Correct Exposure for Product Photography

[kelly_pierce]

<p>I've recently bought studio equipment to better my product photos for my website. I sell clothing, and I wanted to have a clean, white background. <br>

I'm not much of a studio photographer, and I am slightly new to this, but my images look all wrong. My white background has a odd pink hues and the color looks all wrong.<br>

I've done a custom white balance and the images come out all yellowish. <br>

I have the Cubelight tent with four 500W tungsten floodlights.<br>

Any advice to get me started on the right track? Should I buy a calibration target?<br>

Thanks so much in advance! </p><div></div>

[phule]

<p>This would appear to be a white balance issue. Are you manually setting the white balance on your camera or are you allowing the camera to choose? I'd recommend at the least setting it yourself, preferably a custom one.</p>

<p>Otherwise, if you're not already shooting RAW, do so and adjust the WB after the fact in your post-production software.</p>

[kelly_pierce]

<p>I tried to do a custom wb but it was all yellow. This shot is on one tusn setting on my camera. I'll keep messing around with the wb. Thanks! :)</p>

[martin_evans]

<p>I wonder whether it is something more than a straightforward white balance issue. In my experience, I would have expected white balance to produce a more greenish background, given the preponderance of pinks and reds in the dress. Is it an incorrect white balance? IE: not setting the balance for the <strong>tungsten </strong>lights?</p>

<p>Martin</p>

 

[ellis_vener_photography]

<p>Are you dimming the lights? If so don't.<br>

other issues: which camera are you using? Is it capable of outputting "raw" files instead of just JPEGS? <br>

have you ever worked with Adobe Camera Raw or Lightroom?</p>

<p>Are you willing to tackle a little light (no pun intended) color management work in the raw processing department?</p>

[john_deerfield]

<p>I might suggest hiring a professional. At least to get the bulk of your product well photographed and presented. From there you can better educate yourself on photography and add your own images. For starters, I am not sure I would be using a light tent. Pick up any mail order magazine and I might venture that at least 1/2 those clothing product shots are using split lighting. For clothing, I would want some hard light and controlled contrast. In any event, provided your camera takes otherwise "normal" images, this would be some sort of white balance issue. I would definitely do a custom white balance off a target card of some sort. If daylight balanced bulbs are available for your lights, I would use those as well. For a clean white background, your white background has to have at least the same EV as the product/subject. And the tent doesn't seem to be doing you any favors here: you can clearly see a hot spot in the upper left where a light is hitting; there appears to be a hot spot on the floor behind the dress; there are multiple shadows underneath the dress that I would think aren't desirable using a tent. </p>

<p>If it were me, I would use a seamless paper backdrop, with probably two lights on the backdrop. If you really want to get fancy, gel the backdrop to highlight the product. I would use a beauty dish on the product and control any contrast with a reflector panel. I would probably want to devise a series of shots for each product: full length, possibly front and back. And a series of details shots. And then run through each product. We do a local cake vendor and this could easily be done in an afternoon... depending on the number of products of course.</p>

[kelly_pierce]

<p>I can't afford a pro to do 300+ shots a week and I did go to college for photojournalism, it's just that this is new to me. I have a Nikon D300. I can edit the images down where they look fine, it's just that it takes time. I've never worked with Lightroom, maybe I'll look into that. </p>

[devon_mccarroll]

<p>It could be that you have a mix of lighting going on--maybe you have some room lights on at the same time you're shooting with your tungsten lights? If you have a mix of flourescent and tungsten lighting going on, for instance, your hues could all be off. Try setting your WB to Auto, and turn off all lights and darken all windows to make sure that just your flood lights are contributing to the exposure. Make sure the lights are at full power if they're adjustable. If that doesn't work, try the same scenario with your WB set to Tungsten. Try every WB setting if you need to--it can't hurt to play around with it.</p>

[john_tran14]

<p>Here is a cheap and quick solution:<br>

Use Picasa,<br>

Go Tuning take the WB drop and drop on the background.<br>

Then raise some contrast (use autocontrast) and<br>

increase Highlight (in Tuning tab)</p><div></div>

[szrimaging]

<p>Get two white coffee filters and do the following:<br>

Take the two filters and cover the end of the lens. Now set the camera to Apreture Priority and choose any apreture you want. Point the lens at the brightest light source and take a picture (out of focus is just fine). Now look in your camera's manual and see how you can use an image to set your white balance. Set the white balance using that image you just shot.</p>

<p>If I had to guess, the light tent is causing an additional tint as you are shooting through it.</p>

<p>Oh, and use RAW if possible. Huge advantage when WB is critical.</p>

[Alan Marcus]

