Beginner Help with product photography (led lights)

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Can someone please help regarding taking product photography of led lights. When we are trying to take the pictures using the iPhone 15 pro max of the led lights, we are getting consistent interference on the screen.

Could someone please advise how can we avoid this. Do we need to use a professional dslr camera so that we can take photos and videos without any interference? If yes which camera should we buy?

Thank you
 
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What do you mean by interference. Can you post am example image showing the issue so we can perhaps advise better?

Thanks
 
LED lights are rarely "just on" - to reduce power consumption they're often essentially flashing... The key is to have a shutter time that is at least twice the on/off time.
 
billgatese30 said:
What do you mean by interference. Can you post am example image showing the issue so we can perhaps advise better?

Thanks
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Hi,

Thank you for your reply. Please see below the image links, all these images are taken by an iPhone 15 pro max. Do we need to invest in a professional camera to get better results?

You can see the image links below and you can see there is too much glare and wee cant see the actual product and the colour.



ibb.co

Screenshot-2024-04-02-at-01-04-54 hosted at ImgBB

Image Screenshot-2024-04-02-at-01-04-54 hosted in ImgBB
ibb.co ibb.co



ibb.co

Screenshot-2024-04-02-at-01-05-56 hosted at ImgBB

Image Screenshot-2024-04-02-at-01-05-56 hosted in ImgBB
ibb.co ibb.co


ibb.co

Screenshot-2024-04-02-at-01-07-01 hosted at ImgBB

Image Screenshot-2024-04-02-at-01-07-01 hosted in ImgBB
ibb.co ibb.co


ibb.co

Screenshot-2024-04-02-at-01-07-48 hosted at ImgBB

Image Screenshot-2024-04-02-at-01-07-48 hosted in ImgBB
ibb.co ibb.co

Video

View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/m6PCpCnlt5A


you can see the lines coming on the iPhone screen. is there any way we can avoid this from happening when using a professional camera?
 
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hunnymonster said:
LED lights are rarely "just on" - to reduce power consumption they're often essentially flashing... The key is to have a shutter time that is at least twice the on/off time.
Click to expand...

I normally use the company iphone to take pictures and videos to upload to the website, would you recommend using a professional camera? if yes then which one?

Thank you
 
F6teen said:
I normally use the company iphone to take pictures and videos to upload to the website, would you recommend using a professional camera? if yes then which one?

Thank you
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for product shots, especially of items that are emitting light in some way, I'd always recommend using some kind of camera that you can

a) regulate the shutter speed easily
b) slow down the shutter speed under manual control
c) in order to get a sharp image under the above contraints, a camera thats capable of being mounted on a sturdy tripod and ideally triggered remotely.

now - I don't use cameraphones for anything other than happy snaps and record shots when I'm out and about, but I've been doing "product photography" off and on since the early 1980's. For me, as a minimum i'd be looking at either a SLR or Mirrorless equivalent camera to fulfil the above criteria. Not sure if i'd call it a "professional camera" though - hell something like a canon EOS450 which was an entry level SLR camera 15 years ago would do a passable job in the right hands.

In fact, the whole phrase "professional camera" is probably something it avoid - because it's probably going to mean different things to everyone on this forum :)

To a Sports Photographer, its going to mean a camera body (or two/three) that's about £5000 each and probably the same again in long reach, wide aperture lenses. To a product photographer it could well mean a Digital Medium Format Camera and a tethered shooting setup thats upwards of £20k, OR it could mean the above mentioned 15 year old entry level SLR camera that's just been setup on the same tripod in front of the same white backdrop for the past 10 years, banging out 50 white background images for ebay every week...

Basically, I think what I'm saying is really - it's not about the camera, it's about the person standing behind it - there's no substitute for knowledge as to how to take the pictures - and I can't imagine that a modern iphone won't have some form of camera app that gives complete control of the hardware - it's more about knowing how to do about taking the shots, and how to make the camera (whichever camera you end up using) do what you need to do.

I'll leave filling in the details to other members at this point - as I'm sure there'll be someone on here that can help with more specifics on the hardware you're using.
 
oh - BTW, your image hosting WILL allow adding pictures directly rather than just url links - i've added the first of your images as an embedded photo for your reference...

Reason i'm mentioning this is you'll find certain members will NOT click on links to external websites, so you'll get more/better feedback if you embed the actual image.
 
Marks advice is good, I'd just add product shots are often "faked" several shots combined, maybe one exposure with the lights off combined with another at a different exposure with them on to show the leds with less glare.
Food photos are another item commonly faked.
 
So, the product is LED strips?

