - the space to set it up - something like Adobe Lightroom 4 to sort the files out - plus a bit of training in using it all. 

[Guest]

are you after this kind of image?

 

[Guest]

or this?

[clarkie]

Yes those type of images

[Guest]

Those are what I do as part of making a living, I just dont tend to charge an arm and a leg like some people. They have been taken with a dslr on a tripod with lighting and a backdrop then cutout in photoshop to give the plain white background

[riddell]

Light tents / cube lights are used for the sole purpose that they are basic and easy to shoot to achieve a reasonable quality-ish image for the kind of low quality images that are needed for the likes of ebay.

 

And both tungsten and flourescent lights are a big no. Especially flourescents. You just have no control.

 

To achieve high quality commercial grade images for use in catalogues or a quality website or on ASOS or Amazon (neither of which will accept amateur photography) you then need to have a lot more equipment, lighting etc. and even more importantly a lot more knowledge to know how to take the photos. When you start talking high volumes of products, it then become even more paramount that you know what you are doing, and this work is best left to a professional.

 

There are many companies out there struggling to make sales, and often these sites have poor photography on them that doesn't do them any favours, it makes them look unprofessional and customers stay away. I've seen it many time when clients come to me, and we replace their photos with professional ones. They soon see business rise.

Edited May 1, 2013 by Phil
External link removed