<p>Kelly, what you need is a gray card. You should search the internet or better, go to a large camera shop and purchase a gray card. You use the gray card by temporally placing it on the subject (clothing). Take your readings from this card, remove the card, take the shot. You will be surprised at the improvement.</p>

<p>As to your lamps. Replace the bulbs with photo grade light bulbs. You can get this on the web or at a large photo store. If you can't find photo lamps get bulbs designed for use in enlargers. Carful, don't exceed the lamp wattage ratting, if you system came with 100 watt lamps, replace with photo grade with the same or nearly the same ratting.</p>

<p>Also turn off all other lamps in the room. Photo grade lamps output light that is a little bluer than household lamps. Likely, your key mistake was allowing mixed lighting to make the exposure. Likely you best setting will be tungsten with photo grade light bulbs.</p>

<p>Good luck,<br>

A tip of the hat to Zach Ritter, his method works also.</p>

[szrimaging]

<p>To expand on Alan's comments on the gray card, here is what I was taught in college.</p>

<p>Take a shot with the gray card, then take a shot without the gray card. Now take the shot with the gray card into Photoshop. Use either the curves or levels adjustment and use the middle gray eye dropper on the card. Now you save the curves or levels settings. Open up the next image and use create another levels or curves adjustment on it. Apply the settings from the image with the gray card.</p>

[john_deerfield]

 

<blockquote>

<p>I've never worked with Lightroom, maybe I'll look into that.</p>

 

</blockquote>

<p>Lightroom is NOT a solution. It may help "fix" subpar images, but that certainly shouldn't be your goal. Does the "fixed" image make you want to buy the dress? 300+ shots/week! Well, working with what you have, I would gel the tungsten lights (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=CTB&N=0&InitialSearch=ye) to at least get a daylight balance. I would make sure that NO other lights are on during the actual time of the exposure. I would do a custom white-balance under the lighting conditions you will be using. Beyond that, as I outlined before, I am not so sure a tent is the right solution. I would be using a white paper backdrop. Actually, I would be using black and colored gels to suit!</p>

 

<p> </p>

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[mariosforsos]

<p>By the way, I was recently teaching people from a clothing company to shoot studio full body shots for their e-shop. They had a similar setup and, initially, the shots were coming up fine. All of a sudden, a full crop of them came out exactly like your original one. The problem was dual: first, of course, white balance, and second, they were shooting, accidentally, in JPEG.</p>

<p>As it was a rushed job, we did not spend any serious time on WB training, but we had decided to shoot everything in RAW, with a 18% grey card in the frame for reference, and use LR's mass correction abilities to corrent everything in post. Once we returned the setting in the preferred setting, everything worked wonderfully and produced both accurate whites and good colours.</p>

[kelly_pierce]

<p>John, Zach and Marios: Thank you! Thanks for the tips. I was thinking to myself, 'duh! kelly!'<br>

I will try out those tips and keep tweeking this. Thank you guys so much for your time! *off to buy a gray card*</p>

[mart_e]

<p>Just as a slight aside regards a Light Tent. I have used one for jewelry photos and 'out of the box' set up caused a slight red-shift in colour, maybe not as exaggerated as the example you showed though.</p>

<p>We got round it by initially using a grey card to get a sample shot, then using batch processing (in photoshop or Capture NX) to white balance / colour shift a correction. The batch processing was really workable because the colour shift was constant.</p>

<p>A more permanent solution was to ditch using the light tent (which only rarley gets a run out now) and use a combination of natural light / reflector and flash against natural backgrounds.</p>

<p>Good luck,<br /> Martin</p>

[r._nelson]

<p>Hi Kelly.</p>

<p>I am following this thread, and use strobes (studio flash) to shoot products, including clothing. How are making out with your color problems?</p>

<p>Also, I have several questions for you. </p>

<p>1. You said you are using a light tent (suitable to small products, yes), yet I see a picture of a full-length dress. So you're obviously not using the tent for the dress, correct?! ;-)</p>

<p>2. Can you please tell us, how many lights are you using for the sample photo you posted? Where are they placed (distances, etc)?</p>

<p>3. If you are using constant-on "continuous" lighting kit (I think you said you were), what is the wattage for each lamp/bulb, and what type... incandescent or florescent? Is it possible you have two different type bulbs in your lighting setup? If so, it will cause problems.</p>

<p>4. Are there other lights ON in the room you are shooting in, and is there any other light source/s spilling onto your subject?</p>

<p>5. What software are you using to manage/develop your images? Does your image look "off" when viewing it from the camera's LCD screen, or only when viewing on your computer screen?</p>

<p>I'm just wondering if, in the effort to help, we didn't ask for more information with which to help you most effectively.</p>

<p>Best regards,</p>

<p>Randy</p>