With the greatest possible respect, your photos don't show what it is, what it does, what it's for or why someone should buy yours rather than someone else's . . .
Some of this may be because YOU know the answers to these questions and so you haven't addressed them, there is also the fact that that product photography is really all about a combination of marketing and lighting skills and partly because of the limitations of your phone camera - there isn't a simple answer.

But, phone cameras are really designed for snapshots and record shots, not for anything more technical, and as @Honey Monster pointed out, LED lights cycle on and off, probably at the rate of around 50 cycles per second, so you need a shutter speed of no longer than 1/25th second to avoid problems caused by one-and-a-bit cycles - can you adjust the shutter speed on your phone camera? You can on almost every "real" camera.

Secondly, the cameras on phones are extremely basic, but they have very advanced software that (for snapshots) compensates for the camera limitations. My guess is that this software is making adjustments that you don't need and don't want. It may or may not be possible to import the photos in raw format on to your computer and to then make the right adjustments, but it would be easier, quicker and probably much better to use an ordinary camera, although you will still need some computer work.

Then there's the lighting challenge. This shot is a good example
Screenshot-2024-04-02-at-01-07-48.jpg
What's needed here is external lighting (flash is the preferred choice) to (effectively) balance the light from the actual product. And, without that external lighting, you simply can't get a decent shot. Some improvements can be made on computer, but if we polish a turd it's still a turd:(

swanseamale47 said:
Marks advice is good, I'd just add product shots are often "faked" several shots combined, maybe one exposure with the lights off combined with another at a different exposure with them on to show the leds with less glare.
Food photos are another item commonly faked.
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As above, you may be able to achieve something better by combining photos of the product switched on and switched off, but the real answer lies in a combination of the right equipment and the right knowledge.

EDIT: This may help https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/tutorials/photography-for-amazon-ebay.157/ The product here aren't LED, but just like your product, they emit their own light.
 
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As Garry says, flash to balance the light would be beneficial. Controlling your sbutter speed will help with the banding in the image, go to the "pro" settings on the iPhone camera and you will be able to adjust it. Lower it down to 1/25 or less and see if that helps with that problem.
 
F6teen said:
Can someone please help regarding taking product photography of led lights. When we are trying to take the pictures using the iPhone 15 pro max of the led lights, we are getting consistent interference on the screen.

Could someone please advise how can we avoid this. Do we need to use a professional dslr camera so that we can take photos and videos without any interference? If yes which camera should we buy?

Thank you
Click to expand...
I'd ask someone from the local camera club to come and do it for you one weekend with their equipment and pay the person a couple of hundred quid.
 
Fixer said:
I'd ask someone from the local camera club to come and do it for you one weekend with their equipment and pay the person a couple of hundred quid.
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With all due respect; the idea that someone at the OP’s local camera club could navigate this is a bit of a stretch.

I could have predicted the members here who could give the right answer to this, and it’d maybe stretch to a couple of dozen, out of a regular membership of thousands.

Notwithstanding that a pro would charge not a lot more than ‘a couple of hundred quid’ and be guaranteed to get a result.


The
 
As someone who’s purchased similar products in the past, I’d suggest (and Garry touched on it) going back to ‘what am I trying to achieve’ rather than rushing head first into a problem.

I wanted to know what the item looked like, and the best way to see that is to see it on the reel unlit.

Then the ‘nice to have’ images are the ‘lifestyle’ shots, what’s it look like lighting my kitchen, glass cabinet etc.

Both those shots are a piece of cake to take with a phone, but the 2nd requires a bit more setting up.
 
Phil V said:
As someone who’s purchased similar products in the past, I’d suggest (and Garry touched on it) going back to ‘what am I trying to achieve’ rather than rushing head first into a problem.

I wanted to know what the item looked like, and the best way to see that is to see it on the reel unlit.

Then the ‘nice to have’ images are the ‘lifestyle’ shots, what’s it look like lighting my kitchen, glass cabinet etc.

Both those shots are a piece of cake to take with a phone, but the 2nd requires a bit more setting up.
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(My bold). I disagree, in my view these are not the "nice to have" shots, they are the essential ones that will sell the product. Apart from the seller, who cares what the product looks like? Nobody does, what people care about is what the product will do for them, so if people are going to use it to light their kitchen, glass cabinet or whatever, it's those lifestyle shots that will persuade them to buy it.

Showing it on the reel is also necessary, because if you're selling it online then you need to make it very clear that they're going to get a reel of the product and not an illuminated glass cabinet, but of course the photo of the reel doesn't need to be illuminated.

