With technology advancing rapidly, more and more online sellers these days are showing their products in 360 degrees, allowing the buyer to see the product from all sides before making a purchase. In this article you will learn how to create 360 degree product photography with MIOPS Capsule360 and turntable.
What you need
You will need a camera with a medium lens, a tripod to hold the camera, and a light tent. A light tent is like a cube made of transparent, white fabric that is stabilized by a wire frame. Thanks to this wire frame, you can fold the cube and take it anywhere. It creates a soft, diffused light and enables almost shadowless images. These light tents often come with different colored backgrounds.
Additionally you need oneCapsule360 and oneturntable by MIOPS. With these tools you can take pictures with smooth angles of rotation and also control your camera. We'll cover the manual method first, followed by the benefits of theCapsule360.
furnishings
Setup is pretty easy. Open the light tent and place it on a table and then place both lights at a 45 degree angle on both sides. Most product photos of online products are taken with a white background, so it's best to add a white background on the back.
Now place your camera on the tripod. Make sure they are slightly higher than thatturntable is. Place the product in the center of the turntable, focus manually and switch the camera or lens to manual focus mode. Voila, the setup is complete.
camera settings
The camera settings are also very simple. Put your camera in aperture priority mode and set a small aperture like f/11 or f/16. The opening depends on the size of the product. If your product is small f/11 is enough, for larger product like shoes you may need f/16.
Since our product is not moving, set ISO to 100 and take a picture. If you now examine the picture, you can be relatively sure that it is not sufficiently exposed. Why Because our background is white and the camera takes an average of the whole frame. So we have to overexpose a bit to get a correct exposure..
Check the shutter speed and switch the camera to manual mode. We want the exposure of all photos to be the same, so it's better to shoot in manual mode. Set the aperture to the same aperture as you had in the previous photo and set the shutter speed for overexposed. If the shutter speed of the photo is 1/30 seconds, set it to 1/15 seconds. By the way: if you use spot metering, you get a perfectly exposed picture and don't have to overexpose it.
When using LED lights, most LED lights have a daylight color temperature, so you should set WB to daylight. If you are using incandescent lamps, set the white balance accordingly as well.
Make sure your lens' image stabilizer or vibration reduction feature is turned off. The camera is on a tripod, so we don't need these features.
workflow
Now all you need to know is the angle of rotation between each shot. To find out this angle you have to divide 360 by the number of photos and you get it. Assuming you take 12 photos of your product, the angle would be 360/12, which is 30 degrees.
Rotate the turntable 30 degrees and shoot until you have all 12 photos.
This method is good if you take fewer shots than 12 or 18, however what would you do if you want 60 or 72 images of the product for a smooth transition you need to rotate the turntable 5 degrees after each shot, which is what manual mode isn't even possible because you can't do it with great precision..
Here it comesMIOPS Capsule360 Withturntable in the game. This combination can make product shots a lot easier as it automates everything for you. Not only is the table rotated precisely, but the camera is also controlled.
All you have to do is set the number of pictures you want to take and then specify the duration between each picture. You can calculate this duration by adding your exposure time and the time it takes to spin the turntable.
Assuming your exposure time is 1/30 second and it takes 1 second to rotate the turntable after each shot, you can set a 2 second duration between each shot. You can also set the direction in which the turntable moves. Whether clockwise or counterclockwise.
So let's say you want to take 30 shots of a product in a 360 degree rotation, all you have to do is set the parameters and you're good to go. An image is now taken and the turntable rotated 12 degrees. Another photo is taken and the table turns 12 degrees again. The turntable will repeat this until all 30 photos have been taken.
In fact, you don't need to do anything while the images are being captured. Use the time to read a good book.
Of course you can also take your pictures manually. However, it would be more time-saving and practical to invest a small amountCapsule360 andturntable to buy and then automate everything. This allows you to produce more product images and videos in a short time.