Photo studios come in all shapes and sizes. If you are working with small subjects, there is no reason to rent a massive loft or build an addition onto your house to get the shots you need. In many of these cases, a functioning setup can take up as little space as a table. Like all things related to photography, tabletop studios can be as simple or complex as their creators require. For basic applications, plenty of all-in-one kits exist for “non-photographers” who don’t want to be bothered with lighting or set design. Most are geared toward achieving passable e-commerce images and include backgrounds, lights, and instructions. For more involved scenarios, it is better to build your own setup, optimized for your specific goals.
Define and Lay the Groundwork for Your Shooting Space
Start by figuring out how much space you will need to capture your desired images. Will a shooting tent suffice? What size? Don’t forget to allow enough head room and width for your subjects to breathe. Next, think about how you want your final images to appear. Are you aiming to replicate the clean, seamless environments of e-commerce and advertising photography or are you trying to build up a convincing, environmental set? Does your application require one even light, or will you need several sources to add contrast or drama? Will you be dealing with reflective surfaces that require additional space to set up precise light positions and/or elaborate flagging and fill? In general, it is better to err toward choosing a larger space than you anticipate needing. This will provide the wiggle room necessary when confronted by unexpected challenges.
It is time to choose a base. Shooting tents provide relatively controlled environments by blocking or filtering ambient light while bouncing white fill around your subject. Most options can easily fit on a table, but they run as large as 6.5 x 6.5 x 7 feet if you need the space for larger items. Shooting tables provide more lighting options by eliminating the walls and ceiling of a shooting tent. Accordingly, they also require a bit more effort when positioning lights and balancing exposures. Similar to shooting tables are tabletop cycloramas, capable of creating clean, white backgrounds just like their larger studio cousins. A variety of backgrounds are also available scaled for tabletop applications. If you are building your set from scratch: hardware, fabric, and antique stores are all great places to find materials.
Light your Subject
There is no reason you can’t use lights that you already have in your kit for tabletop photography. Strobes, on-camera flashes, LEDs, tungsten bulbs, and fluorescents are all usable. If you are starting from scratch, tabletop lights designed specifically for small-scale applications provide excellent options for broad or targeted lighting. Bounce cards can be used to add fill or shape light. If you are crafty, consider making your own out of cardstock painted white, black, or wrapped in reflective materials. Articulating arms and clamps can be lifesavers when it comes to positioning small lights and cards.
Customize your Set
Time to get a little more specific. Do you anticipate shooting food or other subjects that require overhead points of view? If so, simplify your life by adding an Overhead rig to your setup. This will help you maintain consistency between shots while freeing up your hands. Risers and platforms provide a means of adding clean surfaces and dimension to compositions. If you are photographing jewelry, MyStudio has made a 12-Piece Prop Kit with many of the common accessories used for staging rings, necklaces, bracelets, and other small items. Wax and adhesive can be lifesavers when it comes to positioning small items in a composition. Turntables offer another popular means of presenting products, especially if you are looking to put a “spin” on the home-shopping vibe of yesteryear.
Choose the Right Equipment
Finally, it is time to start making photographs. Macro lenses provide excellent close-focusing capabilities and superb image sharpness for tabletop applications. Check out our guide to choosing a macro lens here for help deciding on the right one for your needs. If you don’t want to take on the expense of a new lens, consider a set of close-up lens filters that will allow you to decrease the minimum focusing distance of lenses you already own. Another invaluable tool for the tabletop photographer—or really any photographer—is a tripod. For a thorough discussion on tripods, read Todd Vorenkamp’s article here. Photographers serious about capturing precise, razor-sharp images would also do well to learn focus stacking. For most, this will require a focusing rail and software like Helicon Soft Focus Pro. However, some cameras can partially or completely automate the process for you. Check your camera manual to see if this is the case for you.
For more tabletop photography tips, check out this video from B&H’s video team. To see how focus stacking works from start to finish, see this video. Do you have a tabletop studio? Share your tips in the Comments section, below.
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