And maybe show a strip of the stuff too, complete with measurement of the width. I assume that it's self-adhesive, in which case you need a photo showing the rear, which again doesn't need to be illuminated. In fact, the only shots that need to show it switched on are the lifestyle shots, which will make the photography much easier.

Look at a lot of different eBay and Amazon listings for both similar and very different products, you'll see that everyone else adopts this approach, and also keeps text to a minimum, and shows measurements in their photos, and there's a reason for this:) for example https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/174237205908?itmmeta=01HTFDPX4XD2VSDRZ3NH1FJTP2&hash=item289158c594:g:MU0AAOSwWMRgSyiT&itmprp=enc:AQAJAAAA0LpccLJ7iyvj/Yju2+3SU8ITAkbvqdp10IHu6KX41C4XgQIamBNvmPVJRz4Wzfi4dnFpYMcuRSo1gVRMn44MF5lpbFOgqco6n4L8OYNUZ--ZycsVvRgIfUgLaMFoy3tlnEVAZGMwNfbaNpWJ4nJS+b8Y7yA9I6iJF2V/alU9XQdN4Nx44gzjz26CNuW/293Z7nObX3gvaSDrGnWzlwn/0mhoTC6Gt/HsI/nJVJN5lxmdNTd7xa2pdVi/Jn22P7GufMrNkq2nLemitwS8CM97T3k=|tkp:Bk9SR-bS2-3TYw

or https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/325658754664?itmmeta=01HTFDPX4X4XQ265NBX8CA2RR5&hash=item4bd2c63e68:g:W4IAAOSwIxVkZKS1&itmprp=enc:AQAJAAAA0Iy/dCbVrf83I9CQcsRJzTzxiDATy/36h2ET3f8AX3YqPumwDUdBDcEO4Yk2r7Y1d7ENR5bGyCx4kV/RPU+tACourbV44MkkzcNBws3tY/GtRyTuIjM9JQF39nDed6R4C9TEIspQcJwZ74O3GnQes804xJkYck7qNusicIqeMRuC/2ihzO7FLJe4ekQO6lByBe217Cdi0LPtugSb/6dAxctDBY2niZWwCjcm5Xg0qnG7A4309P/TFfXI1RHqakUCoQKr1+CQ+rx92uAwM9D/Jsc=|tkp:Bk9SR-jS2-3TYw
Phil V said:
With all due respect; the idea that someone at the OP’s local camera club could navigate this is a bit of a stretch.

I could have predicted the members here who could give the right answer to this, and it’d maybe stretch to a couple of dozen, out of a regular membership of thousands.

Notwithstanding that a pro would charge not a lot more than ‘a couple of hundred quid’ and be guaranteed to get a result.


The
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Agreed. Camera clubs often have people who are highly skilled in landscape, portrait and similar genres of photography, but people who are expert in product photography may be rare. And anyway, what you need is someone who understands marketing as well as photography, so you either need to have that understanding yourself or you need to hire a specialised product photographer.
 
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I don’t want to hire a professional photographer as we have so many products so hiring a professional photographer is out of question.

Now can someone recommend a solution. Which camera to buy and which lens to buy?

I hope to get some experience playing with the camera because the aim is not to take the best pictures for the national geographic channel but just simple product photography and videos.

So far we have managed excellent results using a simple iPhone pro max camera, however, we are getting some ideas taking pictures with some coloured LEDs.

Thank you
 
You forgot to say please.

If you think the answer's in which camera and lens to buy then you need to learn photography first.

Especially the art of lighting (fill, main, rim etc.) Lit background or not?

Learn the exposure triangle and any modern camera and kit lens will suffice (and be far superior to any cameraphone).
 
GreenNinja67 said:
You forgot to say please.

If you think the answer's in which camera and lens to buy then you need to learn photography first.

Especially the art of lighting (fill, main, rim etc.) Lit background or not?

Learn the exposure triangle and any modern camera and kit lens will suffice (and be far superior to any cameraphone).
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Please with sugar on top.

Working in my previous company, our marketing guy just used a cannon mark 2 camera without any photography experience. And uploaded the pictures to the website with some tweaks and those pictures were brilliant.
 
F6teen said:
Please with sugar on top.

Working in my previous company, our marketing guy just used a cannon mark 2 camera without any photography experience. And uploaded the pictures to the website with some tweaks and those pictures were brilliant.
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You've just answered your own question.

Call him.
 
F6teen said:
The person has left that place now
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Ah ok.

Then if he had good results from a Canon mk2 (probably a 5D MK2) get one of those. Quite cheap secondhand

As for lens, maybe a macro lens if you're photographing really close or a 24-105 F4L lens if not.
 
GreenNinja67 said:
You forgot to say please.

