Product Photography With D90
 

Hi

We have been taking product photographs for our website where we sell hair extensions. It is important to get accurate colours as customers buy products to match their hair colour. We have finally found the best settings to capture colours on our Nikon D90 but we can't seem to make the background stay white without editing the levels afterwards on Photoshop. Ideally we want to keep the settings for the colours but also keep the white background so we don't have to edit each photo afterwards.

Settings:
F5.6
1/400
ISO 800

Here are the pictures:

Image 1

The photo on the right is what we want to achieve without editing. Is this possible or will we always have to edit to achieve that look?

Cheers
Tim

What sort of lighting are you using? I have in the past shot some jewellery for a client and the best solution or setup that worked for me was to place a defused flash directly above the product and play about until you have it spot on. The closer you can get it in camera the less pp you will have to do. Oh and the closer you have a defused light to your subject, the softer the light will become and the nicer the shadow details will appear.

Hope this helps

The issue is not the apeture, ISO or shutter time. These will affect the exposure levels (brightness) of the image. The important bit for colour control is the white balance. This needs to be matched to the light source.
I'm not familiar with Nikon, but on Canon bodies the white balance can be selected from a menu, or set on auto. Alternatively, shoot in RAW and correct the white balance in photoshop afterwards. But, also bear in mind that the colour your customers see will also be affected by the quality and characteristics of their monitor, regardless of how accurate the original image is.

Shoot in RAW, do custom white balance. Don't know how you do it with Nikon being a Canon user so refer to the instruction manual.

I tend to always shoot in raw, then as long as you balance your light sources with gels you can always tweak the wb in post.

As for getting the colours correct, like Gordon said, a calibrated monitor is a must. But then most people don't have calibrated monitors.

I agree shoot in RAW and check your white balance by shooting at a white piece of card. If it doesn't come out white then you know to adjust the balance. Also I would definitely use a diffused flash gun and you should look at investing in a reflector . If I was shooting those I would hand them up and set the diffused flash off to the darkest side of the room and use the reflectors to pick up the rest of the light. Also move back a little and set a mid F number like 9-11 upwards. Treat the shot like a portrait.

Also i thought in case you are still struggling, see the link:

http://www.ephotozine.com/article/ho...ct-shots-10439

interesting read...thanks:D