Why Clipping Paths Save Time and Money in Product Photography
In my years of photographing commercial photography I'm frequently being asked to shoot a customers product against a plain white backdrop. The reason they ask for a white Colorama is not only that the object will look at its finest against white in terms of contrast and colour faithfulness but also ordinarily the product will inevitably appear on a white web site or on a white pamphlet page.
For some subject matters the task of maintaining a exquisitely lit, well exposed and crisp product whilst creating a even true white background from corner to corner is indeed workable, especially when the product is much darker than the whiteness of background.
More often than not though this method will prove to present very ungratifying results for one simple reason:
When photographing most products I essentially shoot in a way that enhances the best properties of the product itself which doesn't always create a truly white background. Successful lighting for the object will usually result in underexposure of the background so that it appears an unpleasant and irregular shade of grey. Think of a pair of white shoes as an example. If the photographer was to seek to light the background so it appeared as a even white then they would probably neglect the shoes making them appear overexposed, faded, absent in intricacy and as flat and 2-dimensional as the backdrop itself.
A skilled photographer could of course overcome these issues by advanced photographic techniques such clever but arduous masking or flagging of the object. This would certainly create a very desirable photograph but at the expense of time, one thing that neither the commercial photographer or client has the luxury of. Fine if this is a one off bespoke shot and the client is willing to pay a full days photography fees for one or two shots although lets be honest, most clients simply demand a well shot Pack Shot.
When time and budgets are small or the use of the final image just doesn't warrant this expense then a hand drawn clipping path is generally the best all round answer Generated in professional image editing software like Adobe's wonderful Photoshop, clipping paths are hand drawn vector paths that once utilised isolate and separate the product from the background and effectively enable the product to be dropped onto a infinate number of backgrounds. It may be compared simply to taking scissors to a magazine, cutting the desired object out and glueing it onto a background of your choice!
The benefits of creating clipping paths are that in isolating the object from the background you are free to modify the colour, tone and contrast of the object without effecting the relative values of the background, plus the benefit of being able to simply paste this cut out object onto any background you may need (whether that be a white web site or a graduated red pamphlet etc). Also because the path is vector based as opposed to bitmap, you can shrink or enlarge the object to any size you like and the clipping path will always remain accurate. And once a clipping path has been applied this in turn enables for the addition of soft drop shadow effects which in turn can also help ground the product and create a subtle transition between the products edges and the page.
Finally clipping paths offer the client a cost effective and long-lasting solution when confronted with the task of shooting bulk product shots, allowing the photographer to wholly exploit the aesthetic attributes of the product without fretting about the final look of the background.
About the Author
This article has been supplied courtesy of Andy Nickerson. Andy is a Professional Photographer with over 14 years experience in working for design and advertising professionals. Andy also creates personalized art in Northampton.
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