If you think the answer's in which camera and lens to buy then you need to learn photography first.

Especially the art of lighting (fill, main, rim etc.) Lit background or not?

Learn the exposure triangle and any modern camera and kit lens will suffice (and be far superior to any cameraphone).
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I think that the camera choice is the least important of your decisions. My beginner book "Learn Photography" https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CFB2TX6R recommends a DSLR that's a few years old, and I think that's the right advice for you, more modern and more expensive cameras do have some advantages but those advantages will make zero difference for this type of photography, and the same applies to the lens, which doesn't need to be anything special when only used for internet sites. The camera really should be a DSLR, and it must be capable of being used in manual settings, and that's about it. Having said that, older cameras either can't produce the video that you mentioned or can't produce good video, but video can be produced on your phone if necessary.

What really does matter is your approach, knowledge and level of care, plus lighting. And while I'm blatantly advertising my own products (all sales of which go direct to a charity) I suggest that you spend a whole £5.99 on my "Product Photography Magic" book, https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07PM95HZM, which incidentally recommends that most businesses do their own product photography. one of the reasons for that recommendation is that it can be very difficult to find a good product photographer and, as a retired product photographer, I can tell you that they aren't cheap either.
 
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There are four factors to consider:

1. Camera. Probably the least difficult to decide as most modern digital SLR's or mirrorless cameras should be able to tackle the job. Newer ones will do video as well.

2. Lens. If you are taking photographs of small objects you'll probably need a macro lens which has the advantage being able to focus close to a subject, which may be ideal for small objects. If they're really tiny things, you'll need something a little more niche.

3. Lighting. You'll probably need some sort of lighting system. Studio flashes are relatively inexpensive. If you envisage video (some, but not all dSLR's can shoot video), you'll need continuous lighting instead or as well.

subset of 3 - you'll need to think about backgrounds, tripods and what lighting people call "modifiers"

4. Skills. You'll have to learn about photography, but also product photography and editing. Garry's books mentioned above are worth reading.


What's the budget and does everything have to be new?
 
Would a Beauty Dish help? . . . (I am joking !!! - but it might lol !!!)
 
Fixer said:
Is that a Purdey in your avatar :p ?
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No, because I wasn't expensive:) It's a Browning, but I wore it out and now shoot a Benelli M2, hit 41 on Saturday. And, getting back on topic, that score needed lots of experience and a degree of knowledge and care . . .
shotgun_2.jpg
 
F6teen said:
I don’t want to hire a professional photographer as we have so many products so hiring a professional photographer is out of question.

Now can someone recommend a solution. Which camera to buy and which lens to buy?

I hope to get some experience playing with the camera because the aim is not to take the best pictures for the national geographic channel but just simple product photography and videos.

So far we have managed excellent results using a simple iPhone pro max camera, however, we are getting some ideas taking pictures with some coloured LEDs.

Thank you
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Pretty much any fairly recent (last 10 years) DSLR or the newer mirrorless cameras will do what you need. Sadly it's not quite that simple. You'd need to learn how the camera works and learn the lighting needed, and more than likely photoshop for editing the photos as well.
Product photography might look easy, and sometimes it can be easy. In your case it's a bit of a harder subject, which will require a bit of time and effort. The fact your product lights up makes it worse.
You've chosen a tricky subject to start on.
 
swanseamale47 said:
Pretty much any fairly recent (last 10 years) DSLR or the newer mirrorless cameras will do what you need. Sadly it's not quite that simple. You'd need to learn how the camera works and learn the lighting needed, and more than likely photoshop for editing the photos as well.
Product photography might look easy, and sometimes it can be easy. In your case it's a bit of a harder subject, which will require a bit of time and effort. The fact your product lights up makes it worse.
You've chosen a tricky subject to start on.
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The sensible option here is to outsource the photography as good advice has been freely given but you think all you need is a good camera.

Not being rude but when several people suggest the same thing and you ignore it it gets a little boring.


In a nutshell, it isn't an easy task for someone who knows what they're doing. And bloody hard for someone just starting out.
 
