Still object/product photos: how to..?

[TsQ]

I was trying to snap a nice photo of my HT system last nite and it turned out dissapointing.. here's the better one out of many:

What I try to get is like this: (taken from onkyo website) .......

The room is bright from the ceiling lights, natural light only comes from the window on the right side only.

I am using Canon IXUS330 .. also got a Minolta Xg, if its any better.

Any tips?

 

[Del_CtrlnoAlt]

very hard for the ixus series, never use minolta xg b4...

from my experience, you have to close the aperture down to get a clear overall picture, den use bounce flash to have better illumination. quite hard to do with a prosumer cam, even harder on a P&S. u also need a tripod to have more organised shot.

 

[TsQ]

ermmm thats what i thought... is the Sony W1 a prosumer cam? just want to know what kinda camera i should look for next time.

 

[Del_CtrlnoAlt]

buy a DSLR, den u try to experiment... at least u are less bothered by the noise level... den get a super wide angle lens, so that you can place the cam nearer instead of behind the sofa, or even take the sofa into the picture. there is 101 ways to play with it... prosumer only gives u 1/2 the enjoyment.

btw the best prosumer imho now is a F828... y? cos its a good camera for beginner... almost 90% of the F828 users in CS have already upgraded to a DSLR... if u wan we can even organise a outing to your place to shoot your HT, den watch some dvds... :bsmilie:

 

[imaginary_number]

You could do a bit of post-processing in photoshop and get a much better image. But before that, I would recommend that you put the camera on a tripod, use self-timer and the lowest ISO possible on your cam. Remove noise (if necessary), correct the perspective, adjust the colours and brightness and finally, sharpen the image.

Here's a quick sample what post-processing can do:

 

[asturias105]

You could do a bit of post-processing in photoshop and get a much better image. But before that, I would recommend that you put the camera on a tripod, use self-timer and the lowest ISO possible on your cam. Remove noise (if necessary), correct the perspective, adjust the colours and brightness and finally, sharpen the image.

Here's a quick sample what post-processing can do:

Thats cool!how did u correct the perspective?

 

[imaginary_number]

Thats cool!how did u correct the perspective?

In Photoshop, Edit->Transform->Perspective.

 

[Del_CtrlnoAlt]

imaginary number u are the best!

but dun ya think the tweeter on the speakers look abit weird?

anyway the best photoshop skills can't help if pic is bad, so take a good pic & let photoshop make it better...

 

[oracle0711]

TsQ, the 2nd pic is quite well taken in terms of composition.

 

[Del_CtrlnoAlt]

TsQ, the 2nd pic is quite well taken in terms of composition.

err the 2nd pic is an official product shoot by professional... its an advert... :sweat:

 

[jonlou]

abit noisy hor, imaginary_number?

 

[TsQ]

wow.. thks for all the suggestions.. will keep this thread handy for future references.

as for DSLR, well i dont think i want to fork out that much $ and the size of these camera means i will probably never take it out. The largest size camera i willing to go is of the size like sony W1.

OK back to the discussion...

imaginary_number : What u mean by "correct the perspective". The photoshopped photo you did does looked a lot better, but the size of the photo is somehow stretched. Maybe correcting the perspective means cutting off the sofa, that's not a problem for me to do it in PS.. only thing i want to learn is the photo quality improvement.

oracle0711 :hehe if I can take a shot like the 2nd one, i would probably quit my job and be a full timer photographer.

 

[budiman]

Use DSLR with bounced external flash, you'll get what you want.

 

[reachme2003]

2nd onkyo's pic likely taken with a view camera.

 

[AJ23]

From what I can see from ur original picture,

(1) remove the yellow sofa to make way for urself
(2) stand further away from ur HT setup, use the optical zoom to adjust ur framing
(3) if possible, mout the camera on a tripod or some low table, ie use a lower angle to shoot instead of shooting from a higher viewpoint
(4) shoot at the lowest ISO possible

 

[imaginary_number]

but dun ya think the tweeter on the speakers look abit weird?

Looks ok to me actually.

anyway the best photoshop skills can't help if pic is bad, so take a good pic & let photoshop make it better...

This is a pertinent point for the threadstarter.

 

[imaginary_number]

abit noisy hor, imaginary_number?

I had bumped up the midtones (and subsequently, the corresponding noise). In addition, the original file posted by the threadstarter was relatively too small to get an accurate noise profile. I could have done selective noise removal, but I was just churning out a quick sample.

 

[imaginary_number]

OK back to the discussion...

imaginary_number : What u mean by "correct the perspective".

Here's some reading on distortion for you:
http://www.vanwalree.com/optics/distortion.html

The photoshopped photo you did does looked a lot better, but the size of the photo is somehow stretched. Maybe correcting the perspective means cutting off the sofa, that's not a problem for me to do it in PS.. only thing i want to learn is the photo quality improvement.

One of the reasons why the onkyo photo is visually aesthetic is due to the prim and proper lines defining the objects, i.e. perfectly vertical and horizontally. If you take a look at the edges of the screen in your shot, you'll notice that it's actually slightly curved. This creates an optical illusion (perhaps subtle) that the top portion is actually longer than the bottom. Hence, I made the corrections to straighten the "lines" in the shot. Cutting off the sofa was a personal preference ;p.

As for the brightness and colours, you can play around with the "levels" and "colour balance" tools in photoshop to get the desired effect. Sharpening can be applied using the "Unsharp Mask". Google the web if u require tutorials.

Hope that helps.

 

[TsQ]

ic.. thks.. will read bout it.

i am starting to get quite interested in taking such product's photos... like these below. Can anyone recommend what type of $500-700 camera would do the job? probably not something that does it the best, but anything close enough as I need something small/mid sized, so DSLR or any of those sony 828 is out from the choice... thkss..

 

[Witness]

wow......regardless of wat the photo is like...the system is super cool la hhaa...