Product photography test

We've had a long week trying to get a good photo setup for our Bobby Dazzlers. We've tried scanning them, wearing them, putting them on a tailor's dummy (Jemima) and finally propped up on some interesting fabric found at the bottom of Clare's lingerie collection. This was the last shot today and we're still wondering if we've really nailed it.

We've found that lighting for embroidery photographs is tricky to get right. We need it to be directional with the light source high and the camera viewing from above the centreline and to the same side as the light source. This arrangement brings out the shade changes you get with stitch directions, essential to capture the life in an embroidery. So ideally we want a softbox high and slightly to one side. However this invariably makes a person or dummy far too bright on the shoulders, and any interesting fabrics tend to be reflective creating bright patches where they're not wanted on the angled fronts of the shoulders. Add to this the problem of multiple lamps to try and kill any harsh shadows. We spent today moving the lighting around, trying snoots, reflectors and softboxes, and getting progressively more peeved.

This last shot (after about 220) has a single 60cm square softbox about 0.5m above and right. The watch was added to provide visual product scale.

Any thoughts on the lighting and presentation - is it good or bad?


Feel free to download the image for personal use (eg desktop, screensaver, pinterest, facebook, tumblr, etc) as is, but no derivative works or commercial use please.