Photos of Furniture

Galwegian09

Hi,

I am creating a new furniture brochure and website. I have pictures of most of the products that I sell. The pictures I have are good quality with the background cut out. They were taken by the factory that makes the furniture. However I need to take more photos of this furniture and furniture that is the same colour and I want the colour to look the same. What would I need to be able to this? I don't mind spending some money on it as It will be ongoing work. I have no experience of photography so any help would be appreciated. I think I need the following

A dark room with no natural light- I can set this up easily enough
Lighting - Need advice
Camera and stand - Need advice
Anything Else?

BreadnBuddha

Galwegian09 wrote: »

Hi,

I am creating a new furniture brochure and website. I have pictures of most of the products that I sell. The pictures I have are good quality with the background cut out. They were taken by the factory that makes the furniture. However I need to take more photos of this furniture and furniture that is the same colour and I want the colour to look the same. What would I need to be able to this? I don't mind spending some money on it as It will be ongoing work. I have no experience of photography so any help would be appreciated. I think I need the following

A dark room with no natural light- I can set this up easily enough
Lighting - Need advice
Camera and stand - Need advice
Anything Else?

I don't mean to sound like a smart ass, but what you need is a photographer. If you don't know anything about photographing products today, you're not going to produce good results without spending lots of time and probably lots of money, with no guarantee of quality results.

Your business is selling furniture, not setting up a photo studio.

Get someone with the equipment and skill to take the photos and work something out with them, spending your own time focusing on your business.

Galwegian09

Hi BreadNBuddha

Thanks for the advice! I would still like to know how much it would cost to have a simple but effective studio set up in my own showroom that I can take a picture when I need it. Not to be a smart ass but how difficult can it be once I have the equipment in place.

Its a lot easier than hauling furniture to a photographer to take them. The last time I got a photographer in he brought a light and a camera. I would be sure that what I paid him would have bought the light and a good percentage of the camera as well!

BreadnBuddha

Galwegian09 wrote: »

Hi BreadNBuddha

Thanks for the advice! I would still like to know how much it would cost to have a simple but effective studio set up in my own showroom that I can take a picture when I need it. Not to be a smart ass but how difficult can it be once I have the equipment in place.

Its a lot easier than hauling furniture to a photographer to take them. The last time I got a photographer in he brought a light and a camera. I would be sure that what I paid him would have bought the light and a good percentage of the camera as well!

Okay, fair enough. What kind of space do you have available, and what kinds of furniture are you talking about? Give dimensions if possible so people can consider lighting and camera/lens recommendations.

Can you set something up semi-permanently, or will the space be configured to take some photos, then everything packed away until next time etc.

Galwegian09

I have as much space as is needed. It can be set up permanently. The furniture is free standing tables, chairs, wardrobes beds and chest of drawers. Largest item would be a king size bed or a table and 8 chairs.
I have been told to get a point and shoot camera. I was looking at this one?

Canon SX530 HS PowerShot Point and Shoot Digital Camera
Plus a tripod

flyingsnail

when you say with the background cut out do you mean like this?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:American-Furniture.jpg

To achieve the above look I would use a roll of white seamless paper, 9 foot wide rolls are common and should fit most furniture, you could probably cut out the furniture in photoshop to get the same result but it would probably take longer and would still need to be lit properly. What lights to actually use will probably depend on how close you are to the actual furniture. Something like a YongNuo Speedlight (About € 75)would an entry level starting point but would be very limited in power output compared to a proper studio strobe. Elinchrom make some nice entry level kits with two lights (about € 750 -850) but I don’t think the soft boxes that come with those would be great for what you want. For a modifier, I would go with a big soft box or multiples depending on the furniture and lighting style required.

For complicated setups like table and 8 chairs where you want the lighting to be even you could look at a technique called exposure blending.

Pretty much any current camera body will take the type of shots you are looking for, any of the entry level canon or Nikon DSLR should be fine the lens is more important anyway. I would try and avoid shooting at the wider angles, while it may be tempting particularly if you are in a tight space, but it can distort the image. Personally, I would try and stay at or above 50mm.

If you want the colour to be the exact same for each photograph, look at something like a Datacolour colour checker coupled with a screen calibrator like a spyder 5, even when shooting with studio lights there can be slight colour shifts between shots.

Galwegian09

All backgrounds will be cut out.

Galwegian09

Thanks for the advice Flyingsnail.
My graphics designer usually cuts the background out. Its fairly straightforward as it is mostly straight lines.
This is an example of the furniture. Its important to have all items in the same range looking the same colour

http://www.gannonsfurniture.com/oscar-bedroom-range/

CabanSail

If this is going to be ongoing I think the suggestion of setting up the studio is quite a good idea.

What I would suggest is entering into an agreement with a local photographer that knows how to set up studio lights. Get them to set up your space, a vinyl background may be more robust than the paper option. A couple of budget strobes with soft boxes and triggers. An entry level camera with appropriate lens.

When it's all set up you leave the set up alone and then drop the memory card around to the get them to process the RAW files. They can ten send you back the processed Jpegs ready to use.