It's a complex job that requires a fair bit of equipment and setup let alone the vision of final graphic design. With all due respect it is time to get professionals on the job
 
swanseamale47 said:
Pretty much any fairly recent (last 10 years) DSLR or the newer mirrorless cameras will do what you need. Sadly it's not quite that simple. You'd need to learn how the camera works and learn the lighting needed, and more than likely photoshop for editing the photos as well.
Product photography might look easy, and sometimes it can be easy. In your case it's a bit of a harder subject, which will require a bit of time and effort. The fact your product lights up makes it worse.
You've chosen a tricky subject to start on.
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My bold. It's a bit harder because the product emits light, but photographing light-emitting products simply means photographing it with flash, and setting the correct length of shutter speed needed to show the required amount of emitted light, which is simply trial and error. And anyway, as previously discussed, they shouldn't even be photographed when switched on, except for the lifestyle shots.
LongLensPhotography said:
It's a complex job that requires a fair bit of equipment and setup let alone the vision of final graphic design. With all due respect it is time to get professionals on the job
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I respect that viewpoint, but I've trained loads of people to do their own product photography, and every one of my trainees has made a success of it. They don't become skilled product photographers, which needs a lot of equipment and years of experience plus a good understanding of physics, but it's relatively easy to become very good at photographing just one type of product. As for equipment, a simple studio lighting kit, a second-hand camera plus all the bits will only be around £1000, which is far less than a good product photographer will charge for one day.
 
F6teen said:
Thank you all for your advise. It looks like I need to get a dslr camera and get a product photography class.
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Don't forget the 2 books that Gary linked in post #22 - Honestly, if there's ANYONE on this forum that you need to be taking notice of regarding product photography it's Gary.

but please, when you do start into this - come back and share your shots - there's no substitute for helpful critique from a few skilled experts if you want to improve quickly.
 
F6teen said:
Thank you all for your advise. It looks like I need to get a dslr camera and get a product photography class.
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Honestly: the camera and lens are the easy part. I could shoot this with a £50 DSLR and a £60 lens.

I would want some lighting though, which adds about another £500 (bargain hunting you could get it for less if you know what you’re looking for s/h).

And if that sounds like a lot of money, then as Garry says, check a day rate for a photographer:)

And you’ll not easily find a ‘course’ for exactly what you need, but Garry’s books are a great investment.

And genuinely; have a go and come back here for help.

You might genuinely believe this has been unhelpful. But you’re asking experts and they genuinely want to help.

I appreciate it’s difficult when you have a pre-formed opinion and you ask people’s advice. When the initial reaction is to shoot down your assumption, it’s easy to get defensive.

Just say you’re interested and I’ll post some links to stuff you could buy.
 
As above.

I too think that you'll struggle to find a useful course, successful product photographers are generally too busy to run courses, and a lot of the people who run courses are only good at making money from courses, plus it's very much a specialist subject.

I think that there are some YouTube channels that run subscription courses on product photography, although I have no idea whether they're worth the time and money.

But, there's a lot of expertise here on TP, including some people skilled in this type of photography, so if you tell us where you're located maybe someone here will be willing to teach you - but not me, I'm happily retired
:)
 
@F6teen - please have a good read of those books, then take up Phil's offer of a little guidance on the camera, lights and modifiers front, and above all, be prepared for a learning experience - it'll not magically be brilliant straight away - it might even be a bit frustrating - that's when coming back here and posting up for help in the appropriate forum will help - think how quickly the issue of strobing video/banding stills was pinned down to shutter speed by a few of us with experience - it'll be the same thing over and over, the collected expertise on here is a great resource, it just needs approaching with an open mind and as few pre-held assumptions as you can manage.
 
TheBigYin said:
@F6teen - please have a good read of those books, then take up Phil's offer of a little guidance on the camera, lights and modifiers front, and above all, be prepared for a learning experience - it'll not magically be brilliant straight away - it might even be a bit frustrating - that's when coming back here and posting up for help in the appropriate forum will help - think how quickly the issue of strobing video/banding stills was pinned down to shutter speed by a few of us with experience - it'll be the same thing over and over, the collected expertise on here is a great resource, it just needs approaching with an open mind and as few pre-held assumptions as you can manage.
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(My bold). I don't think that the beginner book will be of much use to @F6teen, it's specifically written for beginners who want to learn the basics of (outdoor) photography and so is likely to be of little interest to the OP. I only mentioned it because it makes suggestions about suitable cameras that may be helpful, but other members have made the same points.

Product Photography Magic however will, I believe, be incredibly useful.

One final point though - whichever decisions the OP makes, he should avoid using continuous lighting for this type of product. People buy continuous lighting for a variety of reasons, and it can have its uses for some types of still photography, despite its disadvantages, but it is entirely the wrong choice for photographing any items that emit their own light. What's needed is studio flash.

I agee that he should post his results on here, for improvement suggestions. But post results that haven't had any computer work done on them.
 
It may be worth practising on something a little less tricky than your intended products - shiny or reflective surfaces, tiny items and items that emit light are challenging, so practise with something else, see how the lighting affects things, look how shadows behave and go from there.
With determination and the odd shove in the right direction, I would think you'll pick things up quite quickly.
 
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