How do I take pro-looking product photos?

[iSamurai]

Hello,

Check this link first, and look at any picture... Most of the sites selling stuff like these have these type of pics.

The pics look like it's been worn by someone, but there's no one and I dunno how they get the hood up... and it also looks suspended as there's not really any shadows towards the bottom.

My first attempt to deduce this is that they probably have some wires beneath the clothing supporting the hood and mimic it been worn...

They look like apple product pics (which is rendered), but I'm not (yet) speculating that these are rather real images.

Well, how do you do that? I feel totally clueless

 

[JFreak]

First you shoot the jacket on a person, then you shoot the hood on a table. Then you remove face from the first shot and replace it with the second shot. Easy, but requires some manual editing.

 

[iSamurai]

First you shoot the jacket on a person, then you shoot the hood on a table. Then you remove face from the first shot and replace it with the second shot. Easy, but requires some manual editing.

I've thought about that just now... but you need the same lighting and angle Photoshop is not a problem though... Are there any other ways to do this without actually touching Photoshop and get a "real person"?

 

[JFreak]

Are there any other ways to do this without actually touching Photoshop and get a "real person"?

Ask some workshop to create a dummy face that does not have anything in the area where the hood should show. Only the edges that keep the hood in proper form when you fit the dummy face into the hood. Can you guess where this leads to...?

 

[compuwar]

Hello,

Check this link first, and look at any picture... Most of the sites selling stuff like these have these type of pics.

The pics look like it's been worn by someone, but there's no one and I dunno how they get the hood up... and it also looks suspended as there's not really any shadows towards the bottom.

My first attempt to deduce this is that they probably have some wires beneath the clothing supporting the hood and mimic it been worn...

They look like apple product pics (which is rendered), but I'm not (yet) speculating that these are rather real images.

Well, how do you do that? I feel totally clueless

In these shots, it looks like they've got some sort of supporting inserts inside the clothing- either hidden in the parts that aren't in view or perhaps inside the lining. You can get the effect with things like wire, or by putting a model in a chromakey suit and doing a second shot and combining them in PS. Sinc e you're lighting the scene in the studio, you have control over the lighting and can recreate it. The flat top-of-sleeves in some of these shots pretty much rule out a model.


The color changes are all Photoshop though.

 

[iSamurai]

Can you guess where this leads to...?

um... do you mean that you first make a frame for the hood and then connect it to a normal dummy body?

putting a model in a chromakey suit

wow, that's a bit too much for me I'm thinking of a transparent plastic frame for the hood, and wire/plastic for the body maybe. The problem with wire is that if the jacket is thin, the wire frame will be visible

I'm thinking of the foam thing that Mythbusters made to cast buster's body. It's light and can be shaped fairly easily. Well, I don't know how to make that either

Yes, the colour changes are done in Photoshop, because they look identical, just the colours are different.

I'm just need a cheap, easy and quick way to do it. Need some brainstorming

 

[ChrisA]

Hello,

Check this link first, and look at any picture... Most of the sites selling stuff like these have these type of pics.

I think these are fairly straight shots. The photographer is using some kind of form inside. Yes he's used Photoshop to remove the wires or stand or whatever is used to hang the jackets. Most people will want to get it "right" in the camera and not have to spend hours on the computer with PS.

I seriously doubt these shots are composited, no one wants to do that much work

Loks like these are all evenly lits maybe with a pair of softboxes and shot on seamless paper background. Yes you cn cut the product out using PS but it is so much faster to use wite paper, then you do not need to be so exact in PS.

 

[weinrdog]

Looks like some kind of plastic/cardboard/wire support (or several pieces).

Maybe a cut up & bent flexible cutting board.

If you cut the 'right' pattern, you can get the hood to stand up that way, same for the arms. Wires between the forms would let you position it.

If you look closely at this one
and this one

It looks like there is a hood section, two wires/bars to simulate shoulders & collar bones, a chest tube (or plastic form from a swimsuit like they use at Costco) and 2 piece arm tubes in each arm. It doesn't look like a photoshop/chromakey suit effect. Too much time/expense to edit to get a catalog full of images. Much easier to have someone build a frame/model like that & support it with a stand that matches the background that is easy to edit out in just a few seconds.

 

[compuwar]

I think these are fairly straight shots. The photographer is using some kind of form inside. Yes he's used Photoshop to remove the wires or stand or whatever is used to hang the jackets. Most people will want to get it "right" in the camera and not have to spend hours on the computer with PS.

Or they're just clipped or clamped in the back, no need to PS out it then. If you cut out foamcore or cardboard to the right shape, you can put it at a slight angle and just make sure you're using the right stiffener for the bits you want to "hang" right.

I seriously doubt these shots are composited, no one wants to do that much work

Unless they're billing by the hour!

Loks like these are all evenly lits maybe with a pair of softboxes and shot on seamless paper background. Yes you cn cut the product out using PS but it is so much faster to use wite paper, then you do not need to be so exact in PS.

