What equipment is actually needed for supermarket-style product pack shots in a studio?

Asked 5/23/2016

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For a studio assignment photographing dry-goods products such as soup cans and cereal boxes for a supermarket chain, what equipment would typically be required? The brief says the images should represent the products accurately and be photographed from slightly above to show some dimension. Would a DSLR on a tripod with a 90mm tilt-shift lens and portable studio flash be the right choice, or what gear is more appropriate?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

10y ago

2 Answers

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Your lens choice is very specific

a 90mm Tilt-shift lens

yet your camera and lighting gear choices are much broader:

my DSLR body

Transportable studio flash gear

Did you pick the lens because you recently used it, liked it a lot and now subconsciously want to use it for that task? Is the other equipment just a necessity to use that nice lens and thus doesn't need further specification? Whether that's true or not for you personally doesn't really matter. The point is that you should always pick the tools according to the job, not the other way round. Let's take a look at the job again:

Which equipment would be required?

Is tilt-shift really required for this assignment? Really? I don't think so. What properties of a lens are important for product photography?

  • It is capable of displaying the entire product and maybe various details of it. Having different focal lengths at your disposal is always an advantage. You have to carry a lot of gear anyway, bringing two or three lenses, maybe even a zoom seems to make more sense than a single prime lens.
  • It represents the product as it is. This means a lens that does not introduce color shifts, distortion, etc. That hints at using prime lenses as they usually have good optical quality.
  • It allows close focus. If you cannot get closer because of the focus, that's a huge restriction when working with products. Dedicated macro lenses have an advantage here.

I'd pack 2 to 3 prime lenses of different focal lengths from slight wide angle to slight tele. At least one of them would be a macro lens. Adding the 90mm tilt-shift for creative possibilities cannot hurt, but it would not be my first choice, because it is not required. Same is true for autofocus, btw.

There are other properties that can be deduced from the description:

a large range of dry goods products

This is not a single image. There might be 100 products or more. How many images can be taken with a charged battery of the camera?

Bringing a second battery and a charger or better an adapter to power the camera via cable directly from the outlet in addition to the battery in the camera should be considered a requirement.

all images to represent the products accurately

You cannot rely on the lcd display of the camera to check the images. Shoot tethered. This means to bring a laptop or computer with good calibrated monitor and the necessary cables. You don't want to come home with a raw file and be like "yeah, errrr the red of the tomatoes looked errrr exactly like that". This also means to bring some color target for color accuracy.

Mount the camera onto a tripod or comparable equipment. The goal is to have a consistent look for the products. Keeping the camera mostly in one spot helps with that.

How about the lighting gear?

The subject is stationary. You can compensate lack of flash power with shutter speed (if you use a tripod). Recycle times are not the biggest issue either. What's more important is that you have enough mounting equipment to get the lights into the positions you want them to be. This makes strobes with separate power packs more suited for the job, because the heads are lighter. You have less stuff getting in your way.

The lighting should be even. A light modifier that creates soft light over a large surface would be ideal.

from soup tins to boxes of breakfast cereals

The products are packaged differently. The surfaces of the packages reflect light differently. You should bring reflectors and flags of different colors and sizes to locally block or enhance reflections.

Last but not least, there's one more piece of equipment required: you. Be prepared. This is boxes of breakfast cereals which you can try to photograph beforehand. Train yourself with the equipment. Come up with strategies for lighting. Possibly an order of products to shot. Have a schedule for the assignment. Arrange intermediate talks with the client to get feedback and be prepared to adjust to whatever they want. You are not paid to figure out how to do it. You are paid to do it.


There is opinion in this answer. Not every item I mentioned is necessarily required to get the job done. The point is to have a thought process that involves the entire workflow and process of the shooting. Listing what's required means knowing why it is required.

Originally by user35348. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user35348

10y ago

0

AI Answer

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Your original answer is only partly right. A camera on a tripod and studio flash are sensible, but a 90mm tilt-shift lens is not automatically "required." The brief is about accurate pack shots, so the equipment should be chosen to suit the products and lighting style rather than around one specific lens.

What matters most is:

  • a camera body capable of high-quality studio work
  • a stable tripod for consistent framing
  • controlled studio lighting, typically flash with soft modifiers such as softboxes
  • a suitable lens that gives accurate proportions and the desired look

A tilt-shift lens can be useful in some product work to control perspective, but it is not essential for every pack shot. The exact focal length depends on the size of the products, camera position, and the look required. Lighting needs more detail than just "studio flash" because soft, even illumination is usually critical for packaging and labels.

So: tripod + camera + controlled studio lights are definitely required; the specific lens and lighting setup depend on the products and style, and a 90mm tilt-shift would be an optional choice, not a universal requirement.

UniqueBot

AI

10y ago

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