# first shot at product photography



## holga girl (Oct 26, 2007)

i am much more of a PJ shooter. events, families, raw emotion. so this is new for me. i got hired to shoot a line of cupcakes for a local baker. let me know what you think.


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## Sideburns (Oct 26, 2007)

too close, in my opinion.  Move back a bit...Brighter soft lighting would help, as well.


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## frXnz kafka (Oct 28, 2007)

I like the fourth, but the other ones don't quite work, I think. I agree that softer light would help. Also, maybe getting a bit lower, not so "on top" of the cupcakes. I'm also not sure about your background. They look a bit "dingy" to me.


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## Mike Jordan (Oct 28, 2007)

Your depth of field is too short. At least all of the cup cakes should be in focus.  Your background is too much the same tonal range of your cakes so the cup cakes don't stand out enough.  I think the light is too soft as is and you need to increase contrast a bit. 

Mike


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## holga girl (Oct 29, 2007)

thanks for the comments. i am not into the backgrounds either..... the client provided them for me. in all, i was not too thrilled with these. i used natural light with a reflector on the side. i tried to light them with flash as well as in a light dome, but it was way to dramatic for baby cupcakes. 

what lighting set up would you suggest for these?


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## Black Magic Studio (Oct 30, 2007)

I'm certainly no expert on product photography, but here's my input anyway.  The light seems flat and shadowy in the wrong places.  I would move your light up to the front to eliminate the dark areas in the foreground.  I would also add a harder light in back to add highlights on the edges of the icing.


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## fmw (Oct 31, 2007)

Low contrast, underexposed, inadequate depth of field.  Honestly, not billable in my opinion.  I wouldn't show them to the client.


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## Alpha (Oct 31, 2007)

What he said.


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## laguano (Nov 23, 2007)

PP makes these photos better, try selectively coloring the photos to bring out the best, and i adjusted the levels to bring out the highlights.





i added a watermark just in case you didn't like me hosting your picture again


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## DavidB (Dec 1, 2007)

When shooting food, you need to bring out the texture of the food, and create specular highlights (sheen, shine) to give the image some pop.

Simple advice: Have two lights, one to the left of the camera and one to the right, with about 1 F stop difference between them, and then have a light in the back about a stop brighter than the main. So, maybe one light at F8 (main light), one light at F 5.6 (fill light), and the back light at F11, and shoot at F8.

Example:


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## dpolston (Dec 1, 2007)

David... I am looking forward to more of your posts!


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## nossie (Dec 1, 2007)

DavidB said:


> When shooting food, you need to bring out the texture of the food, and create specular highlights (sheen, shine) to give the image some pop.
> 
> Simple advice: Have two lights, one to the left of the camera and one to the right, with about 1 F stop difference between them, and then have a light in the back about a stop brighter than the main. So, maybe one light at F8 (main light), one light at F 5.6 (fill light), and the back light at F11, and shoot at F8.
> 
> Example:


 
Hi David.
That's a great piece of input.  Simple instructions for making the shot gets rid of a lot of the mystery.  Thanks for that.
I've looked at and book-marked your site for mentoring.  
Welcome to the forum, I hope you'll be sticking around.

Ray.  :thumbup:


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## photomath (Dec 2, 2007)

David B, quick questions about your set up of the lights for food--are you working with 4 lights or 2? and soff boxes or umbrellas?
Thanks
Roger


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## DavidB (Dec 2, 2007)

photomath said:


> David B, quick questions about your set up of the lights for food--are you working with 4 lights or 2? and soff boxes or umbrellas?
> Thanks
> Roger


 
As I stated above, I used three lights, which is typical for me. In most cases I use a combination of Photek Softlighters and refelectors with grids on my lights.

Christmas dinner anyone??


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## KristinaS (Dec 2, 2007)

^^ That looks delicious! ...And I don't even like ham!


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## cloudmorning (Dec 12, 2007)

Not enough contrast imo. Just doesn't look yummy.


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## MJManz (Jan 16, 2008)

A good place to look for some inspiration is this photographer, bill simone.  On his site www.billsimonephotography.com, look under "things" and you'll find some food shots strewn about.  His other site www.simoneassociates.com has an abundance of food shots though.  I think he mainly lights with one light, a very large softbox, and adds fill with cards if needed.


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## Lyncca (Jan 16, 2008)

DavidB said:


> As I stated above, I used three lights, which is typical for me. In most cases I use a combination of Photek Softlighters and refelectors with grids on my lights.
> 
> Christmas dinner anyone??


 
Yumm!  Time to go to lunch!


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## nicfargo (Jan 16, 2008)

Lighting is your biggest problem in these photos, along with probably that background.  You could make the shallow DOF work if the rest of the picture was immaculate.  I'd honestly read up on lighting techniques.  What David B said is spot on...great images by the way David.  I'd look into strobist.com for free lighting techniques (it really is a great site for off camera lighting).  They deal mainly with smaller flashes (nikon speedlights, canon 580ex, etc) but light is light, it all acts the same (physics).  I would also pick up a book called Light: Science and Magic.  It explains what David meant by specular highlights, and teaches you about light so you can use it more effectively and efficiently.


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## TamiyaGuy (Jan 18, 2008)

They're OK, but not phenomenal. The 3rd shot looks pretty good, but a tiny bit out of focus. Maybe use a smaller aperture.

The first and second ones just look a bit dull. There isn't much "going on". That could easily be fixed in Photoshop, though, just by upping the contrast.

I think the 4th one should be zoomed out a bit (to show all of the cupcakes), and a much smaller aperture should be selected, so all of them are perfectly in focus.

I don't know why, but I just don't really like the last one. I'm not sure what I don't like about it.

But as I said, they're not at all bad, just a little dull. Nice work, though!

I'm hungry now.


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## GC Jr (Jan 27, 2008)

I like the photos, but one of the things that you could've improved while you were taking these photos were to add more positive lighting. The lighting (natural sunlight, I think?) in your photo is too dull, which makes it not interesting.


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## nagoshua (Feb 5, 2008)

im no expert either but a lot of your photos are very soft and lacking in contrast and general oomph. Its a lot of money but picking up some nice studio flashes and learning how to use them will serve you well, they have helped my indoor photography come on in leaps and bounds!


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## Alex_B (Feb 6, 2008)

not really focussed, and white balance appears off.


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