Advice on lighting a product

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Colin_Mac

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Colin
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Hello,

I am a new member. I enjoy photography but have limited experience and a basic camera. I am seeking advice on how best to photograph a particular product I want to sell online. The products are mounted prints of original paintings by an artist friend. I have attached a couple of images that are my best results so far. I am posting this in the lighting forum because I feel sure lighting is key to me achieving better results. The mounted prints in the images I have attached are 10" x 8". I may wish to photo some that are up to 16" x 12".
My camera is a Fuji X100S. I know it has limitations, but it takes great shots and I don't want to buy another camera. For the attached images I used natural light at an open doorway. I do have a budget for lighting for this project. Let’s say £300 for starters. Can anyone suggest a lighting setup that might give me attractive photos of this product for that sort of budget? I have a couple of tripods. Is there a Light Box that anyone recommends that would take up to 16" x 12"?
Lighting aside, For the attached images I used a tripod and had the camera set on the (idiot proof) program mode. I did increase the exposure. For the subject I have described would anyone have recommendations for adjusting the camera settings? I am wondering if White Balance adjustments would make a difference.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions. I will let you know how I get on.

Cheers, Colin.
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It's a simple job to photograph this type of flat artwork.

You need two light sources, one each side of the subject. Each light will need to fitted with a softbox that's at least as large as the subject (but most are much bigger than that anyway, so not a problem)

Each light needs to be arranged so that the light travels across the subject at an angle of about 45 degrees. Each light needs to be at the same distance and not too close to the subject - something like 1 metre away from it will be enough to ensure that the lighting is very even. And that's it.

In a perfect world, your subject would be laid flat on a table but it may be easier for you to fix these products to a wall instead, unless you have a lot of them to photograph in a batch.

You can of course use LED lights for this, and a lot of beginners like them because they seem to be easy to use, but flash is easier and better, the big problem with LED lights is that they cannot reproduce all colours accurately, and flash doesn't have that problem, and accurate colour reproduction will obviously be important with your products.

This kit would be perfect, https://www.lencarta.com/lencarta-smartflash-4-600ws-lighting-kit-with-2-softboxes-300-300 other makes are also available
 
here ya go:
www.ebay.co.uk

2x Godox SK300II Studio Strobe Flash Light Head +Trigger+Softbox+Light Stand Kit 602938083379 | eBay

<li> Model: Godox SK300II *2</li> <li>Max. power: 300WS</li> <li>Guide No.(m ISO 100): 65</li> <li>Color temperature: 5600+/-200k</li> <li>Power output control: OFF, 1.0~3.0?1/8-1/1)</li> <li>Modeling lamp: 150W</li> <li>Modeling lamp level: 9 levels(L1 to L9)</li> <li>Rycle time: 0.1-1s</li>...
www.ebay.co.uk

everything you need lighting wise, no after sales support (that'd up the cost) and the light stands aren't the best - but it's a great start that'll do exactly as Garry has suggested above.
 
Thanks Garry for the great advice, and Phil for the link. I have bought the Godox kit. Maybe not as good as the Lencarta but a lot easier on my pocket. I feel sure that with your advice and with other help I can find on this forum I will achieve the results I hope for.
 
Colin_Mac said:
Thanks Garry for the great advice, and Phil for the link. I have bought the Godox kit. Maybe not as good as the Lencarta but a lot easier on my pocket. I feel sure that with your advice and with other help I can find on this forum I will achieve the results I hope for.
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You'll be fine with that kit, and I don't blame you for going for the cheaper option. As long as it doesn't go wrong (no after-sales service) the saving will make sense.

In reality, those softboxes are terrible and are unsuitable for most uses, but as long as you only use them for photographing your flat artwork they'll be fine. And the stands are poor too, but as you will hardly ever need to adjust them with your kind of work, again they'll be fine

You now have all the info you need, it's a very simple lighting arrangement and a very simple process. What matters here is consistency, so just make sure that each softbox is at exactly the same distance and at exactly the same angle as the other, and that each flash is at exactly the same power. And make sure that every time you do another shoot, everything is exactly the same.
 
Just to say thanks again for the advice. I am delighted with the results I am getting using the Godox kit recommended. And really great value for money. I still have much experimenting and learning to do but I attach the same artwork I had photographed in natural light above, now taken with the new strobe lights and softbox. To me the colours are clearly more vibrant.
bhare.jpg
 
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It's always a good idea to include a grey card or grey scale and colour checker as a reference in post-processing to ensure consistently accurate colour and exposure. It will make your life easier and guard against potential complaints from customers so you can say with confidence that the problem is their monitor and not your input.

Having said that, once you've got it right and always use the identical set-up, it shouldn't change.
 
Colin_Mac said:
To me the colours are clearly more vibrant.
Click to expand...
TBH, the colors are more vibrant/different partly because the white balance/edit is quite different.
This is the original natural light image with a quick edit for white point/black point (white balance). Not saying the lights weren't a good investment, they were... just that color management/editing is also significant.


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I'm very impressed by that Steven. Thanks. Probably moving off "lighting" topic, but I guess good photography is about combining skills!
 
Colin_Mac said:
I'm very impressed by that Steven. Thanks. Probably moving off "lighting" topic, but I guess good photography is about combining skills!
Click to expand...
It's not really off topic. All light (almost) has a color tint to it which shifts the colors objects reflect; but out brains tend to correct for that automatically at the moment... our brains have an automatic white balance adjustment built in which makes things we know/expect to be white be perceived as as white (for example)... you can learn to turn that off just by paying close/conscious attention to colors.

Camera's also have an automatic white balance, but it gets things wrong sometimes. Luckily, that can be turned off as well (for example, by setting the WB to "flash" for use with your strobes). Or it can be corrected for in post by using a reference color checker/grey card Hoppy mentioned (best if the image is recorded in raw).
 
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