Advice please! Newbie alert :)

[theironduke]

Hi Chaps

I design and make furniture for a living and am getting increasingly busy!

Now in an ideal world I'd pay a man to do all my photography for me but due to range and volume of stuff it's not really viable.

So as I'm a big fan of learning to do new things I thought I'd give it some more serious attention myself. Until now I've been using a point and shoot camera and people still buy my things off the back of the snaps but I want to up my game and present my products as best I can! The fact people always comment that the stuff looks better in real life than the photos on my website/eBay page also prompted me to think its time to up my game!

So I'm looking for pointers and suggestions!

First off a good book to get me up to speed on the basics I guess.

Also what's the score with photographic backdrops and lighting? I've seen various started set ups with the backdrop and a couple of lights for the £150 mark.

The important bit, camera! I cant stretch to £1000's and ideally looking at £150. Though a cursory glance shows that the range of stuff in this budget is still mind boggling!

I appreciate my total lack of knowledge but PH has always served me well so I thought I'd ask here to kick things off!

[Elderly]

theironduke said:

Hi Chaps

I design and make furniture for a living and am getting increasingly busy!

If I said that I take photographs for a living and am getting increasingly busy,
but I need some good furniture shots for my photography website and I don't want to buy professionally made furniture but want to design and make myself
and want recommendations for a book to show me how to do it, and have a budget for tools of about £150 .....

....... would you consider it feasible?

I'm sure others will be along shortly and be more helpful than I,
but good furniture shots are not easy.

[theironduke]

Elderly said:

theironduke said:

Hi Chaps

I design and make furniture for a living and am getting increasingly busy!

If I said that I take photographs for a living and am getting increasingly busy,
but I need some good furniture shots for my photography website and I don't want to buy professionally made furniture but want to design and make myself
and want recommendations for a book to show me how to do it, and have a budget for tools of about £150 .....

....... would you consider it feasible?

I'm sure others will be along shortly and be more helpful than I,
but good furniture shots are not easy.

I don't expect to be an expert straight away and don't have the budget of an expert straight away either! I was just thinking there must be another peg up from a point and shoot with no knowledge!

[Simpo Two]

What size/type of furniture?

[theironduke]

Simpo Two said:

What size/type of furniture?

I don't want to incur the wrath of Mods for advertising but if you look on my profile theres a link to my website

[Simpo Two]

OK, nothing bigger than a table. Next, what kind of background do you envisage?

[theironduke]

Simpo Two said:

OK, nothing bigger than a table. Next, what kind of background do you envisage?

Pretty much, biggest item would be the "sofa" but that's only 4-5 feet long.

Background wise just something which doesn't distract and shows the item off really. Would just using white work? Open to suggestions!

[Simpo Two]

Well a sofa is actually quite big because when you take the angle of view into account you need a background about 8' wide to avoid seeing the edges.

The worst thng you can do is use a background that looks more obvious than the product, eg creases, missing bits, that shout 'amateur'. It will make your prodcts (and you) look cheap.

I think that unless you have a spare room that you can turn into a studio, a room set might be better. Or find a friend with a really nice house, ship the stuff over and do it there.

Then you need to think about lighting...

[Xerstead]

theironduke said:

The important bit, camera! I cant stretch to £1000's and ideally looking at £150.

Arguably the least important bit
You'll be shooting a static subject in controlled conditions so the simplest of DSLRS would be sufficient with a basic lens.
The hardest part is knowing what to do with it and controlling the light
Off camera flash can be set up for ~£50 and backdrops can be made with a flat bed sheet, but it takes practice, and post production (editing) skills to make it look good.

[theironduke]

Xerstead said:

theironduke said:

The important bit, camera! I cant stretch to £1000's and ideally looking at £150.

Arguably the least important bit
You'll be shooting a static subject in controlled conditions so the simplest of DSLRS would be sufficient with a basic lens.
The hardest part is knowing what to do with it and controlling the light
Off camera flash can be set up for ~£50 and backdrops can be made with a flat bed sheet, but it takes practice, and post production (editing) skills to make it look good.

