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Article DetailsWhy Clipping Paths Save Time and Money in Product Photography. |
| Date Added: April 30, 2010 03:26:24 PM |
| Author: Andy Nickerson |
| Category: Digital photography |
| In my 14 years of shooting professional photography I'm continuously being asked to shoot a clients object in front of a simple white backdrop. In most cases this is because the client needs to place the product on a white printed brochure page or web page and also because products often contrast well against a white backdrop, showing off their colour, detail and punchiness.Some subjects will indeed photograph well shot against a white Colorama for instance dark subjects that will contrast successfully against the brilliance of a white backdrop. More often than not though this practice will prove to offer very unacceptable results for one very simple reason: When shooting most items I always shoot in a way that brings out the best properties of the object itself which doesn't necessarily create a totally white backdrop. Successful lighting for the object will usually result in underexposure of the background so that it appears an unpleasant and patchy shade of grey. Take as an example a shot of a white paper plate. To enhance the surface character and detail of the plate the photographer would have to slightly underexpose this section, but by exposing for the brilliant white background the detail on the plate would be lost and therefore appear flat and 2-dimensional.A skilled professional photographer could certainly overcome these challenges by advanced photographic techniques like clever but laborious masking or flagging of the product. This would create a very pleasing photograph but at the cost of time, one thing that neither the commercial photographer or client has the luxury of. Great if this is a one off bespoke image and the client is happy to stump up a full days photography fees for one or two shots but lets be realistic, most customers simply need a well shot Pack Shot.When time and finances are limited or the use of the eventual image merely doesn't warrant this expense then a hand drawn clipping path is typically the best all round solution A clipping path is where the photo is imported into image manipulation software, mostly Photoshop, and then the object or product is essentially drawn around by hand via the pen tool to create a vector based path. This clipping path can then subsequently be employed to the image file to effectively 'knockout' or isolate the product from the background, such as when wishing to print. Visualize this action as simply drawing round an object in a magazine with a pen then cutting round this drawn line with a pair of scissors to remove the object from the rest of the magazine.The advantages of creating clipping paths are that in isolating the product from the background you are free to change the colour, tone and contrast of the product without effecting the comparative values of the background, plus the benefit of being able to simply paste this cut out object onto any background you may desire (whether that be a white web site or a graduated pink pamphlet etc). Also due to the fact the path is vector based as opposed to bitmap, you can shrink or enlarge the product to any dimension you prefer and the clipping path will always remain correct. And once a clipping path has been employed this in turn permits for the addition of soft drop shadow effects which in turn can also help ground the object and create a subtle migration between the objects edges and the page.Finally clipping paths offer the customer a cost effective and long term solution when confronted with the job of shooting mass product shots, allowing the photographer to wholly exploit the aesthetic properties of the product without considering about the final look of the background.Andy Nickerson is a Photographer in Northampton with over 14 years experience in working for design and advertising professionals. |
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