Technique to showcase craft products

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pirespt

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I'm not too sure how to explain my questions, hence the title being a bit unclear. :thinking:

A little bit of background. My wife has started to create some handcrafts that she intends to sell online. She wants me to take the pictures of her handcrafts and that’s where things get complicated. I own a D5100 + 18-105mm and a 50mm, plus a flimsy hama tripod that I intend to replace with a redsnapper.

My doubts:

• How to take pictures where the subject looks suspended in the air? Do I need a home studio? Can anyone point me in the right direction so I can learn the techniques?
• I currently use paint.net to touch-up my pictures, will I need a version of light room and will that enable me to make the necessary adjustments to the photos?
• Even if I buy the home studio, will I need to buy a flash to replace the one that comes with the Nikon D5100?

I think this it for now, I know some of you, might say, just get a professional to do it, but I’m keen in learning the ropes and learn from my mistakes.

Thanks in advance (y)

David
 
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I've been reading a bit on the subject and I was toying with the idea of getting an interfit exd200 studio kit and a black background, I figure with the objects being white it will be easier to remove the background on gimp, or pain.net. I already know how to do this so there shouldn't be too much of an issue.

I have also just bought a redsnapper tripod (rfs-284+rsh-61 ball head) and should arrive during the next week or so.

My questions,

Is that a good starter kit? I have read fairly good reviews, but it's almost £300, so I was looking for some comments from anyone that has had a chance of trying them?

A light tent, is that a good investment or a background and rail is a better one in case I want to shoot portraits in the future?

Thanks in advance

David
 
White or light grey backgrounds are usually the preferred route for 'suspended in air' shots. Black is a nightmare with most subjects because you don't always get true edge definition (depends on shadow density) so can actually end up losing the edge. Your wife's objects are white though so it might pay to go with a mid-grey background. You can use something like a Chromagreen background but they can throw up issues with green reflections.

Those shots you've linked to, the products aren't 'floating'... they're clearly grounded by shadows and the background being visible. BTW, I quite like them, especially the maple top bass :)

Anyway, you can go down the route of paths and masks (which is how it's done in the publishing game) but it's achievable in-camera. There are a bunch of tutorials online....

If you do opt for pathing then Photoshop is industry-standard. Lightroom doesn't carry that function. LR is a great piece of software for batch processing, which if you're shooting under the same lighting set-up, is a helpful way to speed things up when outputting.

There's a stack of things to talk about with regard to this kind of photography.

BTW, how big are the handicraft items?
 
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