Thanks for the info

[theironduke]

Simpo Two said:

Well a sofa is actually quite big because when you take the angle of view into account you need a background about 8' wide to avoid seeing the edges.

The worst thng you can do is use a background that looks more obvious than the product, eg creases, missing bits, that shout 'amateur'. It will make your prodcts (and you) look cheap.

I think that unless you have a spare room that you can turn into a studio, a room set might be better. Or find a friend with a really nice house, ship the stuff over and do it there.

Then you need to think about lighting...

Thanks I'm ok space wise, I've got a big workshop/barn with chunk about 15x15 which I can use. I have also though about the room set angle. My house (cottage with beams, inglenook and dark wood furnishings) isn't really much good and I have used a friends place in the past for a couple of tables.

The reason I was thinking a plain background was to get some uniformity to my photos so it gives a more professional and coherent look. If I knew anybody with a big house furnished in a sleek modern way though that would be ideal!

[Robw73]

Straying slightly off topic.........
My business is also home interiors based, and I've always tried to display furniture in a natural room environment as I feel it helps sell a product more. Generally I find that customers can picture things (no pun intended) in their home if thats the way you photograph it.

Plain White back drops don't really sell the whole image / feel, and some people can't really grasp how it will look when sat in their own home.

Just my thoughts. Hope they help.

[Craikeybaby]

There is probably a lot you can do with your current camera, trying different compositions and making sure the background is clear etc.

Have you identified what you want your pictures to looks like, say from magazines/blogs/competitors etc?

[maffski]

theironduke said:

The reason I was thinking a plain background was to get some uniformity to my photos so it gives a more professional and coherent look. If I knew anybody with a big house furnished in a sleek modern way though that would be ideal!

Talked to any property developers? They might like the idea of a few signiture peices to make their offering stand out, you get a set to photograph in, and theres always a chance of 'That table is just perfect, does it come with the house?'

[TonyRPH]

I'm no expert at all, so this may not be valid but...

In this picture, if you had used a polarising filter, you could have reduced a lot of that reflection, getting more emphasis on the subject.

Also, the lighting directly overhead created shadows on the floor (and a light in the glass), this may have been intentional though?

At the very least, I would have thought a basic DSLR would be better than a 'point and shoot' camera.

[Speed addicted]

theironduke said:

Simpo Two said:

Well a sofa is actually quite big because when you take the angle of view into account you need a background about 8' wide to avoid seeing the edges.

The worst thng you can do is use a background that looks more obvious than the product, eg creases, missing bits, that shout 'amateur'. It will make your prodcts (and you) look cheap.

I think that unless you have a spare room that you can turn into a studio, a room set might be better. Or find a friend with a really nice house, ship the stuff over and do it there.

Then you need to think about lighting...

Thanks I'm ok space wise, I've got a big workshop/barn with chunk about 15x15 which I can use. I have also though about the room set angle. My house (cottage with beams, inglenook and dark wood furnishings) isn't really much good and I have used a friends place in the past for a couple of tables.

The reason I was thinking a plain background was to get some uniformity to my photos so it gives a more professional and coherent look. If I knew anybody with a big house furnished in a sleek modern way though that would be ideal!

Ok, I would paint the space in the workshop white (or some other non offensive shade) and put dark wood laminate on the floor. That way you van set up the furniture to look like it's in a house without the hassle of taking it to a house.
You would also have repeatability. The only down side of this approach is that you normally see the furniture against other stuff and some people will struggle to gauge size with just photos of the item on it's own.

For the camera/lighting you could get an older SLR and a couple of cheap flashes but probably not for £150.

[Simpo Two]

For a glass suface like that you also need to think about the ceiling, because that's what I can see in it. Experiment - paint it white, or hang a black cloth over it - see what works best. Reflective subjects are much harder to light than others.