A while back, my friend asked me to do a simple product shooting for the company he is working for. It sounded exciting at first. But as reality kicks in, I began to wonder whether I should do it as I don’t have any experience at all. I have absolutely zero knowledge on how to shoot a product, what equipment I should have, how I should angle it and so on. But in the end, I did it for the experience.
A couple of reads from the net, I have managed to assemble a simple D.I.Y. (Do-It-Yourself) lightbox for the said product shooting. Though some said that it might lose some details, I chose to have white background instead of black one.
Besides, it is easier for me to build with white mahjong papers. Having said that, we did face a little problem when dirt started to surface.
I have read a lot of guides saying one might need to use table lamp for good lighting position. An extra flash might be useful, but with limited resources and all, I had to make do with whatever I found on that day. Besides, I always believe in using natural lightings. As you can see from my Canon Speedlite 580EX II post, those shots were produced with natural lights.
It was kinda tricky to get good lightings as we did the shooting in a office lot. We got lights coming through from the window but it was not sufficient at all. At times, shadows appeared on the photos and sometimes, they were underexposed. I had to start repositioning and recomposing to get a better photo.
Overall, it was pretty good experience as there were a couple of things I learnt from that day. Though I spammed alot, the photos you saw in this post are the ones I managed to salvage from. LOL.
tried an off shoe setup with your speedlite?? the lightings would be much better. neways, the photos you took was good. it would be better with a black background with better lighting though….my opinion only :)
calvin : Unfortunately, I don’t have wireless trigger. Thanks :D
arhhh!! nice nice…. i love your product shoot!! hehehe… not bad wor.. must learn to do DIY too.. LOL =D my experience begins tomoro!! LOL =D same like you. helping a friend to do a simple product shoot.. hehe.. need white lights egh??
Andrew : Thanks. All the best to you. :D
i used to work a while for a hardware online mag before and part of my job was to do product shoots for the computer hardware, eg heatsink, motherboard, grahpic cards etc. and oh boy it was really tough initially to get the angle and settings right. but as time went, i picked up some experiences shooting from different angle and how much aperture to use and etc. :D i was really glad that i had the chance to learn
xin : Yes. It is tough but rewarding as you get to gain experience from it. :D