Product Photography Retouching - How to Perfect It to Look Professional?

[Kevin Cunnings]

Hi Everyone,

I've been watching Youtube videos of "product retouching/touchup" and there are some good videos.

Basically right now, after taking the photos, I clean up the dust and the surface using clone tool,spot healing and the like.

I also play around with Shadows, brightness/contrast, levels, and hue/saturation.

However, I still feel the product photos I take do not look "professional" enough.

I'd like to get my photos to look like the Apple iPhone and the Rolex watch (link below).

But.... Are these photos taken with photoshop retouching, or are these just renders created from Photoshop?

They seem so perfect, not a speck of flaw....

iPhone 5

Rolex Watch

 

[IamSam]

Hi Kevin and welcome to PSG.

You cant create links yet but you can upload images. Use the "Insert Image" icon in the reply window.

 

[Tom Mann]

Since your links didn't work, and you didn't post any examples of your own work, the best I can do is make a few general comments that almost always turn out to be applicable applicable when this question is asked on photography / photoshop forums.

First, when one is doing product photography, probably THE most important aspect of the process is the lighting. If you don't get the lighting right, you'll be forced to spend huge amounts of time in PS correcting the lighting flaws, and still not get as good a result as if you had spent 1/4 that amount of time getting the lighting right in the 1st place. Towards this end, if you have not done so already, set aside some time and study this book from beginning to end:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0240812255/?

It's the bible on lighting for product photographers. Practice the setups applicable to your particular needs.

After you get the lighting down, probably the second most common thing newbie product photographers get wrong is depth of field issues. For much (most?) product photography one generally wants everything in focus. With full format and DX format DSLRs, to get adequate DoF, you'll need to stop your lens down as far as it goes. However, when you do this, diffraction sets in and everything gets a bit soft. This looks worse than poo for serious commercial work. You've got two major options: T&S lenses (also, look up the Scheimpflug Principle), and focus stacking using a monstrously solid tripod, an equally solid geared focusing rail, and focus stacking software. There is absolutely nothing that says you can't combine these two techniques.

My focus on the above two issues assumes you already are using a high quality macro lens, and have the fastidiousness and work ethic of a martyr in terms of keeping everything spotless, preparing the object correctly (especially if it is something like food), watching exactly where every shadow and glint are, are willing to make seemingly microscopic adjustments in your lighting, etc.

I'll be able to respond to your specific needs after I see some of your own work.

HTH,

Tom M

 

[Tom Mann]

Although this isn't commercial product photography, here's an example of how an incredibly simple lighting technique ( just a single sheet of xerox paper) can add to a macro shot in a way that would be utterly impossible to replicate in PS if you tried to start with a shot taken using diffuse ambient lighting or the usual front-facing, on-the-camera flash.

Here's the setup:



And, here's my result.




HTH,

Tom

PS - BTW, both of the products you mentioned are highly reflective. Photographing such items requires a careful balance between out-of-control, blown highlights and overly flat light such as one might get in a light tent. To get a very good idea of how best to show off such items, just go to a high end jewelry shop and look at the lights in their ceiling and showcases. ;-)

 

[Tom Mann]

PPS - BTW, I'm not trying to avoid your question about retouching techniques, but IMHO, it's completely pointless to discuss such PS techniques until you have all the basic photographic techniques down pat. I think you would be surprised at the amount of very simple PS work is actually used in product photography, particularly, in catalog photography. When you have to be cranking out hundreds of pix a day for a catalog, you just don't have time to muck around with each image separately in PS. That's a luxury usually reserved for small volume situations.

 

[Kevin Cunnings]

Hi Tom,

Thanks so much for offering your insight. I just wrote a long post but I accidentally closed my browser.

I need 5 post counts to post links so i will make a few useless posts...

 

[Kevin Cunnings]

Hi Tom,

Thanks so much for offering your insight. I just wrote a long post but I accidentally closed my browser.

http://www.flashforge-usa.com/media/creator-i-5.jpg
http://www.flashforge-usa.com/media/creator-i-2.jpg
http://www.flashforge-usa.com/media/creator-i-7.jpg

Could you please critique my photos? Maybe I'm my own biggest critic, but these photos just don't look like the Apple iPhone photos or the Rolex watches, or even the photos below, which is the effect i'm trying to accomplish.

http://store.makerbot.com/skin/frontend/default/makerbot/images/mb/rep/gallery/Rep_GalleryImage3.jpg
http://store.makerbot.com/skin/frontend/default/makerbot/images/mb/rep/gallery/Rep_GalleryImage4.jpg
http://store.makerbot.com/skin/frontend/default/makerbot/images/mb/rep/gallery/Rep_GalleryImage5.jpg

The lines and shadows of the above 3 photos are so evenly distributed... For example the side panel ... It's literally just one color, no shadows at all. To be honest, these 3 photos look like it was completely created with Photoshop (product rendering), instead of with a camera...

How do I achieve this?!

 

[Tom Mann]

I never did see the links to the watch or the iPhone that you mentioned, but I can tell you that the last 6 links that you posted (ie, to the 3D printers) most definitely are not photographs. You listed some of the clues -- there are more.

Furthermore, I would bet that they were not made in Photoshop. Possibly, Illustrator, but much more likely, one of the dedicated 3D rendering programs either from the CAD / engineering side, or, even more likely from the illustration side, e.g., Maya, Blender, SolidWorks, etc. There are folks on here that are much more knowledgeable about such programs than I am. Perhaps they will join in the discussion.

Good luck,

Tom