Can you reliably compensate for crummy lighting with Photoshop?

[AEBL]

I've read a few posts here, and I am starting to realize that product photography is ... hard. I have a couple of lackluster photos of the stuff I have made. Mostly just cell-phone camera pointed at a table, or on the floor. I am pretty handy with Photoshop though ... (well, Gimp, Inkscape and ImageMagick, really). Can I use crummy lighting and make up for it with fancy digital stuff (that I will have to re-learn how to do?)

Attached are some MakeSupply "wrap" wallets I made, just photographed on the kitchen floor with no other compensation. I guess I could have gotten some posterboard and tried to make something easier to crop the background from.

Edited April 12 by AEBL
photo in wrong place :(

[LatigoAmigo]

  On 4/12/2025 at 2:30 AM, AEBL said:

product photography is ... hard.

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Hard, but not impossible. $50 at Home Depot and 15 minutes using Photoshop.

[BlackDragon]

I used to do quite a bit of photography but you wouldn't know it seeing my product shots. I really need to take the time to set up a proper photo area.

Right now I do the same as you, take a pic on a counter and adjust using Raw Therapee, it a free program.

[Dwight]

Put the grab on a free copy of Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 . . . I can almost say that if you can't "fix" it with that little program . . . it cannot be fixed.

The only thing I've not discovered how to do is a clean background removal.

But lighting things . . . and color adjust are pretty easy and straight forward . . . 

AND . . . it's a free download out there on the internet.

Or at least it used to be a 5 dollar pickup on Ebay.

May God bless,

Dwight

[AEBL]

I guess I had always ignored the product photos I saw on other people's sites, but I'm glad to see how other makers take photos of their products. It really does make a difference - they're better than the ones with crummy lighting that I took for sure. I have a couple of those clip-on lights around, and crepe paper is easily found. Thanks for the picture of your setup, LatigoAmigo. I might also experiment with bouncing the flash off of reflectors. Someone had recommended the aluminum-backed styrofoam insulation that you can get at the big box stores (very cheap).

Thanks for the ideas on postprocessing software. I'll check out RawTherapee (linked, in case anyone else reading is interested). Photoshop Elements is obviously the professional go-to. I totally agree. I'm a hardcore Linux user, so most Windows things are too much of a pain for me to install (with Wine, for instance). I'm also a bit of a curmudgeon, and I apparently like doing things the hard way. Less stubborn people would follow Pastor Bob's advice and be happy.

There was a program I was using a while back that did really great background removal (had something to do with seamless cloning, linked, for the more nerdy of you bunch) - and it was free. I might see if I can find it and post a "how to" on how to do it. I think part of the trick is to get a more predictable background (like a sheet, or something with no wrinkles and only one color, like posterboard).

[Littlef]

If you shoot in raw, you can salvage some quite mediocre shots From under or overexposure.  You’ll never turn a Trash photo into a prize winner.  1.  shoot a lot.  2. Check your histogram and image preview often.  It’s good to turn the “blinkies” on, which show over exposure or under exposure.  That gives you a quick reference when you’re shooting fast, so if the preview has a lot of blinking parts… stop and fix your exposure.  
 

more direct answer… you should never intend to have bad lighting, and hope to fix it in post.   If you’re shooting your product… with the intent to sell.  Spend a few bucks to improve your lighting.  When people are are shopping…. People skip over bad photos that are hard to tell the details.  

Edited April 13 by Littlef

[Littlef]

  On 4/12/2025 at 5:18 AM, LatigoAmigo said:

Hard, but not impossible. $50 at Home Depot and 15 minutes using Photoshop.

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I used to use those same home depot shop lights with print paper taped over them.    I found on Amazon and eBay they sell cheap lighting setups with tripods and umbrellas in the $40 range.  The light socket itself is in the same quality  range as a shop light… but then you have umbrellas to diffuse and a tripod with height and angle adjustments.  It helped my lighting being able to easily reposition, and a white umbrella gives you more control over how it diffuses, for a pretty small price tag.  
 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/201868646712?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=JxFZRo4fQxa&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=_kGbz7lnTvS&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

 

Edited April 13 by Littlef