Product Shot - Pillow

[Shouchen]

We are doing product shots with pillows. If anybody works on items similar, please contribute your ideas, like the setup, model, etc.

I have two picture attached. Please let me know what you would do with the first one in photoshop. Feel free to play with it.

Thanks!

[grays]

Are you going to be selling Photozo branded toys then? :-P

It depends on the look you are trying to achieve but the first picture, in my opinion, won't look good unless you do lots of Photoshop work and even then it might not be possible to avoid that "just been cut out" look like the second picture has. This is because even if you can cut the object out to separate it from the background, the object itself still has the shadows and lighting of the original picture so it will look out of place when stuck on a clean background. See, for example, the shadow under the cow's nose (do cows have noses? anyway...) in the second picture.

The lighting and background are not good in the first picture. There appears to be only one, fairly harsh (not diffuse) light source, creating hard and deep shadows to the right and underneath the subject. Multiple light sources or a very diffuse light source (e.g. bouncing a flash off the ceiling) would be preferable.

Similarly, the background isn't continuous. A white piece of card curved up around the back of the object would give a much cleaner background.

Shouchen, I think all the info you're after is in this thread:
http://www.photozo.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5304

But as I say, it all depends on the look you are trying to achieve.

[JimL]

These are my trys.
JimL

[HSH]

First I would cut out the kitty and then lighten it up and fix the color. Then I would duplicate the kitty layer and work on the bottom kitty layer. For the bottom kitty layer I would adjust the black slider for each selective color to 100 and then give it a fairly hefty gaussian blur. Then I would go to edit and transform it to give it as close a shadow as possible to the original.

[photoshopabuser]

I like HSH's version and Jims are pretty creative...

I think I got tunnel vision here just concentrating on the background. You should use a continuous background for these shots man.

[Shouchen]

Graham,

I read a few threads including the one you posted before taking the product shots with a large white paper board. But the results are not satisfactory. I end up with lots of shots with the grey colors, not white so I end up spending a lot of time in PS trying to fix it. I think the main reason is the light source.

Do I need to get something like this for $350? Does this kit look good?

http://www.sell-it-on-the-net.com/online_store/complete_dps_flood.htm

[Shouchen]

Thanks for all your help and your edit of the photos, Jim, Heidi and Jeff.

Jim,

You can always edit the shot successfully. The dark and light background that you gave look very natural.

Jeff, pretty good background which matches with pillow very well...

Heidi, I like the color background that you used. I think it works well with both dark and light colored object. Do you mind if I use yours?

How did you change the background without mess up the object's edge? Could you please share?

Thank you!

[photoshopabuser]

You can do the same thing with some home depot painters lights with 100w bulbs and a roll of heavy paper Shouchen. It is continuous light but all you have to do is adjust for the white balance.

That background stand can be made out of 1 1/4 pvc and some coffee cans filled with mortar for about 20.00 us.

The whole thing would cost you around 40.00 plus the cost of the paper. You could use muslin and have it pressed. That would put you at about 55.00.

I wouldn't pay that kind of money for continuous lighting. I bought an alien bee b800 kit for that and it works pretty good for me.

[HSH]

Heidi, I like the color background that you used. I think it works well with both dark and light colored object. Do you mind if I use yours?

How did you change the background without mess up the object's edge? Could you please share?

Thank you!

Sure go ahead, and if you would like the Photoshop file I have I can send that to you.

To change the background on a duplicate layer I cut out the old background from the kitty and then added another layer behind the kitty and flood filled it with the blue.

[ap.]

Yeah, what Jeff (photoabuser) said. The only thing to add would be to curve the background, don't make a corner. When lit well it should give you a pretty continious white backdrop without the two tone look of a corner. Also, get some large white foam core sheets to place on either side and try to bounce some extra light around until you get the look you want.

[grays]

Do I need to get something like this for $350? Does this kit look good?

http://www.sell-it-on-the-net.com/online_store/complete_dps_flood.htm

I doubt you need anything like this. It might be good kit, I don't know much about studio lights but I wouldn't have thought you need anything like this.

Can we see an example of one your photos on the white card?

If the card is grey all over, it sounds like an exposure issue rather than a lighting one. If you let the camera automatically meter a scene with lots of white it in, the auto exposure will tend to underexpose causing the whites to become grey. This can be corrected by using some positive exposure compensation or manual mode. If using flash, apply some positive flash exposure compensation (FEC).

If the card is grey in some parts but white in others, the issue sounds like an uneven lighting one. You don't necessarily need fancy studio lights to accomplish even lighting. Try two or three desk lamps to get the background as evenly lit as possible. If you set the camera on a tripod, you can use a long enough exposure and small enough f-stop to ensure the scene is exposed correctly and the all the subject is in focus. You will probably need to manually set the white balance of the camera or better still, seeing as you have a D30, shoot in RAW mode and do the colour correction during the RAW conversion.