Product photography – first effort

Equipped with two off-camera flashes, a sheet, and a lump of wood, I set about trying to take pictures of these scarves my wife’s made. I had really no idea what to do at first, but my final plan involves pointing one flash directly at the scarf from just to the left of the camera, and the other is pointing at the background and mostly missing the scarf.

This way I can use a small amount of direct flash on the subject and expose the camera to that, and use loads on the background to heavily over-expose it which whites out all the shadows, wrinkles and imperfections in the background to produce plain white.

There are two questions:

1) Do I really want a plain white background? I haven’t got anyone to model the scarves so it’s either this or a series of cheesy fake backdrops possibly featuring autumn leaves or something naff, but it’d have to vary depending on the scarf.

2) Why don’t I just whiten out the background in photoshop?

I’ve also discovered artfully arranging scarves is hard. Mrs Grips did the brown one, I did the green one.

EDIT the backgrounds looked a lot brighter before I uploaded them to flickr.. odd.. I wonder if it’s doing some kind of level adjustment for me?

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light green scarf[/url] by molgrips[/url], on Flickr

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chocolate scarf2[/url] by molgrips[/url], on Flickr

All I’ll say is the white background doesn’t look right to me.
Maybe a light tinge of some colour would be nice, say blue.

Yeah, having a coloured background is something we thought of, but it affects how you see the colours in the article.

Accurate colour reproduction is probably the main aim here, because we don’t want people thinking they are buying a colour then finding it clashes with their jacket or whatever when they get it.

They look great in terms of scarfiness, but you need to photograph them in use, on a person, in a scarf-likely situation.

Plain white background, and not so closely cropped, want to be able to see all of the scarf (or a closeup just showing a part of it, not inbetween as above images).

Nice though 🙂

I would really love to have a model, but Mrs Grips won’t do it and I don’t know anyone else 🙂

Duane – they are so closely cropped because the background is rubbish, full of wrinkles and all.

Asda, buy a cheap bedsheet, iron, hang up. Voila.

Green one looks a bit awkward, retouch out the slither of wood on RHS and the extra green lump on the left, would look better knotted? The lighting looks a bit flat, maybe have a smaller slightly more directional light and fill in with something diffuse.
I like the brown scarf, is the fabric made by hand? How much are they?

They look great in terms of scarfiness, but you need to photograph them in use, on a person, in a scarf-likely situation.

This, I see them around the neck of someone rather than hanging from something

Is there a college nearby? Students will do anything you ask them to for a pot noodle. Seriously, it’s a good place to ask for cheap/free models.

Duane, that is exactly what the background is, a bedsheets. It is not thick enough to be free from wrinkles.

MrSmith, I find it very hard to strange them to look good, Mrs Grips is much better fortunately. I know what you mean about being flat, I only have two flashes though and need one for eliminating shadows from the backdropI think. Could move the direct one to the side a bit, will try that. The orientation of the scarf is also critical as it determines how much of backdrop lighting it catches. It is all done in a tiny space.

Re the scarves she will be thrilled to get compliments, they are handwoven from fancy fibres, email in profile if you are interested 🙂

I only have two flashes though and need one for eliminating shadows from the backdrop

A main light and a piece of white or half silver (mat not shiny) card as a reflector would be enough to light your subject and bring out the texture and shape of the product. Bit tricky if your flash has no modelling light to see the effects of moving lights/ reflectors though.
Can’t you just cut them out in photoshop and not worry about lighting the background?

Great looking scarves and I like the way the second one ‘hangs’ so don’t see a problem with the lack of a ‘model’

Maybe try black velvet as a background? I used to have a piece that I kept and used as a ‘neutral’ background and it worked well. Just make sure you hang it far enough back to be out of focus

Black.. hmm.. interesting. MrSmith.. where do you put the reflector? The flash still points at the subject..? Confused. had a brief go whiting out the background in Photoshop, the fuzzy edges are tricky but I need yi do a bit of learning there.

The ‘model’ doesn’t have to be human, just something to give an idea of the size. (Never brought a scarf in my life so maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about.)

I think the wood just looks weird TBH, if you can’t find a model I’d probably prefer to just see them nicely folded on a table. And I agree the crops are too close.

I’ve never bought a scarf in my life either but the brown one is purty.

Could you rig up a lightbox for the background? A light source behind the sheet like a couple of fluorescent tubes, with a white sheet behind that, so that any wrinkles and shadows are removed, or else just select all the white background in photoshop with the dropper tool and pull the curves or levels so that the same effect is achieved. That’s probably easiest, any bits that don’t select properly can be painted or erased in masks. Not a difficult thing to do, and once you’ve got a clean background with a mask you can experiment filling it with different shades and colours to your hearts content, to see what gives the best balance.
It’s what I’d do. 😀

I have no technical expertise, but on the basis it’s displaying a scarf rather than an art competition, I think the second one’s pretty good. Would show me what i needed to know about the scarf, tbh. First is a fail because the scarf hanging is wrong, let the wife do the arranging would be my tip.

Top one looks weird to me, almost like it’s had a background edited out. And I guess that’s setting my brain off going “Photoshopped image” even though it isn’t. I’m no expert obviously but I’m an experienced impulse buyer 😉

My suggestion would be to look at some scarf retailers like scarves.net and see how they display them.

