Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Photography and portraiture - What are the main types of light selection needed for commodity shooting at Ali International Station?

What are the main types of light selection needed for commodity shooting at Ali International Station?

1. Please clean the product carefully before shooting.

Thoroughly clean the art products before shooting, check the products from all angles, and remove all dust, dust, fingerprints and stains you see. When taking photos of the product, it will provide the audience with an enlarged and clear appearance of the product-if the product is not perfect, the audience's eyes will look directly at the defects of the product.

2. Use telephoto lens to get perfect viewing angle

This is a common problem for novice product photographers:

What lens should be used for product photography?

Generally speaking, when a telephoto lens is used, the photographic effect of the product is the best, because the telephoto focal length can prevent the deformation of the photo and help you to accurately show the product.

In addition, the telephoto lens provides you with good perspective compression, which can make your photos have a subtle feeling.

Therefore, it is recommended that you use a lens in the range of 70mm to 200mm for shooting. The longer the lens, the greater the compression, so you need to adjust the focal length according to your own space.

You can also choose a lens with a shorter minimum focal length. Product photography usually involves shooting small objects, and the ability to shoot at close range is priceless. Therefore, using a lens with a shorter minimum focal length will help you capture some beautiful details. In addition, you can use it to be creative and take more abstract product photos.

Please note that the best close-focus lenses are almost all macro lenses, usually located at the focal length of 90mm to150 mm. In fact, the macro lens of 100mm is an excellent choice for product photography, because it can provide you with clear detailed photos, reasonable focal length for shooting in a small space and telephoto compression.

3. Diffuse light to obtain a soft and delicate photo appearance of the product.

Good lighting is the key to take beautiful photos of products, so how can we take beautiful photos by lighting the products?

There are two types of light (in terms of quality):

Hard lamp.

Soft light.

Hard light is dazzling and concentrated. This is the type of light found outdoors on a sunny day, and it is also the type of light obtained when the camera's built-in flash is triggered without using a diffuser. Strong light will cause many shadows and bright highlights, which is why it is usually not good in product photography.

On the other hand, soft light is very broad, diffuse and soft. It looks subtle and beautiful, which is the type of light you find outdoors on a cloudy day. You can also use light modifiers to create soft lights.

Now, although sometimes you can take cool product photos with strong light, it is very rare.

If you want to take good-looking product photos, you must first use soft light.

4. Don't be afraid to use flash (or two or three).

If you are serious about product photography, you will need to use some lighting equipment. However, lighting equipment will enable you to control the light in every way, and then do some control.

With the right lighting, you can immediately emit soft light, harden it, and then soften it again. It is very important to illuminate the product from the front, back or side.

5. Use side lighting to increase the depth of the product.

Generally speaking, the best product photos have a lot of depth.

But how to create depth?

By controlling the light.

This is also one of the reasons why it is so important to really master the photographic light of products, because without good light, depth cannot be created.

Side light comes from the side of the product. This can make one side of the product bright and the other side invisible. The interaction between light and shadow creates the illusion of depth, which can take your product photos to a new height.

If you use natural light (for example, a window), you should place the product in an appropriate position so that the light shines from the side.

6. Use a narrow aperture to keep the product photos clear.

Aperture is the key to product photography.

In short, the aperture is a hole in the camera lens, which can be opened and closed according to your aperture setting. The aperture setting is written as follows: f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, etc. (up to about f/22).

The higher the f value, the greater the depth of field, that is, the clearer the photo.

The perfect aperture also depends on the distance between the product and your lens, because the closer the product looks, the bigger it needs, so it needs more depth of field to get the maximum clarity.

When choosing an aperture, there are two basic options.

First, you can choose an aperture of about f/ 16, take a few photos, and then see if all the focuses are right. If you can really get a clear picture, you can continue to shoot freely. If you don't do this, you need to narrow the aperture and then perform the same process again.

The problem with this method is that you may never choose a narrow enough aperture to make the whole product clear, because you may be shooting close-ups or shooting with a long (that is, deep) product. And the aperture of the lens is the smallest, ranging from f/22 to f/32.

7. Carefully place lighting equipment (and products) to avoid unnecessary reflection.

The quality and quantity of reflection will have a great influence on your product photography. After all, no one wants an unpleasant reflection in the end, which will reduce the overall shooting effect.

It is recommended that you conduct several tests whenever shooting products (especially products with high reflectivity). Check the appearance of the reflection. If you don't like what you see, change the lighting angle.

8. Use a tripod to maintain the same product image.

A tripod is very important if you want to superimpose the focus.

But whether you focus on stacking or not, tripods are useful for product photography, which is why it is recommended that every product photographer buy tripods.

Why is a tripod so important?

First of all, a tripod can help you keep the composition unchanged when adjusting the product settings. You can put the camera on the tripod, adjust the settings, then go back to the camera to take pictures, adjust the settings again, and so on.

Therefore, it is best to use a tripod to take pictures of composition products.

9. Try different compositions in the same product photography settings.

Good product photography actually contains three key elements:

Technical details (such as aperture and focus superposition).

Light.

Picture composition.

Now let's look at the composition of product photography, and shoot the same product layout with different combinations.

Set up your product, set up the scene, maybe shoot the product alone, or maybe add some other items. Then take a few more pictures and change the angle and perspective.

It is suggested that you try to shoot with different focal lengths (or different magnifications). Take some measures, shoot and pay attention to details.

10. Use plexiglass surface for beautiful product photography reflection.

You may find that photography using plexiglass products usually needs good reflection, so as to give the photos solemn and professional quality. But the mirror can't be used to create reflections, because it will cause two reflections, which often look unreal. Moreover, plexiglass has enough reflectivity, which can bring you beautiful reflection effect, but it will not bring the same problems as a mirror.

It is suggested to use black plexiglass to make the product look darker and more gratifying; Use white plexiglass to make the product photos brighter.

Post-processing to enhance your theme and eliminate defects.

Now almost every product photo is post-processed, which is the essence of digital photography and the way for excellent product photographers to really raise the photos to a higher level.

Every product photo has to undergo some basic adjustments, such as contrast, exposure, color and lens contour correction. Do it for every photo you take (whether it is a product photo or not).

Then, you need to examine the product carefully, find out any kind of defect, and consider what measures can be taken to prevent it in the future.