Photographing white products

[Astaroth]

The misses has decided to earn a little bit of extra cash by doing some handmade baby clothes and guess who is getting the joys of doing the product photography??

At the moment she is just selling through an ebay type site that is aimed at the crafts market and is doing fairly well all things considered.

To cut the long story short what she has discovered is that her baby booties (which I took the photos for) which are on pure white backgrounds stand out a lot more from the crowd and are selling well. The baby grows, which she photographed, that are white and against another piece of patterned fabric arent doing well at all.

I think this is down to two issues as the booties she photographed against patterned backgrounds are doing somewhere between the two. The first is that there is a colour cast on the baby grow from the booties and secondly the thumbnail images dont stand out like the white backgrounded items.

Dont want to "advertise" by providing the links so was wondering how people would suggest taking shots of white clothing (dont have a baby to model them)?? I have a pair of studio lights though the softboxes/ snoots/ reflectors etc have been bought with portraiture rather than product images in mind

[eddiewood]

Originally Posted by Astaroth

The misses has decided to earn a little bit of extra cash by doing some handmade baby clothes and guess who is getting the joys of doing the product photography??

At the moment she is just selling through an ebay type site that is aimed at the crafts market and is doing fairly well all things considered.

To cut the long story short what she has discovered is that her baby booties (which I took the photos for) which are on pure white backgrounds stand out a lot more from the crowd and are selling well. The baby grows, which she photographed, that are white and against another piece of patterned fabric arent doing well at all.

I think this is down to two issues as the booties she photographed against patterned backgrounds are doing somewhere between the two. The first is that there is a colour cast on the baby grow from the booties and secondly the thumbnail images dont stand out like the white backgrounded items.

Dont want to "advertise" by providing the links so was wondering how people would suggest taking shots of white clothing (dont have a baby to model them)?? I have a pair of studio lights though the softboxes/ snoots/ reflectors etc have been bought with portraiture rather than product images in mind

Light meter is best. However you might want to first try using the meter on your camera and a "grey card" to avoid the background being underexposed and looking off-white.

Gray card - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[senu]

Originally Posted by Astaroth

T
Dont want to "advertise" by providing the links so was wondering how people would suggest taking shots of white clothing (dont have a baby to model them)?? I have a pair of studio lights though the softboxes/ snoots/ reflectors etc have been bought with portraiture rather than product images in mind

Provide the links anyway if you think that would help.. they are relevant to your query and are a one-off in a post , not your signature as such

Im not knowledgable enough to help but if you shoot RAW you can always correct colour casts
and
During shooting a little deliberate underexposure ( say 1/2 stop) may help to prevent blowout and preserve detail
Direct on flash is often a no no..

[cedmondson]

I'd strongly recommend a book called "Light: Science & Magic" by Hunter, Biver & Fuqua. It has a chapter devoted to lighting white on white and black on black objects. I don't have it to hand right now so can't provide too much detail but from memory, the key is to get the background as close to pure uniform white as possible and light the subject so its edges are approx 1/2-1 stop darker with angled light to bring out the textures & form within the subject.
If you've got studio gear you'd probably find other stuff in the book worth knowing - I believe the Strobist community regard it as their standard textbook.

[Astaroth]

Thanks for the comments..... the ones that seem to look okish are like Etsy :: Spring Delight Yellow and Pink Mary Jane Newborn (0-3 months) Baby Booties where as the girlfriends attempt at her others are Handmade for Children on Etsy - Spring Delight Bodysuit Yellow and Lilac by lightofmay

Hers is one of the better ones but just disappears into the rest of the thumbnails in their feeds where as the white backgrounded booties stand out significantly and are getting much better click through and sales.

So any suggestions of how to photograph white on white for this kind of item and/ or other suggestions of how to make an image that will really stand out when thumbnailed -v- the competition that look "busy" when scaled down

[richard plumb]

personally, looking at those two photos, the first one looks like a 'proper' product photo. Background is blown or has been cut out, so the focus is clearly on the item. The second photo looks like any common or garden amateur ebay photo - item chucked on a table and photo taken with what looks like direct flash. Its just not a flattering photo. (all due respect etc...)

Can't you just keep it simple and put the babygrow on a white sheet/paper (if you do portrait work do you have a seamless background?) and photograph it so as just to blow out the background. The babygrow should be fine as it isn't that bright - you did a good job on the booties which have white flowers but you've kept detail in them while blowing the background, so you should be ok.

In the time spent working out how to shoot them, you could get in there and shoot a few test shots - isn't that the beauty of digital?

[Astaroth]

Free standing objects I am comfortable with blowing the background, I was struggling to see how to blow the background and not the foreground when the object has to lay against the foreground.

I agree that it is the beauty of digital photography but the misses is becoming fairly prolific in creating new designs, I've just started a new job etc etc which isnt giving me much time to experiment hence hoping that some would have experience and be able to give me a starting point on the technique for this sort of thing

[eddiewood]

Originally Posted by Astaroth

Free standing objects I am comfortable with blowing the background, I was struggling to see how to blow the background and not the foreground when the object has to lay against the foreground.

I agree that it is the beauty of digital photography but the misses is becoming fairly prolific in creating new designs, I've just started a new job etc etc which isnt giving me much time to experiment hence hoping that some would have experience and be able to give me a starting point on the technique for this sort of thing

I'll say it again... Grey card. Did you look it up? Get the background pure white, THEN worry about the object.

I don't shoot white on white, but I know what I would try...

I would use one studio flash to get a pure white background then put some card between the object and this flash so that it casts a shadow on the object underexposing it but not the background.

The second studio flash would be used to correctly expose the object, but not the background. It would have to be close enough not to affect the background (use a snoot?) but with something between the flash and the object to reduce the light output on the object and expose it correctly. This is why I love my Sekonic L-358, it makes it sooo much easier

Failing that, I would try lighting from behind. A light box gives you a white background and you shoot the object from the "front" as normal. You could probably make a box with a light source inside and perspex lid covered with white material. Again you would have to balance the light to get it pure white before figuring out how to expose the object.

Get the background right first, not the object

[SomeVorn]

I'll just write a quick description of a set-up I used to create overexposed (or at the very last, white and clean) backgrounds for a project I've been working on.

I have a glass table - if you don't then I guess this may not be much use.
I used a large sheet of white paper - attached either above or below the glass. Below means you can get some nifty reflections when shooting objects from an angle, On top means you get more of a clean white effect.
I use a powerful spotlight with home made diffuser underneath the table, shining the light up through the paper. I then ensure that the lightsource I'm using to light the object is significantly weaker than the spotlight - diffused daylight from a window works well with a silver reflector filling in from the other side. I've not had any complaints so far.

With those bright white objects, I've also found its a lot easier to shoot onto a black background, ensuring you under-expose the black areas then alter it in photoshop. Boost the blacks slightly in PP and in Photoshop, use Select > colour range, choose the blacks and then add a new layer for background.

(this select > colour range process- do any photoshop gurus know if this is a good method of doing things? I know its better than the magic wand tool (I just hate that thing) but I thought I'd just ask as I may be going about things the wrong way)

[Astaroth]

Many thanks both.... I hadn't thought of placing the items on glass/ perspex to separate them... will give it a go tomorrow

[Biscuit761]

You lucky devil, having to photograph things that are white - often do pictures for work (we make lightboxes amongst other things) - lightboxes are a light source and they still expect me to get detail of the stuff around - all for free as well !

Bill