Taking Product Shots

Now that I have the products I need to get shots suitable for placing on the web to show them off. There appear to be a couple of options on how I go about this:

1. Use a specialist product photo studio - best price I can find is £5 per product which actually seems reasonable when you read what they do - it is 3-4 high resolution shots, post processed if necessary and adjusted for eBay / website thumbnails


2. Invest in the necessary equipment and learn how to take professional looking product shots.

I have decided that sticking with the JKToys low cst ethos option 2 is the best choice for what I want to do. I already have a reasonable digital camera so in order to take half decent product shots it appears that the only other piece of kit I really need is a light tent. These retail from c. £200 but I have found online instructions for a DIY version which will cost c. £50 - details are at:

http://andypiper.wordpress.com/2007/01/06/building-a-light-tent-part-2-assembly/

and there is a handy tutorial on how to take decent shots at:

http://www.shortcourses.com/studio/tabletop/studio.htm

Having built the light tent as per the instructions above I have found it to be a bit on the unstable side - I will therefore be modifying the design to incorporate leg braces for additional sturdiness. I also think I need to invest in some higher wattage lighting as my initial shots as can be currently seen on http://www.j.ktoys.co.uk/ are a little bit noisy I think due to less than ideal lighting.

Anyway will post an update when I get around to modifying the light tent design for anyone interested.