Product rendering

Roger

Rachid, photography is less about the subject and more about controlling the light that falls on the subject.

For products you want to construct a very large surfaced even light source. You want to wrap light around your product so highlights are long, and continuous. When you do this the shape of the highlight will define the shape of the product.

See the ipod at:
http://images.digitalmedianet.com/2007/Week_35/t63buhsr/story/iphone.jpg

Don't fixate on the product, but look at how specular highlights actually define the shape. Now try to create the same effect in your renders. Your lights need to be large and very close to the subject.

Think of the sun. It is 93 million miles away and takes up a very small space in the sky. The lights rays hitting earth are almost parallel and the shadows are harsh. Now imagine a late after noon storm with the light rays hitting cumulo nimbus clouds that are several thousand feet high and yet relatively close to the ground. That kind of reflected light makes old ladies young, the stupid smart, and cars look twice as fast. So in your virtual studio, you want even light from a broad source placed close to the subject. Do a series of low quality small renders and move the light around relative to the subject. You will soon be able to discover which position creates a highlight that best complements the objects shape.

cadmunkey

Very good post Roger, thanks for sharing.

21D

@roger said:

photography is less about the subject and more about controlling the light that falls on the subject.....................

thnx for your advise roger, I'm currently working on the tips you gave me, to make a new and improved product studio. i will post my results when i get it done....i'll be test rendering the philips phones.

Roger

Bon dia. Kon ta bai?

-- Roger

21D

@roger said:

Bon dia. Kon ta bai?

-- Roger

hahaha yup that's my native language,
Bon dia = Good Morning
Kon ta bai? = How are you?

how did you know that??

Roger

My wife is from Caracas and has relatives in Curacao.

21D

@roger said:

My wife is from Caracas and has relatives in Curacao.

cool....

oh and back to the topic....i really suck at lighting as i found out these 2 days
i've been trying to setup my lighting but comes out worst every time i try a diffrent setup.
don't you know anyone who can help me with this....i can post my studio setup and vray settings here so anyone can help me out.

Roger

Yes please post and I will try to help.

Are you using bounce light or false emitters?

21D

@roger said:

Yes please post and I will try to help.

Are you using bounce light or false emitters?

not sure what you mean by this but i uploaded my SKP and VRAY setting so you can have a look.

My current setup for Pruduct Photography/render

Roger

It is 2AM and my brain is not functioning, so I will work with this later in the day.

Roger

Rachid the attached tutorial is only a starting point.

The enclosed skip shows no lighting effect whatsoever. It is just a rough physical layout.
Studio is closed on all sides to fully control the light. The glass efect is ony for you to see in during the tutorial. The walls need to be opaque for the render.
Even the front wall is closed with just a small hole for your virtual camera to peek through.
The phones must be very close to the front wall and very far from the back wall. This distance to the backwall will control the darkness of that wall. The farther from the light the darker the wall. I want the back wall dark transitioning to a white floor/foreground so the top light can paint a highlight on the edge of the phones.
The farther the backwall is placed the wider the cyclorama and the higher the ceiling will have to be so the edges will not be seen by the camera.
You can also narrow the field of view of the camera which I have already done.
I may have the light/emitter too high, but it needs to be partly behind and to one side of the phones to paint a nice highlight on the edges. You may have to lower the light or increase its size.
All the walls and ceiling can be painted to influence the reflections on the phone. This calls for a lot of quick experiments to get it right. Do at small size, low res and a rapid render mode so you can try a lot of variations. You can paoint the walls or introduce dark objects to modify the reflections.

Any questions or problems just ask.

Studio suggestions/tutorial

21D

@roger said:

Rachid the attached tutorial is only a starting point.

The enclosed skip shows no lighting effect whatsoever. It is just a rough physical layout.

Studio is closed on all sides to fully control the light. The glass efect is ony for you to see in during the tutorial. The walls need to be opaque for the render.

Even the front wall is closed with just a small hole for your virtual camera to peek through.

The phones must be very close to the front wall and very far from the back wall. This distance to the backwall will control the darkness of that wall. The farther from the light the darker the wall. I want the back wall dark transitioning to a white floor/foreground so the top light can paint a highlight on the edge of the phones.

The farther the backwall is placed the wider the cyclorama and the higher the ceiling will have to be so the edges will not be seen by the camera.

You can also narrow the field of view of the camera which I have already done.

I may have the light/emitter too high, but it needs to be partly behind and to one side of the phones to paint a nice highlight on the edges. You may have to lower the light or increase its size.

All the walls and ceiling can be painted to influence the reflections on the phone. This calls for a lot of quick experiments to get it right. Do at small size, low res and a rapid render mode so you can try a lot of variations. You can paoint the walls or introduce dark objects to modify the reflections.

Any questions or problems just ask.

thnx for the tut Roger, right now I can't get a look at it, because i'm currently not at home, and i'll be back home this coming week.
and i'll give it a go then, but with your tut/sugestions i think there won't be anymore troubles now

Roger

The difficulty will be creating the proper angle for the main light. In the real studio I can just move the lights until the lighting looks right. In the virtual studio it can involve a lot of slow iterations. I recommend test runs at the smallest size and fastest render method.

Can't wait to see how it works for you.