Have you ever considered what a photographer’s process is when shooting your product?

This blog is all about my own process and how you could do this at home. Although employing professional photographers is always the better way.

Here are the four steps that I follow:

1. Plan your shoot ideas and theme.

2. Decide upon the props that you may require for each shoot.

3. Organise what photographic equipment you need

4. Shoot ideas

1. Plan your shoot ideas and theme.

My process starts with a visual board of other ideas and photographs that will influence my own photographs.

Product is popcorn

The brief is to take photographs of popcorn for ‘What’s Poppin’, as this company has kindly donated their product.

2. Decide upon the props that you may require for each shoot.

Take a watch of this video, explaining the first process before I begin photographing. I like to prep upon what props are required per shoot.

3. Organise what photographic equipment you need

This is a list of equipment you will wish to use while at home.

Equipment required:

1. Camera or phone

2. Natural lighting

3. Spotlights

4. Diffusion material - baking paper or net curtains.

5. Homemade silver reflector, follow the link - https://petapixel.com/2009/06/07/make-your-own-aluminum-foil-reflector/

4. Shoot ideas

MY PROCESS UPON SHOOTING A PRODUCT SHOT WITH BOKEH, FORMED WITH FAIRY LIGHTS.

The equipment I have used for these shots, is a studio flashlight, fairy lights, tripod & camera.

If you do not have similar equipment to me, then an alternative method would be to use a spotlight to light up the front of the packages and form depth of field, so that the fairy lights are out of focus. To form depth of field with your camera follow the camera settings stated below.

Tip on using a spotlight - Watch video on ways to diffuse your desktop light, at home with baking paper.

Tips upon using your phone, when you have no camera to take a Bokeh image.

• Launch the Camera app

• Find a close object of approximately the same exposure (brightness) as the subject you wish to shoot with bokeh

• Place the iPhone camera roughly 3-8″ away from that object and tap and hold on the screen to focus lock on that object, you will know it’s active when “AE/AF Lock” appears on the screen

• With Focus Lock on, aim at the subject and take the picture to capture the bokeh effect

You can buy phone lens attachments, mobile phone tripod and possible apps to look into 

MY PROCESS

The theme of this shoot is to style the photograph towards the theme of movies and cinema. I have made some popcorn containers and cut out some cinema tickets. I have used the fairy lights to illustrate the flashing lights at a cinema, which is a traditional symbol linked to cinema and movies. I have used a red curtain to link to the red carpet at movie premieres and the colour red compliments the green of the popcorn containers.

Camera settings that I used:

• Auto white balance, because I have two light sources

• 100 ISO

• Aperture - £3.2, to improve on focus are raise the aperture and move the object further away from the background

• Shutter speed - 1.6 sec, so that I capture fairy lights for longer

• As an extra, I have used a silver reflector to bounce the light from the studio light onto the label section of the box.

• Watch the video for more information upon my set-up

MY PROCESS UPON SHOOTING NATURAL LIGHT & BOKEH PHOTOGRAPH.

For this shot, make your own silver reflector, use the phone tips on how to take the Bokeh images, and take them during the daytime.

Tip, control the distance between the object and the background, the further away from the background the object is will help create the Bokeh effect.

As this shot was taken during the day the bokeh is referred to as natural Bokeh which is caused by the natural sunlight shining through the flowers or natural elements in the background.

Camera settings that I used:

• Daylight white balance

• 100 ISO

• Aperture - f2.2, again if you wish for a larger focus area, then increase the aperture to f5.6 and move the object further away from the background.

• Shutter speed - 1/25 sec

• Silver reflectors to bounce light in the set direction required to brighten up areas. You can also use a mirror for this purpose if you have one at home.

MY PROCESS UPON SHOOTING NATURAL LIGHT & A DIFFERENT VIEWPOINT PHOTOGRAPH.

In product photography you can use two viewpoints, front view or top view, this set-up shows the use of shooting from the top.

I have also written a blog all about using viewpoints in your photography, so follow this link and have a little read. -

1. Viewpoint birds eye

2. Viewpoint part 2

For this shoot, I used the same props and set-up process, with two different ways of lighting. Watch the video below where I explain the camera set-up, lighting changes, and processes, used.

If you wish to set this up at home, again you will require a diffused light and you may need to make a translucent reflector or use some material to use in front of a window to prevent shadows.

Here are some useful ideas to use:

• Net curtains

• Baking paper, if you have enough of it

• A3/A4 paper

I would recommend the net curtains or blind so that you have a larger light source. With this set, you could still use a silver reflector if needed or a mirror to add extra bounced light. Bouncing light is a brilliant way to diffuser light sources and helps soften the shadows created by the harsh light source.

Camera settings that I used:

Flash & daylight white balance as I changed each light source

100 ISO

Aperture f4.5

Shutter speed was 1/125 for the flash lighting & 1/50 sec for the daylight.

SUMMARY

In summary, I suggest that you follow this set of 4 steps that I use and decide on either using your camera or phone to take each of your photographs.

1. Plan your shoot ideas and theme.

2. Decide upon the props that you may require for each shoot.

3. Organise what photographic equipment you need

4. Shoot ideas

You can decide to use extra apps, or attachments to use with your phone if you wish and if you learn one thing, consider the light source for any type of photography that you do.

Tip - Diffuse your light source if you are using a powered light so that the shadows on the object are soft and this process can be used for any other type of photography.

Tip - Cheap method for diffusing a light source can either be a net curtain for a window or baking paper over a heated light source.

Tip - Use a silver reflector for food photographs, as I use mine daily when shooting natural light photographs. I find that it is really useful for bouncing back daylight upon a subject.

Thank you for reading the blog

Contact me if you have any questions about the content of the blog.

In May I have decided to introduce a new series of ‘How to….’ blog subjects.

If you are interested then look out for these ‘How to…’ blogs

1. How to take light graffiti pictures in the garden

2. How to use depth of field in the home

I have promoted the first ‘How to… blog on how to take a twilight photograph of your own home

I am a full-time photographer and I offer:

PRODUCT PHOTOGRAPHS

If you are interested in some professional product photographs taken I am offering a collection service to companies so that I can shoot your products in my home studio. Email me directly for more details

1:1 PHOTO SESSIONS

I do offer a 1:1 photography session, so take a look at my 1:1 page for further details and book-in. I am selling gift cards, which would be an amazing gift for a friend or relative who is interested in learning more about photography.

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