Food and Product Photography

Posted on May 9, 2022 by Doug Simon

Food product photography is fascinating. Take a pile of grains, seeds or powder and find the best arrangement of the pile. How to sprinkle just the right amount of spread, where to stop the bulk of product and control powder spillage is critical. Stacking the chunky ingredients begins with balancing the chunks, then rearranging to create the visual look of the interesting sides and of course the crumbs. It takes a fair amount of time to get some test shots for the client to choose from. There is a beauty in ingredients!

Equipment Used:
Canon 5d Mark III
Canon Macro Lens EF100mm f/2.8
Multiple Softboxes
Multiple Gradients
paper funnels, small brushes

Food Product Styling

Gemstone Photography and Composite

Posted on May 9, 2022 by Doug Simon

The annual Gemstone Show was back with its regular month schedule for February 2022!

Our client wanted a layout with raw turquoise stones, the caliper and a polished stone, but with some sort of staging. We suggested using a stock background as a great affordable choice to create a wow factor for website photography. The original stock image provided the texture and grit; and photo editing layered on eye catching dimension. We shot a catalog of turquoise gemstones, but the lighting for the unprocessed turquoise and caliper required lighting adjustment and filtering.

Equipment Used:
Canon 5d Mark III
Canon Macro Lens EF100mm f/2.8
Multiple Softboxes
Multiple Gradients

Jewelry Photographer in Tucson

Posted on October 15, 2021 by Doug Simon

Product on white photography is at its best when jewelry is the object. The gorgeous reflective surfaces create light magic on their own. Adding photographic lighting which is then manipulated to capture the most interesting reflection is the fun part. Every nuance of the camera changes the drama. That also makes it one of the most challenging product photography sessions. So many choices!

…and waiting until the necklace stops swinging!
Canon 5D Mark III
Canon Macro Lens EF100mm f/2.8
Softbox with gradient
Rotolight
Back lit

Product Branding Photography

Posted on August 2, 2021 by Doug Simon

Product logos are an investment and well thought out. As your business grows your logo becomes your brand (think old western movies). When expanding your advertising into merchandise your photography needs change a little. For our health supplement client the next step was t-shirts, hoodies, totes and facial masks.

While the lighting tools are the same the configuration of the light sources and modifiers changes substantially. We still used one softbox for continuous lighting, scrims to direct light and foam core for bounce. Shot using a Canon 24-70mm lens and a Canon 5d Mark 3 camera.

Gemstone Jewelry Photography

Posted on July 29, 2021 by Doug Simon

Jewelry photography requires a lot of time for trial and adjustment. Gemstones are often translucent so the lighting is critical to capture the many shades and the way the human eye will perceive it when worn. Manipulating the backlighting is key coupled with light modifiers to direct the light.

No flash was used. The difficulty in photographing jewelry is the highly reflective surfaces. With more stones and beveled cuts the number of reflections multiply. We used one softbox for continuous lighting, scrims to create gradients and foam core for bounce. Shooting an entire product line with few “like-products” requires a new setup for each piece.

Shot using a Canon f2.8 100mm Macro lens and a Canon 5D Mark 3 camera.

Car Detailing Tool – Product Photography

Posted on December 29, 2020 by Doug Simon

This was a fun product shoot. All the tiny and large attachments of this car detailing set needed to highlight how the tools and attachments are used. A show and tell project!

It’s helpful to have a gorgeous car’s paint job for the background. Any product staging or styling demands planning and set-up is always lengthy. There is no such thing as “an easy shoot”. The results are worth it. Once the car was in place all dust had to be removed, and monitored as we moved equipment around. Tarps we hung on the walls to help minimize reflective lighting interfering with our lighting.

Angling the softbox for the right bounce is the fun part!
These were all shot with 1 softbox, using a Canon 24-70mm lens.

Health Food Bottles – Product on White

Posted on December 29, 2020 by Doug Simon

Dark glass bottles shot on white background are a challenge. (The largest bottle above is plastic.) The goal is to manipulate a soft subtle reflection on the face of the glass. Backlight was critical to bring out the depth of the bottle without blowing it out. The backlight had to be focused and controlled. We shot 90 products in a range of sizes all light modifiers had to be adjusted for each size and shape.

We used no flash, multiple diffusers, continuous lighting, 100mm 2.8 Canon Macro lens and one softbox.

