Ideas to jury-rig a static product shooting table

[monochrome]

I've been asked for ideas by the webstore of a very small charitable organization to help design a portable product shooting set-up

• Operated by various volunteers, so has to be simple and fixed
• Portable - no set-up possible
• Using a PnS digicam
• Using a roll-up backdrop, approx. 2x5 feet
• 2 permanently mounted strip fluorescent lights
• will attach camera to a flash bracket
• Need some way to mount the flash bracket to a rod and mount the rod to a heavy base, so it can be moved vertically and horizontally
• Entire set-up to be mounted to a board or something

Anyone have any suggestions?

[pingflood]

What size are the products?

[monochrome]

Originally Posted by pingflood

What size are the products?

Most of the products are less than 6" wide and less than 12" high (they are ostly Steiff stuffed animals).

Some, though, might be a large as 48" high. That's the part that makes me crazy.

• If everything was small I could just do something cheesy like rig the Flash Bracket on a pipe with some sort of clamp.
• If the backdrop hadn't been laminated I could rig a flash.
• If there was more room I could make it permanent, but it has to be small enough to put away somewhere and must be easy to just plop on a work table and fire away.
• If anyone knew how to take a picture (or would be willing to learn) they could use the zoom function, but the person who asked for my help wants a fixed, idiot-proof set-up (I know that is unkind, but that's how I was asked).

I'm thinking something like a used Copy Stand (the kind on a heavy base) modified to hold the Flash Bracket; and the vertical fluorescent lights permanently attached to a piece of plywood. Roll the backdrop around some sort of tube or dowel and hang it from the wall behind the table. Hang the backdrop, plug in the lights, put the copy stand on the plywood, attach the camera to the flash bracket with the tripod screw, move the copy stand until the product is framed in the LCD, turn on the camera (settings memorized), do your shot. Next product.

I'm a volunteer Board Member. The employees don't want me "interfering" by offering to Photoshop.

I a sorely tempted to tell them I can't meet these requirements.

[pingflood]

Ugh, not an easy one to pull off.

If you can mount the roll out back drop to a wall, how about this...

Mount the backdrop to the wall.

On its left, mount something moderately reflective (foam core board?) on a swing out arm so it can sit flush with the wall or swing out 90 degrees.

On its right, mount something translucent, like a bedsheet stretched out over a wood frame, that can also swing out.

Then you'd just swing the reflector and the diffuser out, pull down the back drop, put the lights on the right so they go through the diffuser, and position the camera...

Sorry, not sure it makes much sense, but it'd be a pretty simple setup that would yield soft even lighting for products.

Also, keep in mind that when shooting under fluorescents, keep your shutter speed pretty low or you'll have serious white balance issues!

[monochrome]

Originally Posted by pingflood

Ugh, not an easy one to pull off.

If you can mount the roll out back drop to a wall, how about this...

Mount the backdrop to the wall.

On its left, mount something moderately reflective (foam core board?) on a swing out arm so it can sit flush with the wall or swing out 90 degrees.

On its right, mount something translucent, like a bedsheet stretched out over a wood frame, that can also swing out.

Then you'd just swing the reflector and the diffuser out, pull down the back drop, put the lights on the right so they go through the diffuser, and position the camera...

Sorry, not sure it makes much sense, but it'd be a pretty simple setup that would yield soft even lighting for products.

Also, keep in mind that when shooting under fluorescents, keep your shutter speed pretty low or you'll have serious white balance issues!

Thanks pingflood. I hadn't dealt with the WB issues yet - just trying to figure out the hardware first. I had suggested a collapsible fabric lightbox - rejected as too complex. I like the swing-out diffuser/reflector set-up.. Now if I can just get them to agree to a regular lamp with a correct bulb...

There are plenty of inexpensive collapsiible Copy Stands on eBay - one even has an articulating head so I could punt the flash bracket.

I think light is the last technical hurdle, then I have to make it simple and collapsible.

They're just going to have to learn SOMETHING.

[pingflood]

The WB issue is that fluorescents vary color temps through the cycle. Set your DSLR to something like 1/500 shutter speed and fire off a bunch of shots and see the color shifts that occur. If you stick to 1/60, 1/125 or much slower then you avoid this.

[monochrome]

Originally Posted by pingflood

The WB issue is that fluorescents vary color temps through the cycle. Set your DSLR to something like 1/500 shutter speed and fire off a bunch of shots and see the color shifts that occur. If you stick to 1/60, 1/125 or much slower then you avoid this.

Yeah, I forgot about color cycling. Fluorescents are probably out if they'd have to set something in-camera. Saved settings will no doubt get lost, or they'd use the camera for something else.

[Sew-Classic]

I've been doing various product shots with a point and shoot for some time, and I have some insight as to this.

First of all, what color is the background going to be? White or black will wreck havoc with a P&S on full auto mode.


If the camera has a manual or custom white balance setting, you will get close enough with 5500k (or so) CFL's. Purist will hold their nose, but I personally think that this will be the least of your worries.

Taken with K20D:


Taken with P&S:


The photos are out of camera jpg's with just cropping, resizing, frame and text added. No fancy post processing.

Personally, I'd explain to them that even if you could contrive the perfect portable studio and lighting set-up, the person holding the camera has to know something about what they are doing. I think the objective with the given limitations is doomed.