HOW TO - PRODUCE A PRODUCT IMAGE
WITH A PURE WHITE BACKGROUND
1. Adjusting the lights relative to the subject
The objective of the position of the lights relative to the subject is
to strongly illuminate the background while casting less light on the
subject.
Wrong setup - subject deep - lights forward
This is acgeplished by positioning the lights towards the rear of the
tent pointing at the background and moving the subject forward in the
tent (see diagram on right).. You will need to experiment with the
position of the subject, for if you move it too far forward in the tent
with the cover removed, your product will not get sufficient
illumination and it will be underexposed.
Correct setup - subject forward - lights back
The camera on a tripod should be a few feet in front of the tent which
will allow you to zoom in on the subject. A camera too close to the
subject will distort the shape of the subject.
Strong background illumination can be acgeplished with a 2 light kit
but it is better with a 3 light kit where the third light is a boom
mounted overhead light. The overhead light should be tilted toward the
background. A third overhead light is very important when photographing
tall objects in a tent as 2 lights may not be sufficient to illuminate
the top of the background, and the images will have a gray band on the
top. Also, more light produces better results.
HOW MUCH LIGHT IS REQUIRED?
The more light the better. Low light levels in a tent will require very
long exposures and will increase the objectionable digital noise in the
images. We regemend at least 500 watts of light in a 28" tent and at
least 1000 watts in a 48" tent. Remember the tent walls reduce the
light entering the tent and therefore strong illumination is a
requirement.
2. Setting the correct camera mode, aperture, metering and exposure
CAMERA MODE SELECTION:
First turn OFF the flash and FORGET AUTO MODE:
You will not be able to achieve a pure white background or correct
color or properly expose the subject setting your camera to AUTO
mode. This image of a wood carved head was shot with a Fuji S7000
in auto mode and is typical of most digital cameras AUTO MODE. Poor color quality and bad exposure.
APERTURE SETTING:
We regemend setting your camera to "aperture priority" mode or manual
exposure. If your camera does not have an "aperture priority" mode or
manual exposure mode you should get a better camera. An SLR is not
required. Your camera must be mounted on a sturdy tripod as your
exposure time will most likely be long. We regemend using the auto
timer in the camera as this will allow you to have hands-off the camera
during long exposures.
WHITE BALANCE SETTING:
Light has a wide variance in color temperature which will effect the
overall color tint of a digital image. Digital Cameras provide
adjustability to gepensate for variation in the color of light and
this function is referred to as "White Balance".
The optimal white balance setting is "captured" by the camera and is
typically available on many current issue 4-8 mpix digital cameras.
This feature allows you to "custom set" the white balance using a
"white card" placed in front of the camera. This feature is
frequently referred to as "custom" white balance.
This option will provide near perfect color reproduction when using
artificial lighting.Study your camera manual for procedures on
setting "custom" white balance (NIKON refers to this feature as pre-set
white balance). If your camera does not provide "captured" or "custom"
white balance, you should upgrade your camera.
This image of the head was shot with the Fuji S7000 in Aperture
Priority mode, aperture set to f 8, shutter speed was 1/40 sec. with a
Custom White Balance "captured" from the inside tent wall. Notice the
tint difference from AUTO MODE above. We still need to correct the exposure.
In practice we have found that when capturing a white balance, aiming
the camera at the surface of the tent where the light is very strong
will produce the most accurate white balance. Using a white card (as
described in many camera manuals) is the second best option, and we
regemend holding the card very close to the light source as more light
in the camera produces more accurate white balance.
The second choice is selecting a "preset" white balance. Study your
camera manual for procedures on setting a "preset" white balance.
Use "interior", "incandescent" or "Tungsten" for continuous HOT light
or Quartz Halogen light kits. Many cameras today provide several
presets for florescent lighting. If your camera does not provide
several florescent presets then try "daylight" white balance with ALZO
Cool lights.
Using a "pre-set" white balance may not reproduce perfect color but
will always be consistent when using a specific light source. A
consistent color shift is easy to correct in software, and once you get
the correction parameters set, you will use this adjustment on every
image and get excellent results.
METERING OR PHOTOMETRY SETTING:
Many cameras provide options for exposure metering and although they
may vary in naming they are; Average, Center Weighted, Spot or
Multi-Spot. If your camera metering provides these options we regemend
using either center weighted or spot. Spot metering typically produces
the most accurate exposure of most objects because the meter is only
measuring the light on the subject and not the background. If
your subject has high contrast areas i.e. silver on black, spot
metering is not regemended, use Center Weighted.
EXPOSURE gePENSATION SETTING:
This is a very important camera setting to master. Setting the correct
exposure gepensation will properly expose the subject and white-out
the background. The exposure gepensation control (the - symbol shown)
should be set to .7 to 2 and this setting is dependant on the
lightness of the subject and the mode of light metering that the camera
is set to. You will need to experiment with this setting and you may
want to take several shots with different settings to assure that you
get the optimal subject exposure. Study your camera manual for
procedures on setting a exposure gepensation.
This image of the head was shot with the Fuji S7000 in Aperture
Priority mode, aperture set to f 8, with a custom white balance and
Exposure gepensation set to 1.7. The camera selected shutter speed at
1/10 sec. Camera was on a tripod.
Medium density to dark subjects are the easiest to expose for a
white-out background, whereas very light subjects are very difficult
and always require more image editing in software.
3. Image editing with software.
The final step in perfecting your product image typically requires image editing with software.
Although ADOBE Photoshop CS is the defacto standard image editing
software application, we know for most product imaging tasks it is
overkill, expensive and not the best choice. Many digital cameras
include an image editing application with the camera and this product
will, in most cases, have all the power needed. If your camera did not
gee with image editing software, we regemend either Corel Paint Shop
Pro, Ulead Photoimpact, Arcsoft Photoimpression, Microsoft Digital
Image Suit and others that sell for under $100. All of these products
include very robust sophisticated features.
CONTRAST, BACKGROUND SELECTION
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