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Good set up for silhouette product video
Hello. I’m new to digital video and am trying to get a sense of what a good hardware/software combination would be to do simple, but high quality product videos in Final Cut. I’m looking to present highly detailed product (about the size of an iPod) with a pristine white background. In particular, I’d like to know the following:
1) What would the specs be on a decent consumer level video camera/lens that would be able to capture crisp, detailed footage of a small product.
2) What is the best approach for shooting and processing video to showcase the product silhouetted against a pristine white background.
3) What would work best for an inexpensive lighting system.
Thanks.
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4 Replies
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You’ll want to look for a 3 chip camera 3 CCD
IN standard def you can find many 1/3 CCD that will look great for what u want to do. Ebay.
Also, Any HDV camera will work.Lowel makes a basic lighting kit. Get a soft box for one of your lights.
Good Luck.
Chris Tompkins
Video Atlanta -
1 and 2 are total opposites, with radical different lighting set ups. Are you wanting detailed product shoots and also silhouette shots? Because silhouette shots only have detailed edges with little to no detail of the product.
But more important than the camera (and the camera is NOT unimportant) is the steadiness of the camera as well as its ability to be moved, which normally means a jib. There are small jibs that you handle from the camera end than can produce great shoots in the hands of someone with experience. But if you have small products and try to handhold a camera it probably ain’t gonna look to crisp.
Soft lighting makes set up a little easier, especial with dealing with shadows but it can look really flat really quickly also.
To me product shots are the toughest thing to achieve a professional look.
Is this a one time thing for your company or will you need to be doing this all the time? Are you looking for highkey image or more contrast, if so it your product light, dark, dull, shinny, glass, wood, all these things determine how something would be lit.
But it need to do it as quickly and cheaply as possible, 2 soft-boxes and at least a prosumer camera on a decent tripod.
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Hello. I don’t believe my above points 1 (crisp detail) and 2 (silhouetted background) are total opposites. My goal is thematic — to show a simple crisp product against a pure white background, much like the Apple ads, such as this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAy_K-heVWc
I already do this quite nicely for still shots by using a light tent and shooting against a white background. I then totally remove the background in Photoshop by using paths to outline the background and deleting it. My question is how to do the same in the video world. My questions, therefore are:
1) Would I shoot against a green screen?
2) Is there any software to facilitate removing the background?
3) Will a decent HD consumer camcorder (such as the Canon Vixia HG) give decent close up results? -
Ya, you can key out any color in the background with good lighting. It depends on what you want to see in the background.
Canon Vixia HG might be fine. I’m sure in great lighting – the image looks decent.
FYI, the Ipod and the hand holding it are a still. It is not really being hand held live per se.
Run test if you can.
Chris Tompkins
Video Atlanta
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