How can I get cleaner product photos in a light box with a white background?
Asked 7/9/2013
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2 answers
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I’m photographing a product in a light box with a Nikon D40, but the results don’t look professional. The product has harsh reflections and shadows, and the background comes out light gray instead of pure white. I’ve also tried cutting out the background in Photoshop, but that’s difficult because parts of the bottle get selected too.
My setup uses side lights and a top light. What changes to lighting, positioning, or exposure would help me get a more evenly lit product, reduce specular highlights, and make the background blow out to white in-camera?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
13y ago
2 Answers
9
I think you really need more light. Don't be afraid to pump up the wattage there, you can use shutter speed and aperture to effect the exposure. My setup is fairly similar:
But the lights on the side are very bright and the softbox on top is even more so (it's a Westcott cheapie continuous light). That light is bright enough to really take the shadows down from the side lighting. You have to experiment though, move things around a bit to get the shadows where you want them and try to avoid hot sides. Notice that the sides of my panels don't have a circle from the light? Your light is harsh and harsh creates hard shadows and specular highlights.
Originally by user472. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user472
13y ago
0
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Your main issue is lighting, not Photoshop. The side lights appear too weak, too directional, and not diffused enough, which causes hard shadows and bright specular highlights on the bottle.
Try this:
- Use more light overall, especially softer/diffused light.
- Reposition the side lights so they don’t reflect directly into the camera; aim them higher or more toward the sides/top of the box.
- Add stronger top light to help fill shadows.
- If you want a pure white background, light the background separately from the product. Put more light on the backdrop and less directly on the bottle, then expose for the product so the background blows out to white.
- Experiment with light placement to avoid hot spots on the sides.
Right now your product highlights are already blown in places while the background is still gray, which means the lighting balance is off. Fixing that in-camera will work better than trying to select the background with the magic wand afterward.
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AI13y ago
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