Product Photography

[Lovin]

Hello everyone,

I need some help with product photography.
I wanna try it, test it at home and I need some advices about lenses, how to make a food product to look good to smell the taste and to look very yummy.
I'm still using Olympus gear, because of the lens prices, but for the future I'm thinking to change brand.

I wanna by a tent (NEW PHOTO STUDIO TENT CUBE IN A LIGHT BOX TRIPOD KIT UL on eBay.ca (item 160411640015 end time 11-Mar-10 12:33:13 EST) (http://cgi.ebay.ca/NEW-PHOTO-STUDIO-TENT-CUBE-IN-A-LIGHT-BOX-TRIPOD-KIT-UL_W0QQitemZ160411640015QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_Defa ultDomain_0?hash=item25594760cf)) for this type of photography, but what else do I need to start.

Thank you all for replies !
Lovin

[Lovin]

Ok, I'm gonna google it.

[Mad Aussie]

We had a thread on light boxes here somewhere Robert. JJ made a real little cheapy that worked a treat. I went to more trouble with a homemade one but got good results.

[Mad Aussie]

Found my thread but it only shows a few photos I took. No one cared at the time though.

http://www.photography.ca/Forums/f22/playing-lightbox-2085.html

[Lovin]

Thank you M.A.

I saw the results in many photos, but I'm interested also in what lens are best for this, or recommended.
For exemple Sigma 105mm f2.8 for macro is it fine ? or do I need a 70-200mm ?
Olympus have the 50-200mm f2.8-3.5 with amazing quality, but is that fine for this kind of photography ?

Thank you again !

[Mad Aussie]

Usually for product photography you a wide depth of field so you can get as in focus. Therefore using higher f-stops and lower focal lengths is preferred. Zooming in tends to reduce DOF.

I used a 24-70mm and kept as it as close to the 24mm end as I could.

[Mad Aussie]

That 14 - 54mm might work well even at the 54mm end. Use plenty of light so you can use the narrower apertures such as f8 - f16

[Lovin]

Thank you a lot ! Saved me to buy a macro lens or the 50-200mm for this :)

[Mad Aussie]

Hell yeah. Even the 70mm on the 70-200 f4-f5.6 might work if you punch enough light into the box.

Mind you ... shutter isn't important here ... it's enough light from enough directions to not cause shadows.

[Marko]

Usually for product photography you a wide depth of field so you can get as in focus. Therefore using higher f-stops and lower focal lengths is preferred. Zooming in tends to reduce DOF.

I used a 24-70mm and kept as it as close to the 24mm end as I could.


In my experience many product photographers prefer longer lenses (in the 100 mm range) and use wider apertures for selective focus effects. This is especially true in food photography and higher end product photography (jewelery etc.). For straight up catalog stuff (like grocery items etc.) I'd likely go shorter and 24-70 seems right to me.

There's really no rule on this though...it all depends on what you or your client wants you to achieve.

[Mad Aussie]

I just went through my exif for the product shots I did and most around the 50 - 70mm ... a couple around 30mm. The size of the object makes a difference too. I used apertures between f13 and f22