Or find a forum with more wimmenz’ on it!

Edit – don’t think I ever bought a scarf either…

Definitely cropped too tight. I could deal with the rest of the issues mentioned happily but not being able to see all of the product is a pain.

If the background is sufficiently far enough away from the subject then you should be able to keep it out of focus so you don’t see any wrinkles (depth of field etc).

Black.. hmm.. interesting. MrSmith.. where do you put the reflector? The flash still points at the subject..? Confused. had a brief go whiting out the background in Photoshop, the fuzzy edges are tricky but I need yi do a bit of learning there.

Just realised the flash is on the camera? That’s part of the problem, to bring out the texture of the fabric it needs to be off camera and the fill-in reflector goes on the opposite side. It’s a standard lighting technique.
Plenty of tutorials on the web for masking/cutting out. There’s an over enthusiastic septic called Russell brown who does easy to follow ones if you can put up with his annoying vocal delivery.

Why are you using a sheet? Just use a roll of paper from an art shop if a roll of colorama paper is too big or expensive.

Edit: just read your OP and your flash is off camera so put one at 45° between camera and scarf and fill in with reflector on the opposite side and see how the look.

the brown scarf looks really good to me!

i’d not worry too much about distorting the colours – people accept that small runs will vary somewhat.

this (stitch mi lane[/url]) is my friend’s products on a similar theme – may give you an idea of other ways to display them

Accurate colour reproduction is probably the main aim here, because we don’t want people thinking they are buying a colour then finding it clashes with their jacket or whatever when they get it.

Ate you shooting an 18% grey card with the same lighting to get an accurate white balance?

They don’t look like scarves.

EDIT – if Mrs won’t be shot, how about propping with something like this…

Exposure and detail looks good to me molgrips, not that keen on the way they are displayed, have you tried out some different poses, such as:

[edit] nice scarfs btw, where can we get them from and how much £££?

😉

I agree with ski. I think they need to be at least knotted like scarves.

The first one could be a tea towel the way it is shown (no disrespect to the article, but it just isn’t displayed in a very scarf like manner. The tassels on the second help with the scarfiness, but still think it need knotting somehow).

Mr Smith.. I see what you mean now, I can see how the reflector would work. Will check out the PS techniques too, cheers for the tips. You’ve earned yourself a scarf discount 🙂

grum – no, just using ‘flash’ WB settings. A grey card could be useful though.

Re paper backdrop – I’ve seen it done, but I had no idea from where to get a giant sheet of paper, and sheets are widely available and cheap. Paper would solve a fair few issues though. I’m also rather tempted to look out a cheap old projector screen, they must be available cheap somewhere.

The dressmaker dummy – also thought of but we don’t have one and they are expensive. We are trying to do this on the super cheap, although we’ve sold the chocolate scarf (sorry folks, but more can be made 🙂 ) and there might be three more orders on the way so we might have some money to re-invest.

Re knotting – will give it a go. Looking at that flat pic above I am thinking I could use a single stick with a peg in it instead of the Y shaped piece we have been using.

I hope I won’t get into trouble for this with the mods but check out Loomybin on Facebook. An Etsy store will be created when we get the photos sorted out!

Re paper backdrop – I’ve seen it done, but I had no idea from where to get a giant sheet of paper, and sheets are widely available and cheap. Paper would solve a fair few issues though. I’m also rather tempted to look out a cheap old projector screen, they must be available cheap somewhere

art shop or a small 6ft roll of colorama (if they do them that small? i use 9 or 12ft)
dont use a projector screen it’s shiny.
a more durable option is a sheet of formica but it’s more expensive and unwieldily unless you have plenty of clamps/rods.

For nice ‘natural’ looking scarves like that, why not head out in the fab autumn sunshine and get some shots outside?

grum – no, just using ‘flash’ WB settings. A grey card could be useful though.

If colour accuracy is important I would have thought it’s essential, especially if you don’t have a calibrated monitor. Grey cards aren’t expensive.

You’ve earned yourself a scarf discount

currently wearing a fetching Missoni creation (when it gets cold enough) but i’ll check the store when its up and running for a christmas gift. 🙂

Will check out art shop for rolls.. thought they only did sheets..

Our first thought was outside, but the wind keeps blowing it about, finding a suitable backdrop isn’t easy, and the light is far from consistent, in terms of direction, quality and intensity.

I’ll order a grey card, thanks.

matt_outandabout – Member

For nice ‘natural’ looking scarves like that, why not head out in the fab autumn sunshine and get some shots outside?

+1, spot on time of the year to do it, find an nice old Oak to hang them off, or, family shot, walking a dog, etc

It’s a lot harder than it sounds, outdoors. Like I said it was our first idea.

For cheap backgrounds I use A1 Cardstock from Hobbycraft. Loads of colours available, £2 ish a sheet.

I took this this morning with said piece of cardstock. Ice White is the colour. Photograph not the greatest because I’m still learning. But a bit of blue tack holds it in place.

We went to hobbycraft, we didn’t think A1 was big enough…

http://www.wexphotographic.com/buy-colorama-1-35x11m-arctic-white/p1019248

Why not tie the scarves around the stick then, rather than drape? The biggest clue to saying it is a scarf without it being around a neck is the knot.