Experiments at Home – Product Photography
Shot at F11 105mm 2s ISO 64. The end result of an afternoon’s experimentation. I take you through how I got there below.
As this lockdown never seems to end it is important as photographers to find creative projects you can carry out at home. This week I decided to get out my Rotolights (continuous LED lights) and play around with product photography, featuring my dress watch which currently is doing little else other than gather dust. As well as using a standard 105mm macro lens I also decided to try my (mostly unused) extension tubes with my 300mm telephoto lens.
My as new (Polaroid) extension tubes which could really do with more use.
My setup was straightforward, I had two sheets of black acrylic setup as a foreground and background for the watch to rest on and then arranged a three-light setup with a key light (Rotolight Aeos) and then two side lights (both Rotolight Neo 2). Black acrylic is cheap and makes a great surround for photographing metallic objects like jewellery as the dark colour hides a lot of the scratches and dust spots and the glossy surface gives a pleasing reflection of the object. Well worth trying if you have not already.
First up was the 105mm macro lens where I tried the watch in a few different positions until I found something I was happy with. Looking at the pictures below you can see slight adjustments can have a big impact.
Shot at F11 105mm 1/2.5s ISO 64. First shot of the day.
Shot at F11 105mm 1/1.3s ISO 64. A slight change in positioning opens up the watch and to make a more visually pleasing image.
It is subtle but by being able to see more of the watch on the left-hand side of the dial, it gives the watch a lot more dimension and I think a key aspect is that the reflection has been opened up to give more separation of the watch from the black acrylic it is sitting on. The only thing that is really bugging me here is the distracting reflection on the background. This was a disadvantage of having the watch so close to the background, but I would need much larger acrylic sheets to get around this. I have added an overexposed shot below to highlight how many dust spots and scratches are on these sheets and how well most of them are hidden. These sheets do scratch easily and in future I need to do a better job in protecting them from damage.
This overexposed shot highlights just how many dust spots and scratches cover the black acrylic and how well they are hidden in shot.
Next-up is my 300mm lens with extension tubes. As you can see below, on its own this telephoto lens cannot focus anywhere near as close as the 105mm macro and would normally not be particularly useful for this kind of photography.
A demonstration shot that shows the closest my 300mm F2.8 lens can focus with extension tubes. It also gives a better idea of how I setup my black acrylic set.
First, I started with the 36mm extension tube and straight away I was able to get in up close and fill the frame with the watch and its reflection. From my previous, limited, experience of using extension tubes I was concerned about what my depth of field would be like and whether it would be too shallow. Thankfully, this proved not to be an issue. At this point I also started to use a polarizing filter to see what difference it would make under artificial lighting. As you can see below there was a big difference in the reflection below the watch (and it did influence the reflections on the right-hand side of the strap). Using the polariser filter to dim the reflection helped the main body of the watch stand out but still gives it enough of a three-dimensional feel to stop it appearing flat.
Shot at F11 300mm 8s ISO 64. Putting on the first 36mm of extension tubes allowed me to get a lot closer than I could before (see previous image for comparison).
Shot at F11 300mm 8s ISO 64. Moving the polarising filter around greatly reduces the reflection of the watch and altered the reflection of the strap on the right hand side.
However, the background reflection was still irritating me so I decided to put the other 32mm of extension tubes on the lens to see how close I could get. I was impressed by how much I could fill the frame with just the watch itself and with this new angle I had eliminated the distracting reflection behind. For this I actually preferred having a brighter reflection underneath the watch as the eye is already drawn to the larger watch in the frame and the brightness beneath helps separate the watch from the acrylic.
Shot at F11 300mm 5s ISO 64. The final shot at 300mm using all 68mm of extension tubes. The experience was a lot easier and smoother than I had initially expected from my previous limited usage.
For the final setup I switched back to the 105mm macro to get in equally as close but shuffled my camera position around to go for a more head-on shot. Upon review I think this was the best angle I tried. Trying to put my finger on why, I think it is because you still have a three-dimensional looking subject, but as you can no longer see inside the strap as you could on the previous images, it is easier for the eye to focus on the dial and the shape of the strap stands out better against the black background.
Shot at F11 105mm 2s ISO 64. Back to using the 105mm macro lens. This head on shot produced the best angle of the afternoon.
Shot at F11 105mm 2s ISO 64. Polarising filter makes a big difference again but I cannot make my mind up with which I prefer of these two.
For my final experiment I kept the positioning and lens the same but changed the lightning. Instead of using a continuous three light set-up I used a long exposure (2s) and then covered the watch with light painting using a single Rotolight Neo 2. Light painting gives a very different effect as not every part is covered in light for the full duration of the exposure. It is something I will talk about more in the future, but it is very simple way to softly light a small subject. The only difficulty is that the effect is not consistent between shots and so can take a bit more trial and error, but it is a technique I really like. Note that this created white reflections on the background and in the second shot gave a more reflected look to the dial of the reflection.
Shot at F11 105mm 2s ISO 64. Using light painting creates a softer, more even lighting that is very suitable for shiny metallic objects. Notice the shadows that were behind the hands in the previous images have been greatly reduced. The final image with scratches and spots removed is the header image for this blog.
Shot at F11 105mm 2s ISO 64. The final shot of the day. Notice how no two light painting shots look exactly the same, this approach will require more trial and error than setting up static lights.
Overall, I was pleased with the results, with my favourite image heading this blog at the top (it was also the only shot I put through Photoshop to clean up the dust and scratches). The only worrying thing was zooming in 1:1 I could see all the marks on my watch which I had not noticed with my naked eye. Perhaps best not to look too closely in the future.
I hope you are also finding creative projects to keep you entertained during these difficult times. Next week I will be playing around with flash photography. See you then.
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