Hey guys, I know I'll probably get run out of here crying when I visit this tomorrow but, I've been getting some increasing business for product photographs ... where I was mostly just shooting family/friend portraits and scenery ... So I invested in a couple lights (new 55000k office bulbs as well) and one of those little pop up light tents.

As far as stock goes, I'll probably just randomly shoot whatever I find around to be interesting that day/week/month I shot these single solar cells a week or so ago, and thought you guys might have some advice or something ...

edit: guess I should link it. https://us.fotolia.com/id/125340483

My (free) advice is:

1. Manage your expectations. If you can get shots in your "spare time" for now, do it. Don't expect it to become your primary income any time soon. It may happen some day, but don't count on it.

2. The market is basically flooded. This goes along with #1. Solar panels on white are probably available from 1000 different sources. Having said that, nobody knows what will or won't sell. There is a market for almost anything, it is just a matter of how big that market is (vs. how many similar images are available).

3. If you enjoy it, find it a useful challenge, learn from it and make a bit of money at it, do it. And don't let anyone tell you not to. Even if it never becomes your primary income it can be a very valuable exercise which can really help you in your other photographic endeavours (which may become your day job, who knows).

Cheers.

p.s. take all advice as if it was worth exactly what you paid for it.

Thanks! I'm not worried about stock selling and stuff like that as much. I've been here with my crappy illustrations for going on 4 years. So I know that it's slow and sometimes the oddest things sell after just sitting there for a couple years doing nothing and product photos have already paid for the kit.

When you guys shoot smaller things for stock do you guys usually shoot with wide of dof as possible? or do you think it's best to try wide and narrow? Do you guys have any suggestions for a third continuous light (it would need a tripod or something, the tent is 30" square) for the top?

There is quite a bit I could improve, I couldn't find my shutter release that day ... So it was all handheld ... so I sacrificed some aperture and ISO for the shots

I did see the other solar panels, I didn't see any individual cells ... and the broken ones seemed pretty niche (probably too niche tbh) they're super brittle though, and I was bored ... I even shot a hammer, and there are literally millions of hammer photos.

Quote from: DallasP on November 09, 2016, 23:53

So I invested in a couple lights (new 55000k office bulbs as well)

Maybe a bit excessive?

lol. Sorry, 5500k ... matching the color of the two lamps I got. It actually ended up to be a great opportunity, we replaced somewhere around 12 bulbs around the house with 8 watt (60 watt equivalent) 5500k LEDS for something like $15 and had the lowest power bill that we've had since we moved into this house and now I can shoot with the * light on, as the biggest complaint I had from my previous client was a slight yellow color cast that cost me quite a bit of time to try to remove as well.

Why not 55000K? Perfect to eliminate the yellow cast 

Fine fine fine ... I'll post something that I'm not quite as proud of. Obviously softer, and it's really difficult with the white labels to expose it enough to get the solid white that amazon and such are usually after, so I had to do a ton of masking on these. :/

If you are going to do product photos invest in some brushes to clean off the dust and an air blower (you should have one in your camera kit)

And clean off any lint/dust/specks in photoshop

And the shot you posted is out of focus probably because you shot too close with too wide and aperture.

Invest in some flash/strobe units

And the horizon is off.  And lose that textured surface.

....

Yeah, I think I may reshoot them ... Though, she seems pleased and is already tossing them on amazon.

Something I should also note for future reference, those clear caps look like hell :/ https://www.edenskin.care/product/age-spot-eliminator/

Edit: The link has them isolated, and cleaned up a bit.

the majority of my objects, especially isolated on white, I use my 100mm prime lens. I like to use F/8 to F/13 range with ISO 100.  Not sure of you MP on your camera but I back out a lot and get the entire object in focus and still have a decent size file.

I used my new 50mm 1.8 and a d3200. I broke my kit lenses which I'm trying to also look at as an opportunity. I reshot one with all of them later on that evening but, tried a red backdrop instead of white ... it wasn't any easier to remove. At f16 though, they are significantly more crisp.

Hell, I'm being a bit overly obsessive ... at 100% on that one you can see little dust specs that I didn't wipe (they're sitting here in a box on the floor.) and the poor printing on the label. I'll just keep going and learning. Thanks everyone for the helpful input.