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Product pictures quality


Roman78

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With continuous lights, it's possible to run into a problem with insufficient CRI (color rendering index). Quartz-halide lamps have a relatively high CRI, but they tend to run too hot to be practical in a softbox. CFL and LED lamps might be okay, but many of them are not, especially cheaper ones*. The problem with low CRI is that, even when you've balanced color using a Kodak gray card or similar, correct color will be impossible to achieve because the spectrum of the light has gaps in it (or however a more knowledgeable person would describe it). CFL lamps, including those sold by photographic supply houses, often have CRIs as low as 80 or even lower, whereas strobes and quartz lights usually are 95 or better. Light from the sun, the standard by which artificial light sources are measured, is 100.

 

An informative discussion of CRI is here: https://petapixel.com/2013/09/19/importance-choosing-high-quality-cfl-bulbs-continuous-light-shooting/

 

* edit: Some of the recent versions of LED studio lights have a high CRI and are worth looking at.

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Yes i read that. Also that this kind of light makes people look a little ill. But the good thing of old Computer is, look at 5 same machines, they all have a different colour.

 

The problem that occurs is that some pictures looks shaky because of a too long exposure time. Even 1/60 on a tripod looks shaky. Didn't had this problem whit the flash lights. I have to use 1/100 and a little higher ISO. My DSLR does not have MLU.

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Yes i read that. Also that this kind of light makes people look a little ill. But the good thing of old Computer is, look at 5 same machines, they all have a different colour.

 

The problem that occurs is that some pictures looks shaky because of a too long exposure time. Even 1/60 on a tripod looks shaky. Didn't had this problem whit the flash lights. I have to use 1/100 and a little higher ISO. My DSLR does not have MLU.

Live view if you've got it combined with a remote release or use the built in timer to minimise operator induced shake.  

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Yes i read that. Also that this kind of light makes people look a little ill. But the good thing of old Computer is, look at 5 same machines, they all have a different colour.

 

The problem that occurs is that some pictures looks shaky because of a too long exposure time. Even 1/60 on a tripod looks shaky. Didn't had this problem whit the flash lights. I have to use 1/100 and a little higher ISO. My DSLR does not have MLU.

Live view if you've got it combined with a remote release or use the built in timer to minimise operator induced shake.  

 

I noticed when i shoot in Silence Mode I have less shake. I think it is the mirror. Live View is something i should test indeed. 

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I've been going back and forth about this question, whether to replace my CFL light with electronic flash or one of the recently available high-CRI iterations of LEDs. The latter are cheaper by far. I have a mirrorless camera and a cable release, so there's no worry about camera shake, but subject movement (e.g., pouring liquid) might require flash unless the LED light were so strong that a high shutter speed could be used.

 

I used to have 2000 Ws unit and finally replaced it with 4000 Ws. It wasn't overkill, considering the needs of 4x5 camera and slow film. With a digital camera and higher usable ISOs, though, less is required but exactly how much less I don't know. Paul C. Buff publishes a light output table for his strobes. It looks like for tabletop, a 600 Ws strobe in a softbox would be enough.

 

Cheers,

Don

 

edit: "But the good thing of old Computer is, look at 5 same machines, they all have a different colour." 
        CRI problems also can show up as strange hues and casts in neutral, especially reflective, surfaces such as chrome.

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edit: "But the good thing of old Computer is, look at 5 same machines, they all have a different colour." 

        CRI problems also can show up as strange hues and casts in neutral, especially reflective, surfaces such as chrome.

 

Try photographing meat in a butcher shop. Or tulips in a exhibition hall that normally is the village gymnasium.

 

Creating a camera profile helps a lot. Unless there are real holes in the spectrum. Like with yellow sodium vapor lights or cheap fluorescent tubes.

You do need to have a ColorChecker or ColorChecker Passport for that. ColorChecker Passport comes with it's own Lightroom plug-in.

The Adobe DNG profile editor is standalone.

 

wim

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I made something like that from an old TFT screen (see previous page), but did not tried something like colour or frosted paper on it. Could be a nice effect, will try that sometime.

 

So.. yesterday I had some time to edit pictures I took last week. Now I need to practise my scratch-removing-skills. The program I normally use is DxO Optics Pro 9, but that has no good scratch removing options, so I have to export some pictures into another photo editing software.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Had not much time lately, but I edited my first uploaded pictures (brighter and more contrast) now I had some time to shoot some more Product Pictures. Small objects are not the problem, but bigger are. On small object I just can adjust the tone curve a little and I get a nice picture, like this nice calculator. But bigger machines are a bit of a problem, like this Apple II. Here I did a Cut-out rather than a tone curve modification only.  Good is that it has straight lines. Did not add shadows on this one. What do you guys think.

 

foto12.jpg

 

foto13.jpg

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