Hello,

I am being ask/hired to do furniture (chairs, tables, cabinets) catalog photography. Can anybody share some tips/tricks from their previous/current experience?

What's the most basic setup that you can use inorder to produce decent results. I was thinking of using ambient lighting but as I have said I'm new to this.

Thanks in advance my DPP friends for helping me solve my little puzzle. :)

before, i used flood lights for lighting. then i use Photoshop to remove the background and make it transparent. Now, I use strobes for lighting. At first, the setup takes longer but when you get the hang of it, the set up time becomes shorter. Plus your editing time is also shorter. I usually use two lights, one as main and the other as fill, to get rid of the shadows. I also use a white background.

Hope this helps. Good luck! Cheers!

i highly recommend that you use 3 strobes with big softboxes (1. key, 2. fill, 3. to evenly illuminate the top of the item). also, look for a place with a big white infinity wall...this will make your pics look nicer and will shorten post-processing time as against shooting the items against a crap background and have it removed and replaced in PS later,.

goodluck!

taking photos of furniture is harder than you think. you have to be aware of the distance and positon of the legs of the chairs/tables. be prepared to squat for a long time. hehe.

i use 2 strobes at 45 degree or clamshell lighting depending on the furniture. ask them what background do they want. will it be dropped out? use a an aperture of f11-f16. furniture clients wants everything to be in focus. oh, if you have a 50mm, use it, para no distorion unless you want otherwise.

:)

Nice inputs.. I might be doing a furniture shooting one of these days, too. :)

depends on the furniture...use dark background with 45 degree lighting and white flooring..and a spotlight effect..especially for classical wood furnture..for modern it can also be applied. another approach is you white background same as portraits..makikita mo lang ang furniture..white na lahat..

good contrast is important and emphasizing details, reflections of metals if any...

another approach is to place it with backgrounds for its real purpose..making the furniture the subject of the scene..

i work for an italian owned company here in doha as architect/interior designer..this is the kind of image we usually use and present to our clients.

ambient lights are good if the furniture is in a mock up room ...but it really depends of the interior design if there is enough lighting..the most important you should always consider is to make the scene as natural at possible ..sharp details...high emphasis on the subject..for catalogue photos..i prefer to see it in solo ..either white or dark background..

whew lucky! im searching for a topic about furniture and interior designs =)

i will be shooting furniture's this week. a little help fellow dpp's,

what lens u guys usually use especially with a small space setup? from what i read distortion could be a problem..
it would be nice if you could share us a behind the scene's setup how did u shoot furniture's and interior's
pls, pls, pls.. ^_^

thanks in advance

I don't do furniture photography from a product photography stand point but I do shoot furniture from an interiors photography/ real estate photography stand point.

One of the basic rules for shooting couches is to shoot 5-6 inches above the tallest part of the couch or roughly the height of your eyes as if you were sitting down on the furniture. Straight verticals and horizontals are very important.

Not going below the most dominant surface in the frame is also one to follow.

see some samples of my work here.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37671286@N07/sets/72157626029319610/show/ (http://www.flickr.com/photos/37671286@N07/sets/72157626029319610/)

just a question, what does your client require?
Will the furniture pieces be shot on location (in a house) or in a studio?

I don't do furniture photography from a product photography stand point but I do shoot furniture from an interiors photography/ real estate photography stand point.

One of the basic rules for shooting couches is to shoot 5-6 inches above the tallest part of the couch or roughly the height of your eyes as if you were sitting down on the furniture. Straight verticals and horizontals are very important.

Not going below the most dominant surface in the frame is also one to follow.

see some samples of my work here.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37671286@N07/sets/72157626029319610/show/ (http://www.flickr.com/photos/37671286@N07/sets/72157626029319610/)

wow, just saw your work. Amazing stuff. Will be studying your work! :)