Photographing gadgets for review or website in a quick way.
Topics with reviews of various gadgets appear on the site often enough and maybe my story will seem useful just for the occasion - to take a photo of the gadget for review. Here I will tell you how to quickly take a picture of a small gadget with the highest possible quality. In a pinch, this can be done even by the camera of the phone, I will do so. Since the technical means in this topic are limited, almost any improvement in the technique used will lead to an increase in the quality of the result.
And so the first thing to understand, the main thing in photography is light. Logically true? ;) But as they say devil in details. First, the light should be enough. Even the hi-end matrix of digital cameras are very fond of light, not to mention soap boxes and camera phones. For the latter, light is the only option to get a decent photo. Secondly, the light from one source will make our photo a little less than full like a portrait on the background of a carpet. It does not suit us, the light should fill all the space around our gadget, just as it will allow to remove ugly sharp shadows. And finally, it would be nice to have some background, so as not to photograph our gadget on the background of old wallpaper or even worse. Of course the photos of the gadget in the interior are also interesting, but you need an interesting interior and normal lighting. But sometimes you just need a photo of the gadget without unnecessary details, and even “erase” the gadget from the background to overlay the picture, for example, it is easier with a neutral one-color background.
We all see professional photos of various gadgets, but what do object pros use to make such beautiful photos? They use various lightbox options ( photobox , lightbox ).
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As you can see, nothing complicated - in fact, a box with white walls + background. The essence of the lightbox is that the light, repeatedly reflected from all the walls (or through the walls, if you have good additional light sources) falls on our gadget from all sides, creating the feeling that the light is coming from everywhere and at the same time will not allow sharp shadows and bright glare. It is not at all difficult to make the lightbox itself; there are plenty of photo-video instructions on the net.
I will take for example the usual box and make a lightbox in 2 minutes. This is ideal if you need to take a couple of photos once a year.
Here is the box itself, then we put plain white paper there (I didn't even stick it, attached only the edge of the sheet to the top of the box).
The lightbox is ready, but we are faced with the second problem. Where to get the light in the box? An ordinary (normal;) person is unlikely to have a remote flashlight with an infrared sensor. After all, we are shooting the phone with the camera (with the soapbox the same story), and there is nothing more to synchronize the flashes. So we will use the built-in flash in the phone. Incandescent bulbs and other light sources will not be considered yet.
Shooting a flash in the forehead is not the best idea, so we will divert the light from the built-in flash. How? Yes, very simple, reflector. The easiest option is a strip of white paper.
We take a strip and glue it to the phone with masking tape (so as not to spoil the phone), but you can also not glue it - just hold it with your hand (but it is inconvenient).
We recall physics on the subject of how the light is reflected, and try to get this effect: the light from the flash built into the phone hits the reflector that is attached to the phone and reflects on the lid of our lightbox and then reflects on our gadget from the lid. Here is an approximate diagram (angles of incidence and reflection of light are not observed!). This diagram is for example only. Red lines indicate how the light is going. The blue line indicates where the camera is pointing.
As a result, instead of a dull photo with a flash in the forehead:
We get quite a good photo. And time is spent only 5-7 minutes.
The photos of the gadget (Canon Powershot a570) were made by the built-in camera of the nokia 5800 phone, no additional lighting other than the flash of the phone was used.
And so the first thing to understand, the main thing in photography is light. Logically true? ;) But as they say devil in details. First, the light should be enough. Even the hi-end matrix of digital cameras are very fond of light, not to mention soap boxes and camera phones. For the latter, light is the only option to get a decent photo. Secondly, the light from one source will make our photo a little less than full like a portrait on the background of a carpet. It does not suit us, the light should fill all the space around our gadget, just as it will allow to remove ugly sharp shadows. And finally, it would be nice to have some background, so as not to photograph our gadget on the background of old wallpaper or even worse. Of course the photos of the gadget in the interior are also interesting, but you need an interesting interior and normal lighting. But sometimes you just need a photo of the gadget without unnecessary details, and even “erase” the gadget from the background to overlay the picture, for example, it is easier with a neutral one-color background.
We all see professional photos of various gadgets, but what do object pros use to make such beautiful photos? They use various lightbox options ( photobox , lightbox ).
')
As you can see, nothing complicated - in fact, a box with white walls + background. The essence of the lightbox is that the light, repeatedly reflected from all the walls (or through the walls, if you have good additional light sources) falls on our gadget from all sides, creating the feeling that the light is coming from everywhere and at the same time will not allow sharp shadows and bright glare. It is not at all difficult to make the lightbox itself; there are plenty of photo-video instructions on the net.
I will take for example the usual box and make a lightbox in 2 minutes. This is ideal if you need to take a couple of photos once a year.
Here is the box itself, then we put plain white paper there (I didn't even stick it, attached only the edge of the sheet to the top of the box).
The lightbox is ready, but we are faced with the second problem. Where to get the light in the box? An ordinary (normal;) person is unlikely to have a remote flashlight with an infrared sensor. After all, we are shooting the phone with the camera (with the soapbox the same story), and there is nothing more to synchronize the flashes. So we will use the built-in flash in the phone. Incandescent bulbs and other light sources will not be considered yet.
Shooting a flash in the forehead is not the best idea, so we will divert the light from the built-in flash. How? Yes, very simple, reflector. The easiest option is a strip of white paper.
We take a strip and glue it to the phone with masking tape (so as not to spoil the phone), but you can also not glue it - just hold it with your hand (but it is inconvenient).
We recall physics on the subject of how the light is reflected, and try to get this effect: the light from the flash built into the phone hits the reflector that is attached to the phone and reflects on the lid of our lightbox and then reflects on our gadget from the lid. Here is an approximate diagram (angles of incidence and reflection of light are not observed!). This diagram is for example only. Red lines indicate how the light is going. The blue line indicates where the camera is pointing.
As a result, instead of a dull photo with a flash in the forehead:
We get quite a good photo. And time is spent only 5-7 minutes.
The photos of the gadget (Canon Powershot a570) were made by the built-in camera of the nokia 5800 phone, no additional lighting other than the flash of the phone was used.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/86239/
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