Product photography is not just about the product. It's also about the environment in which the product is placed.
This image was originally destined to have a dark purple background but during retouching it was deemed to look more striking with a grey background.
Now here's he interesting part!... Two images were posted on Instagram and Facebook and he viewers asked which background they preferred: the grey (above) or the purple.
On Facebook, there was a 100% preference towards the grey background.
On Instagram, there was a near 100% preference towards the purple background.
The main difference being that the Facebook followers are mainly 'Joe-Public' and the Instagram followers are mainly photographers!
So it seems to me that, as photographers, we do indeed so the world differently and this is a VERY important lesson to learn when you're a product photographer!
Hi William,
Many thanks and so glad you like my work!
I generally achieve 95% of the final look of a product in camera and spend a lot of time tweaking lighting and modifiers to get the look that I want. I then make a few RAW adjustments and export to .tif
Once in Photoshop I generally cut out the product using the Pen tool and then clean it. The backgrounds are added and often consist of a coloured layer and some gradients and then shadows are added.
Basically, I like to get as much right in camera (of the main subject) as possible. This is because when I started in photography my post skills were not good enough to make up for poor lighting so I learned to light first - definitely the best way in my mind!
I don't have anything against extensive compositing, I just don't do it often because of the time that it takes to get the look right!
Hope that that answers your questions & keep up the great work!
Awesome work as always my friend!