Product Photography Help

[Lane]

Lately I've been working on getting a business going and one of the more difficult aspects has been product photography. The products I'm working on are stainless steel barware (shot glasses) and trying to get consistent lighting, focus, etc. has been quite the challenge. Sometimes images come out looking good while other times the images appear washed out or grainy. I'm currently using a Galaxy A23 phone which has an okay camera but I may switch to an iPhone 15 in the future. With the site I'm currently using for sales I'm limited on image size so keeping it around 3000 X 2250 (4:3) image seems to be working best.

The best images I've gotten have been outside but not in direct sunlight which seems to work with shiny objects but even then it seems like shot quality can change a lot from take to take. I have tried taking images indoors with a white light and trying to diffuse the light with materials like tissue paper but was still getting pretty hard reflections in certain areas. The first three images below I think are pretty good (although some variation in lighting amount) but the fourth seems more harsh with the reflections.

Ideally I think it would be great to do this all indoors so lighting can be controlled and the shot consistency should be better but let me know what you all think.

Thanks!

[JeeperCreeper]

For shiny things, I try to shoot outside with overcast skies. It makes for balanced lighting. Your best bet is to use a camera that you can manually adjust Iso, shutter speed, and F-stop to balance out your shot. Your A23 might have a "pro" mode for this. Otherwise the IPhone is going to probably produce your best results for what you have on hand.

Personally I'd use a DSLR camera, you can get pretty decent used cameras for cheap.

[Lane]

For shiny things, I try to shoot outside with overcast skies. It makes for balanced lighting. Your best bet is to use a camera that you can manually adjust Iso, shutter speed, and F-stop to balance out your shot. Your A23 might have a "pro" mode for this. Otherwise the IPhone is going to probably produce your best results for what you have on hand.

Personally I'd use a DSLR camera, you can get pretty decent used cameras for cheap.

Agreed on the iPhone; the A23's pro mode has ISO, EV and WB so I'll mess with those a bit and look into some other apps that may open up more features.

[JeeperCreeper]

That pro mode will get rid of some of the variability between shots. The auto mode adjusts depending on what it decides to focus on.

[Daltech]

Bruh. You must not work in movies, it’s just like taking pictures but they move. Throw up some flags and a cutter. Google it- film production flags.

What, no Gaffers on MCB?

Seriously though, lemme know if you have anymore questions as I do work in production and see this stuff daily. Car commercials etc…

[Daltech]

Throw up some flags so I can’t see your bedroom door anymore.

[flyweightnate]

I work for a bearing company, so taking photos of shiny metal objects with a cell phone is somewhat a specialty of mine. On site, it's a crapshoot, but when I bring one home for a thorough FA, I like to line a big cardboard box with white paper, and use white tissue between the bearing and my giant overhead LEDs in the garage.

I'm also using a loupe or macro lens more often than not to show minute details, but the white shades really do help balance the highs and lows on the polished, curved surfaces.

[Lane]

Thanks Fly, I'll give those suggestions a shot. I think I have some white poster board I can use to bounce light off of.

[flyweightnate]

The most neurotic of the engineers shoots through a white paper cone, so he can completely seal the box of un-diffused light.