Product Photography on White with Multiple Angles

Posted on August 20, 2019 by Doug Simon

Some products are just gorgeous due to their exterior surface. This diamond pattern is lovely! The reflective nature is the tough part about photographing this product. Our client is launching a new product line with two sizes of this unit. They also wanted to show the quality of craftsmanship, details and a product styled use image.

Product styling always sounds simple: Grab some items and stack them inside. The last thing you want for your product is distraction from the unit. In this case we discussed colors of soda, lid options, choice of cans, what to put on the top rack, position of the labels and making sure everything was “balanced” to the eye–and keep these items from moving/rolling. Attention to detail pays off in a well laid out composition and the product “shines”. In this case–it always shines!

Reflective products (glass, metal, jewelry, high gloss acrylic products) offer challenges. Once the lighting is in place-then you begin to block out reflections you don’t want – inclusive of the photographer in the product. Controlling the light to not blow out the high reflection, yet show off that very shiny surface we all love. The diamond metal pattern here controlled some of the typical hot spots. We were also able to make use of massive overhead natural lighting and several white reflectors to obtain an even product surface look. Working all of the elements together takes a lot of time. We spend more time setting up a shot, than shooting, typically. Shooting multiple angles meant repositioning everything (continuous lighting, white reflectors, c-stands, every clothes pin and re-taping) with each change of angle, and the second unit.

When you’re selling online any product photography should include an all-the-parts shot, manuals included. Let prospective clients know what’s in the box. We’ve also been asked to edit the photos adding the dimensions for clients. Make it easy for people to buy your product!

Continuous Lighting
Natural Lighting
White Reflectors
Canon 24-70mm 2.8 Lens
Canon 100mm 2.8 Macro Lens

How Do I Stage My Product?

Posted on May 6, 2019 by Doug Simon

Cabin Decor

You have a great product and you’ve got your product on white shots, but you need that one great shot-often referred to as a “hero” shot for your Amazon product page. Even with minimal equipment you can maximize your composition to stage your product.

This rustic cabin decor lamp with painted shade and metal art; and small wood carvings against a tongue and groove wood wall serves as the canvas to creating more dramatic photography. This is your stage and these are the basic elements to arrange as you look for the shot you’re after. This isn’t about being quick-it takes time and a lot of shots. Beyond arranging what you see through the lens you’ll change up the shutter speed and focal length for a wide range of variables to find that end shot.

Cabin Decorating Theme
Turns out less is more. Rustic Cabin Hallway
Adding a floral stem to the very foreground adds shadow and depth. The focus is clearly on the cabin lamp with the floral having the bokeh. This is using a very slow shutter speed and wide open aperture (2.8).

Bokeh
Here the focus is reversed-bringing the floral into focus maintaining the same slow shutter speed and aperture. This might work for a backdrop image for marketing text while you still display your product.

Cabin Rustic Decor
The experimenting continues, same lens settings, but rearranging the floral, playing with the light. This, too, can be a nice backdrop drawing the eye to the foreground where you might add your marketing message for a website slider.

Rustic Cabin Decor on Tongue and Groove paneling

Then often you come full circle to include parts of several variations of your composition. This used the same settings, pulled in the wood carvings and feathered the floral to a wider angle for a beautifully balanced and bokehed rustic cabin decor photograph. This gives a lovely staging while highlighting the lamp and giving a vision of how it will look and feeling it creates once brought into the buyer’s home.

Canon Lens EF70-200mm f/2.8L USM
Slow Exposure 0.3 seconds
Rotolight to spot

Amazon Product Photographer

Posted on April 30, 2019 by Doug Simon

Amazon Product Size Reference

Product photography on Amazon has required the product’s background to be pure white with a hex number of 255, 255, 255. This is still standard, but Amazon has broadened product images to include lifestyle photos and staging shots. These allow the seller to show their product in a setting it will be used (staging image) or a person interacting with the product (lifestyle image).
Camaro Product Staging
Our client needed his very small hidden camera in a staging setting, where from a distance it is unlikely to be easily seen and in multiple settings to show its diversity. In addition to stating the measurements in his product details he wanted a visual reference to show the size of his camera. For this purpose, he chose a silver dollar (top image).
Product Staging with Inset

The product and interior staging shots photos were shot using a Canon 100mm 2.8 macro lens with continuous fluorescent lighting. The exterior auto staged photo was shot with natural light, angling the car for optimum use of sunlight.

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Category Archives: Product Photography