Looks like the left light is a tad hotter to me. I'd probably have lit it evenly, but the slight difference actually works better IMO.

Any evenly-lit background will work so long as the color is consistent and not at the edge of the product. Background eraser tool can get you a product-only layer in seconds if you can light the background well enough to make it consistent. You could probably automate it easily if you used one of the chroma colors (white tends to show up in too many places.)

White is easier, since you can blow it out with a background light or two for consistency, but then you have to have it far enough back to control spill if you're in a smaller space or you end up with black flags all over the place.

Both approaches have their merits, but the chroma one allows the designer an easier time with dropping the image into multiple backgrounds for different uses, though they can do it themselves and bill for the time...

 

[Tilpots]

Buy yourself a mannequin body on ebay (search Mannequin) for about $20. Now you have your body. Take some old coat hangers out of your closet and bend them over a helmet or bowling ball and you have a nice arch for the hood support. Light it, shoot it, and sell it.

 

[soms]

I'd bet they aren't wasting time/money on editing those pics with photoshop. Most likely they have some kind of dummy that has a top that will keep the frame stiff but not be visible.

 

[iSamurai]

Take some old coat hangers out of your closet and bend them over a helmet or bowling ball and you have a nice arch for the hood support.

Thanks for this tip I'm gonna get some cardboard boxes for the body and some coat hangers for the hood, but for now I think I'm gonna get a real person and take another pic of inside of the hood then merge the 2 in Photoshop...

 

[bucharu]

Think flat.

Based on my knowledge of one clothing retailer's photo setup, my guess would be most other retailers also photograph their product on a flat horizontal surface, with camera and lights mounted on an overhead rig.

This solves the problem of propping the apparel upright, as on a body. It makes it easy to insert some padding into body/legs/arms, if the goal is to have a more 3D appearance - as opposed to a garment arrayed flat on a background. Since it's horizontal, it's probably also easy to insert some sort of wire frame in the hood that is concealed by the narrowing of the opening around the face.

And, of course, no shadows at the bottom...

 

[Digital Skunk]

WOW!

Way to forward thinking here.

Trust me, they wire the clothes to look that way then take the photos while they are standing upright. The wire is hooked into the back of the wall, or they lay the whole thing flat on the ground depending on the studio/photographer they use to shoot the stuff.

There isn't much PS involved outside of color toning.

 

[iSamurai]

WOW!

Way to forward thinking here.

Trust me, they wire the clothes to look that way then take the photos while they are standing upright. The wire is hooked into the back of the wall, or they lay the whole thing flat on the ground depending on the studio/photographer they use to shoot the stuff.

There isn't much PS involved outside of color toning.

yeah busharu there with some out of the box thinking, thanks for another idea, but then this time you need some kind of ladder or lift which makes the whole thing more difficult...

and idk what you mean by "wire is hooked into the back of the wall"... I think they photograph the whole thing standing upright, with a stand/tripod thing attached to the body frame/foam (like a lollipop), so it can stand upright at eye level and the stand/tripod is removed in PS.

 

[avincent52]

I absolutely guarantee you that this is done using either a dummy bust or stuffed and laid flat with some kind of simple support for the hood (Like a wired snaked through the drawstring channel)
No photoshop at all.

A) Because this stuff needs to be churned out quick and time is money.
Asssistants who stuff and hang clothes work much cheaper than the ones skilled enough to fiddle for half an hour with each shot in Photoshop.

B) I used to work for Skiing magazine, and we ran shots like this all the time in the days before digital photography or Photoshop. And no, it wasn't airbrushed.

In the grand scheme of things, this is really commodity photography--set up the lights, swap the garments fast and shoot the whole line in half a day.
It's when you start putting the clothes on models that the skill level--and cost level--increases.

best
Allen

 

[Digital Skunk]

yeah busharu there with some out of the box thinking, thanks for another idea, but then this time you need some kind of ladder or lift which makes the whole thing more difficult...

and idk what you mean by "wire is hooked into the back of the wall"... I think they photograph the whole thing standing upright, with a stand/tripod thing attached to the body frame/foam (like a lollipop), so it can stand upright at eye level and the stand/tripod is removed in PS.

They just punch a whole in the back of the product and support the wire from the wall they are shooting against.

 

[iSamurai]

I absolutely guarantee you that this is done using either a dummy bust or stuffed and laid flat with some kind of simple support for the hood (Like a wired snaked through the drawstring channel)
No photoshop at all.

I don't think it's that easy that east to wire through the drawstring channel, I think they fix a wire inside the hood. But laying it flat I've never thought of it...

They just punch a whole in the back of the product and support the wire from the wall they are shooting against.

...but I don't think they will make holes behind all of the jackets just for photos because just that page of jackets would cost themm $30,000... and for me how am I gonna sell stuff on eBay (or similar) if it's holed?

 

[Digital Skunk]

...but I don't think they will make holes behind all of the jackets just for photos because just that page of jackets would cost themm $30,000... and for me how am I gonna sell stuff on eBay (or similar) if it's holed?

Good point.